Fritz Holt

Who was Fritz Holt?

Fritz Holt was an award-winning American theatre producer and director.

Born George William Holt III in San Francisco, Holt was a graduate of the University of Oregon. He began his career as an assistant stage manager at the Mineola Playhouse in Mineola, New York, where he worked until Harold Prince hired him to assistant stage manage the national tour of Cabaret. Holt and Prince later would collaborate on Company and Follies.

Holt's first Broadway credit as a stage manager was the 1969 production of the Arthur Kopit play Indians. His first producing credit was the short-lived 1974 revival of Gyspy starring Angela Lansbury. He helped coordinate Bette Midler's Clams on the Half Shell Revue, but aside from this and a revival of The Royal Family, he was plagued by a series of flops, including Summer Brave, Platinum, a revival of The Goodbye People, Phyllis Newman's one-woman show The Madwoman of Central Park West, and the Frank Loesser-inspired revue Perfectly Frank, until scoring a major hit with La Cage aux Folles in 1983. The production won him the Tony Award for Best Musical.