Michael E. Feingold (born May 5, 1945) is an American critic, translator, lyricist, and Tony Award-nominated playwright. He is the former lead theater critic of The Village Voice, for which he was named a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism finalist.[1] He is also the former chairman of the Obie Award.[2][3]
Michael Feingold | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1945-05-05) May 5, 1945 (age 77) |
| Education | Columbia University (BA) Yale University (MFA) |
| Occupation | Theater critic and journalist |
| Employer | The Village Voice |
| Awards | Guggenheim Fellowship (1977) |
Feingold was born on May 5, 1945 in Chicago. He graduated from Columbia University in 1966 and the Yale School of Drama.[4][5] He was the first literary manager of the Yale Repertory Theatre, and served as literary director of The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and literary manager of the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[4] He began contributing to the Village Voice in 1971 and served as its chief theater critic from 1983 through May 2013.[3]
He also worked as a playwright, and a translator who translated foreign plays and operas into English for off-Broadway productions, including Kurt Weill's Happy End and The Threepenny Opera, Gerhart Hauptmann's The Beaver Coat, The Venetian Twins, The Barber of Seville, The Mistress of the Inn, Der Vampyr, and Mary Stuart. He was also a lyricist for the 1972 revue Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill.[6]
On May 17, 2013, Feingold was let go of his post at the Village Voice.[4] He served as chairman of the Obie Award from 2006 to 2011, and from 2012 to 2014.[3]
Feingold was a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1977.[7] He was nominated for two Tony Awards in 1977 for "Happy End" as Best Book of a Musical, for his adaptation of Elisabeth Hauptmann's libretto, and as Best Score, for his adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's lyrics.[8] He is also a two-time recipient of the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism.