MARY ELIZABETH BRYANT

Broadway press agent Mary Bryant died Sunday, February 22nd, of a brain hemorrhage at her home in Hillsdale, NY. She had been battling lung cancer since 1999. She was 71. Mary was an ATPAM Member since 1962.

Born October 17, 1932 in Apopka, Florida to Theodore & Mabel Bryant, she graduated from the University of Miami where she studied drama and first met George Abbott.

Ms. Bryant began her career as an actress as a member of the Hedgerow Repertory Theater in Moyland, Rose Valley, Pennsylvania. Upon a recommendation from Mr. Abbott, she became apprentice to Press Agents Sol Jacobson and Lewis Harmon. Ms. Bryant’s first Broadway job was as the Assistant Press Agent on George Abbott’s Fiorello! in 1959, which was followed by Toys in the Attic, Tenderloin, Write Me a Murder, Take Her, She’s Mine and The Aspern Papers. 

In 1962 she became a Senior Press Agent opening her own office with Stephen Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, directed by Mr. Abbott. She went on to represent Mr. Abbott’s productions of Never Too Late, Flora, The Red Menace, Anya and Music Is. 1959’s Fiorello! began what would be a life-long working relationship with director/producer Harold Prince.

Ms. Bryant was the press agent for the original Broadway productions of the Harold Prince/Stephen Sondheim musicals Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd and Merrily We Roll Along.  She also represented Director Prince’s productions of She Loves Me, It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman, Cabaret, Zorba, The Visit, Love for Love, On The Twentieth Century, Evita, A Doll’s Life, End Of The World, Grind, Roza, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Show Boat and Candide.

In 1992 Ms. Bryant became the New York based publicist for Canadian Impresario Garth Drabinsky’s Livent, Inc., where she also represented Barrymore, Ragtime and Fosse.   Some of the other fifty Broadway productions she represented include Side by Side by Sondheim, The Member of the Wedding, The Rules of the Game, Holiday, Chemin de Fer, All the Girls Came Out to Play, Abelard and Heloise, Grin and Bare It!, Postcards and Poor Bitos.

Ms. Bryant is survived by her mother, Mabel Decker.  A private ceremony will be held in Miami, Florida.

Contact Wayne Wolfe (212) 398-1800 for additional information.