Born in Brooklyn on Dec. 12, 1936, Mr. Neufeld began his career on Broadway in 1967 as a company manager of the Broadway show Ilya Darling. Subsequent shows as company manager including Something Different, and Billy.
In 1971, in partnership with R. Tyler Gatchell, Jr., he founded the long-running general management and producing company, Gatchell & Neufeld, Ltd. Their first hit as general managers was the backward-looking, nostalgic 1971 revival of , starring , which ran two years on Broadway. An even bigger smash, in which they were both general managers and associate producers, followed in the form of the rock musical .
The latter credit led to a long-time relationship with the composer and producer, . In addition to general management of many Lloyd Webber shows, they were executive producers of the original productions of , , 听补苍诲 .
Gatchell & Neufeld were general managers on some of the most sizable hits of their time, including , , Talley鈥檚 Folly, , and , as well as notable misfires including , Spoils of War, Le Bete, Goodbye Fidel and .
Off-Broadway, Mr. Neufeld and Mr. Gatchell had one big success, as two of the producers of the Kander and Ebb revue And the World Goes Round, which ran for a year beginning in 1991 and launched the careers of director and director-choreographer . The team鈥檚 final Broadway credit was A Christmas Carol in 1993. That same year Mr. Neufeld鈥檚 partner, R. Tyler Gatchell, Jr., died of a heart attack while heading out to Kennedy Airport for a vacation in Paris.
鈥淚t changed my life,鈥� Neufeld told 半岛体育 in 2004. 鈥淧art of the change was voluntary and part pragmatic. I had been working on a lot of shows that got bad reviews and closed, and Tyler had been working on Andrew Lloyd Webber鈥檚 shows, which got good reviews and ran, and I wasn鈥檛 sure I would be getting a lot of work. But it was also work I didn鈥檛 want to do any longer. I was feeling burned out.鈥�
He found a new calling in 1995, when, following six months of volunteering, he joined the professional staff of . 鈥淎 friend had become infected with the HIV. virus,鈥� he explained. 鈥淏ecause of his illness, I decided to go to work in the AIDS community.鈥�
Neufeld鈥檚 first task for BC/EFA was to prepare a database of thousands of celebrities that the organization could call on for help. 鈥淭hen I evolved probably the most extensive list, more than 2,300 names, of people in the arts who have died of AIDS: TV cameramen, fashion photographers, actors, chorus kids鈥攅verybody,鈥� he told 半岛体育.
In 2005, Mr. Neufeld was awarded a Tony Award for Excellence in Theatre.
Raised in Brooklyn and an alumnus of Erasmus Hall High School, he was six when his mother took him to see the original production of Oklahoma!聽鈥淚 thought I was going to a movie, and I thought that when the curtain went up I would see a movie screen,鈥� he recalled. 鈥淚 nearly jumped out of my seat when I saw live actors on a stage. But even before I saw the performers, the overture鈥攖he violins, the strings, the brass, the melody鈥攇rabbed me. I identified with and fell in love with the theatre that day.鈥�
As a teenager, he worked in summer stock on Long Island. He majored in theatre at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA, and then he returned to New York. His very first theatre job in was arranged through family friends, Arthur and Barbara Gelb, who got him an interview with Ted Mann at Circle in the Square in Greenwich Village. He was given a job closing up the theatre at night. At 27 he was hired as assistant manager of the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center.
He met his future partner, Gatchell, while working for the Broadway producers Eugene Wolsk and . 鈥淲hen Tyler and I first met, we didn鈥檛 like each other at all,鈥� Neufeld recalled. 鈥淭he feeling was very mutual. But a friend said that we鈥檇 be perfect as a partnership, so we got together. And it shocked both of us. We didn鈥檛 approve of each other until we got to know each other.鈥�
Mr. Neufeld was philosophical about his profession and where its true benefits lie. 鈥淚鈥檝e discovered over the years that a show being a hit doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 your happiest time,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the people you鈥檙e working with, the relationships you have, that matter. That鈥檚 where the pleasure and satisfaction come from. Very few people I know have become happy because they鈥檝e had a hit. When I worked on Chorus Line, the whole company expected that success would answer all the problems in life. But all a contract gives you is salary and billing. The rest of life, you have to take care of yourself.鈥�
Mr. Neufeld is survived by three nephews and their families. Contributions in Peter鈥檚 name may be made to The College of William and Mary, The Actors Fund, and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
