As counselors-in-training at Camp Echo Lake nearly 40 years ago, Eric Falkenstein and Ben Frimmer acted in a color war-style drama contest.
This Sunday, they’ll be together at another competition: the Tony Awards.
Both local residents now, they’ve reignited their teenage friendship.
Falkenstein is a producer, and Frimmer a co-producer, of “John Proctor is the Villain” — the smash (and very timely) Broadway play that reimagines “The Crucible” — they’re up for a Tony for “Best New Play.”
If it wins, this will be the 9th award for Falkenstein. Since 2003, his company — Spark Productions — has produced social impact and issue-driven plays, movies and television shows.
It would be the first Tony though for Frimmer, a 1988 Staples High School graduate, and noted longtime Coleytown Middle School theater teacher and director.
Ben Frimmer, directing at Coleytown Middle School. (Photo/January Stuart)
It would be the first too for another co-producer: Ari Benmosche. A commercial real estate investor by day, he also serves on Westport’s Representative Town Meeting (RTM) — and, like Falkenstein and Frimmer, backs projects that speak to his passion for social justice.
Falkenstein’s path to “John Proctor” began after Yale Law School. His practice combined entertainment and human rights cases.
He then worked for Woody Allen’s production firm. In 2003 he founded his own company.
Eric Falkenstein
Falkenstein and his wife Amy moved here in 2009. They were drawn by the “country” vibe, commuting distance to New York, and friends here in town. Reconnecting with Frimmer was an added bonus.
Falkenstein’s producing credits were already impressive. He’d been involved in “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” with Vanessa Redgrave and Brian Dennehy; “All My Sons,” “Frankie and Johnny” and “History Boys,” among others.
Of course, he notes, “I’ve had my share of losers.” Among them: “All Shook Up,” the Elvis Presley show savaged by the New York Times’ Ben Brantley (he was tired of jukebox musicals).
Producing a Broadway show is not for the faint of heart. But, Falkenstein says, when 4 elements come together — critical acclaim, financial success, artistic sensibility and audience excitement — the experience is worth it.
“It’s so rewarding to see an idea that was just a kernel months earlier grow into something that delights or inspires 1,500 people a night. And to hear someone say ‘it changed my life’ is amazing,” the producer says.
A show that epitomizes the power of theater is “The Miracle Worker.” One performance of the 2010 revival stands out. The audience was filled with blind children (who listened to stage directions via earpieces), and hearing impaired youngsters (who viewed the dialogue on small screens).
“They were smiling, crying and signing to each other in ecstasy,” Falkenstein recalls. “For me, it was an absolute frisson of delight.”
Eric Falkenstein at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. Congressman John Lewis (left) was helpful for years in research for a sweeping epic play about Martin Lutheer King, now in progress.
In 2001, Falkenstein worked with Arthur Miller on a “Crucible” revival. When Falkenstein heard about early stagings of “John Proctor” — a revisionist take on the play about the Salem witch trials, centering on modern-day high school students and their interpretation of those historical events — he joined an inner circle of producers, hoping to bring it to Broadway.
“It was very much of the moment, and unusually electric,” he says.
Raising funds was not easy. It seldom is. But he brought Frimmer, Benmosche and others on board.
The rewards are worth it. “John Proctor” is drawing young, non-regular theatergoers; they’re talking about it with their parents and other adults.
“John Proctor is the Villain,” on the Broadway stage.
The 3 Westporters will be at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, for the 78th annual Tonys. They’ve received pins and certificates, as co-producers of the “Best New Play” nominee. If they win, they get statues.
It won’t be easy.
“There are some excellent and outstanding plays this season,” Falkenstein says. The competition includes “English,” “The Hills of California,” “Oh, Mary!” and “Purpose.”
In years past, every time Falkenstein has gone to the ceremony as a nominee, he’s won. When he’s had to skip the event, he’s lost.
This year, he says, that streak has “a solid chance of ending.”
Win or lose, he is excited to have brought an important piece of theater to Broadway audiences, who have been educated, inspired and provoked by it.
The official Tony nomination.
Meanwhile, Falkenstein is involved in several new projects. As with this, he’s tapping local talent.
“Satisfied” is a film about Renée Elise Goldsberry, the “Hamilton” star (and Weston resident) who grappled simultaneously with fertility issues and her growing career.
Westporters Kelli O’Hara, Wendy Morgan-Hunter and Katy Bolan joined Falkenstein as executive producers. Chris Bolan directed it.
Up next: a film about the Potsdam Conference (with Bryan Cranston), and the first Broadway revival in 40 years of “Ceremonies in Dark Old Men.” The New York Times ranked it with great mid-20th century plays like “Death of a Salesman” and “A Raisin in the Sun.”
Will it too go on to a Tony nomination?
“I’m not always lucky,” Falkenstein says. “I’ve had plenty of heartache.”
That’s the life of a Broadway producer.
But so too are important, impactful successes like “John Proctor is the Villain.”
Just ask Ben Frimmer, Ari Benmosche, or anyone else who has produced — or seen — the Tony-nominated show.
(The 2025 Tony Awards, hosted by Cynthia Erivo, will be broadcast live on Sunday, June 8, at 8 p.m. on CBS, and streamed on Paramount+. Erivo won a Tony for “The Color Purple” — another play which Falkenstein co-produced.)
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