Frank Galati dies: Broadway director of “Ragtime,” “Grapes Of Wrath” was 79

Frank Galati, Broadway’s Tony Award-winning director Grapes of wrath and nominated for piece of timepassed away on Monday night. He turned 79.

A cause of death was not immediately available.

Galati, who was associate director at Chicago’s famed Goodman Theater from 1986 to 2008 and a member of the Steppenwolf Theater Company since 1985, was nominated for an Oscar with co-writer Lawrence Kasdan for the screenplay adaptation of Anne Tyler’s 1988 -novel. The random tourist.

Galati’s 1990 stage adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Grapes of wrath won the Tony Award for Best Play; Galati also won the award for best director that year. The critically acclaimed production, which debuted Steppenwolf before heading to Broadway, starred Gary Sinise, Terry Kinney and Lois Smith in Tony-nominated performances.

“Frank has been a huge influence on Steppenwolf and all of us over the years,” Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis, Steppenwolf’s artistic directors, said in a joint statement. “To some he was a teacher, mentor, director, arranger, writer, co-actor and visionary. Regardless of the relationship, Frank, in his always generous, joyful and compassionate presence, always made others feel cared for, appreciated and inspired.

In 1998, Galati directed EL Doctorow’s musical adaptation piece of timeand received a second Tony nomination for Best Director. With a book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, the musical stars Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Marin Mazzie and Mark Jacoby.

Galati’s other Broadway credits include the 1994 revival The glass circus with Julie Harris, Calista Flockhart and Željko Ivanek; Seussian in 2000; and The Priate Queen with Stephanie J. Block in 2007. He was inducted into Broadway’s Theater Hall of Fame in 2022.

Among his many stage appearances in Chicago, Galati directed his adaptation of Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore, She Always Said Pablo, View from the Bridge, The Winter’s Tale, The Good Man of Setzuan and Weep the beloved country.

Most recently, he was Artistic Associate at the Asolo Repertory Theater in Sarasota, Florida, where he directed the musical 2022, among others. Knoxvillean adaptation of James Agee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel A death in the family which reunited the director with lyricist Ahrens and composer Flaherty.

Galati is survived by husband Peter Amster and sister Frannie Galati Clarkson, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.