Goodspeed Musicals history

Since 1968, sixteen productions that originated at the theater have gone on to play on Broadway, and Goodspeed productions have won more than a dozen Tony awards.

In 1975, Albert Selden and his mother Muriel Wiggin Selden donated their personal musical theatre collection of an estimated 5,000 pieces of sheet music and 200 complete vocal scores in forty overflowing boxes.

Goodspeed appointed its first librarian in 1979: Library/Literary Manager Prudence Hoffman.

In 1982, Betsy Rosenberg replaced Hoffman in the new paid, part-time position of Music Librarian.

Sections of the collection were relocated to larger office space within the Opera House in 1983.

Max composed the score to Harrigan ‘n Hart, the first new musical that Goodspeed produced at The Norma Terris Theatre in 1984.

Intern John Pike and Music Librarian Betsy Rosenberg transplanted the entirety of the library’s contents to its new home in the factory building in the summer of 1987.

In 1989, John Pike returned to Goodspeed as Assistant to the Executive Director.

In the late fall of 1990, Max O. Preeo, founder and editor of the globally distributed magazine Show Music, moved the publication’s editorial offices from Las Vegas into Goodspeed’s library facility.

In 1993, the Goodspeed Library received the complete collection of libretti licensed by the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization from the Rodgers & Hammerstein Foundation Library.

Not long after, in 1995, expansion and reconstruction of the Goodspeed Library’s facility became necessary due to the incorporation of yet another major donation.

The project was completed in 1996 and doubled the size of the library to its present 2,150 square feet.

In 1997, Lisa Viall Mento took over for Johnson.

Max Showalter, a storied composer and character actor who performed on stage, television, and in film throughout the second half of the 20th Century, passed away in the summer of 2000.

In 2001, library holdings contained an estimated 40,000 pieces of sheet music, 25,000 records, 1,500 libretti, and 1,200 scores.

Despite the lack of shelving capacity for archival material, the Goodspeed Library acquired a major gift in 2002, which Mento placed in storage.

In 2003, Will Rhys, who worked alongside Mento during his time as Education Director at Goodspeed, was promoted to Education Director/Librarian upon Mento’s resignation.

In the summer of 2009, the Scherer Library of Musical Theatre underwent a transition of management from Will Rhys to Joshua Ritter.

Ritter began formally promoting the Administrative Internship Program in 2010 and increased efforts to recruit new library volunteers.

In 2011, the full-time position of Education & Library Assistant was added to the Library staff.

In 2012, the Scherer Library applied for and received a grant from the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Foundation, which provided the means to jumpstart Phase One of the Catalogue and Digitization Project—the digitization of the Scherer Library’s 500 most fragile and valuable items.