It was an unusual Broadway moment, as famous friends of the famous Mr. Schoenfeld — like Henry A. Kissinger and Barbara Walters — mixed with the less-famous people who were also close to Mr. Schoenfeld: the ushers and cashiers and box- office clerks whom he checked in with nightly to see how business was doing at the 17 Broadway theaters owned by the Shubert Organization, which he ran.
Mr. Schoenfeld is widely regarded as having revived commercial theater in New York City in the 1970s, by acquiring musicals — like Pippin and A Chorus Line — that became hits. Befitting a memorial for a legendary producer, one Broadway star after another took the stage Monday, some singing standards from the musicals that Mr. Schoenfeld helped make famous.
An original star of Cats, Betty Buckley, performed her signature song from the show, “Memory.” Priscilla Lopez, an original cast member of A Chorus Line, sang “What I Did for Love,” her standard from that musical.
Andrew Lloyd Webber, the composer of Evita, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera and many other shows, described how Mr. Schoenfeld had nicknamed him Cameron — a reference to Mr. Lloyd Webber’s theater rival, Cameron Mackintosh.
Angela Lansbury spoke too, and so did Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons, and Whoopi Goldberg and Hugh Jackman. Each told different anecdotes, adding up to a powerful image: Mr. Schoenfeld was no ordinary producer, but rather a champion of performance and of theater. Mr. Jackman recalled that when he was in The Boy From Oz, at the Shubert-owned Imperial, Mr. Schoenfeld seemed to be standing in the wings almost every other night.
