Respected and Notable Broadway Press Agent, Susan L. Schulman, Has Passed Away

Much liked and respected Broadway press agent Susan L. Schulman, passed away on October 19, following complications from Legionnaires’ disease. Her death was announced by friends Leslie Krakowe, actor Kathleen Chalfant and Roy Bernstein.

Schulman was a theatrical press agent for over five decades, handling Broadway, Off-Broadway, dance, film, special events, TV, books, dance and individual personalities. Her Broadway clients included Requiem For A Heavyweight (with John Lithgow and George Segal), City Of Angels, Death And The Maiden with Glenn Close, Richard Dreyfus and Gene Hackman, A Streetcar Named Desire starring Jessica Lange and Alec Baldwin, and The Madwoman of Chaillot with Kim Hunter and Anne Jackson. Schulman also represented actors and performers such as Karen Ziemba, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Karen Mason, Karen Akers, Carol Lawrence, Pia Zadora and many others.

Schulman was born and raised in New York City, attending Hunter Elementary and Hunter High School and NYU; she earned a Master’s degree in Theatre Arts from Columbia University. After graduation she held several entry-level jobs, including as Assistant to the Press Director at Lincoln Center. This post was followed by work with many of Broaday’s notable press agents including Bill Doll, Mary Bryant, Arthur Cantor, Frank Goodman and Merle Debuskey. Among the shows she worked on in the 1970s were the original productions of Applause, Company, Follies, Sly Fox, and Dancin‘, among many others.

Other positions included WNET/Channel 13 handling publicity for the original “Forsyte Saga” as well as for the cinema verite series “An American Family.” In 1978, Schulman opened her own theatrical press office in Times Square, with early clients including Karen Akers, Jack Gilford, Carlin Glynn and Peter Masterson, Garrison Keillor and A Prairie Home Companion, Manhattan Theatre Club, and others.In 1984 she accepted the newly-created position of Director, Press Information at CBS-TV Entertainment, supervising publicity and marketing for the company’s Mini-Series productions. At CBS she also headed the Public Relations/Corporate Communications Department at USA Network for four years, moving on to heading the publicity and marketing for the Arts & Entertainment Network, subsequently named Vice President at Brown & Powers Public Relations. In 1992, Schulman re-opened her own (and current) press office in the Paramount Building.

She was honored featured in two theater books It Happened On Broadway by Myrna and Harvey Frommer and The Birth Of Shylock AndThe Death Of Zero Mostel by Arnold Wesker. In 2013 Schulman wrote her own memoir, Backstage Pass to Broadway. Among her other endeavors was a stint in educations as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of the Arts, creating and teaching a course in Theatrical Publicity and Audience Development.