Martin Sherman

Martin Gerald Sherman (born December 22, 1938) is an American dramatist and screenwriter best known for his 20-stage plays which have been produced in over 60 countries. He rose to fame in 1979 with the production of his play Bent, which explores the persecution of homosexuals during the Holocaust. Bent was a Tony nominee for Best Play in 1980 and won the Dramatists Guild's Hull-Warriner Award. It was adapted by Sherman for a major motion picture in 1997 and later by independent sources as a ballet in Brazil. Sherman is Jewish and openly gay, Julia (née Shapiro) and Joseph T. Sherman, an attorney. Growing up in Camden, New Jersey, he was first introduced to the theater at age six, when he saw a pre-Broadway version of Guys and Dolls. Sherman's parents encouraged his passion. In an interview with London Times writer Sheridan Morley in 1983, Sherman recalled, "At 12 I joined the Mae Desmond Children's Players and went all around Pennsylvania being a tall dwarf in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." the show transferred to Broadway the following year, where Dukakis reprised her role.

Works Theatre productions A Solitary Thing, with music by Stanley Silverman, Oakland, California, Mills College, September 9, 1963. Fat Tuesday, New York, Herbert Berghof Playwrights Foundation, 1966. Next Year in Jerusalem, New York, Herbert Berghof Playwrights Foundation, June 8, 1968. Change, (libretto), New York, BMI Music Theatre Workshop, 1969. The Night Before Paris, New York, Actors Studio, 1969; Edinburgh, Traverse Theatre, 1970. Things Went Badly in Westphalia, Storrs, University of Connecticut, 1971. Passing By, New York, Playwrights Horizons, March 5, 1974; London, Almost Free Theatre, June 9, 1975. New York! New York!, contributor, New York, Playwrights Horizons, April 26, 1975. Cracks, Waterford, CT, National Playwrights Conference, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, July 31, 1975; Oldham, Coliseum Theatre, October 10, 1981. Rio Grande, New York, Playwrights Horizons, November 11, 1976. Blackout, New York, Ensemble Studio Theatre, 1978. Bent Waterford, CT, National Playwrights Conference, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, August 4, 1978; London, Royal Court Theatre, May 3, 1979; New York, New Apollo Theatre, December 2, 1979. Messiah, London, Hampstead Theatre, December 9, 1982; New York, Manhattan Theatre Club, December 11, 1984. When She Danced, Guildford, UK, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, November 27, 1985; New York, Playwrights Horizon, February 19, 1990. A Madhouse in Goa, London, Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, April 28, 1989; New York, Second Stage, November 18, 1997—comprises A Tale for a King and Keeps Rainin' All the Time. Some Sunny Day, London, Hampstead Theatre, April 11, 1996. Rose, London, Royal National Theatre, June 24, 1999. Absolutely! {perhaps} (adapted from Right You Are, if You Think So by Luigi Pirandello), Wyndham Theatre, London, UK, 2003. A Passage to India (adapted from the novel by E.M. Forster), Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York, NY, 2004. Aristo, Chichester Festival Theatre, West Sussex, UK, September 11, 2008. Onassis (formerly Aristo), Novello Theatre, London, UK, October 12, 2010. Gently Down the Stream, The Public Theater, New York, NY, March 14, 2017

Films Alive and Kicking aka Indian Summer, Channel Four Films, 1997 Clothes in the Wardrobe, (adapted from the novel by Alice Thomas Ellis), BBC Films, 1992; US Release as The Summer House, 1993 Bent, Channel Four Films, 1997 Mrs Henderson Presents, 2005 Callas Forever, (with Franco Zeffirelli), 2002

Television Don't Call Me Mama Anymore, CBS, 1972 The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (adapted from the novel by Tennessee Williams), Showtime Networks, 2003

Acting roles Indian Summer (1996)

Publications Bent, S. French, 1979 Messiah, Amber Lane, 1982 Cracks, S. French, 1986 When She Danced, Amber Lane, 1988; S. French, 1988 A Madhouse in Goa, Amber Lane, 1989; S. French, 1998 Some Sunny Day, Amber Lane, 1996 Rose, Methuen, 1999 "Things Went Badly in Westphalia," in The Best Short Plays of 1970, 1970 "Passing By," in Gay Plays, Volume 1, 1984