Jeffrey Weiss (April 30, 1940 – September 18, 2022)[1][2] was an American playwright, impresario, and actor, both on Broadway and a theater he ran with partner Ricardo Martinez in the East Village, Manhattan.
It's a testament to the times that no one got hysterical and that in fact the only thing his father asked was "Did he use any bad language" and the police assured him that Jeff had been a perfect gentleman.
The last one, he staged his own "suicide" charging his fellow students 25 cents to watch him dive off the third floor stair railing, which he managed to do without in fact meeting his demise.
It was the beginning of a tumultuous relationship, inspiring Ricardo's (later called Richard) play, Art the Rat, and Weiss's poignant song, "Let Love Pass Me By."
[15] Martinez directed a production of Weiss's International Wrestling Match: An Old Testament Morality Play in Two Vengeful Acts at La MaMa in January 1969.
[20] In 1979, he continued his work at La MaMa, directing his play Dark Twist [21] and performing And That's How the Rent Gets Paid, Part 3, this time alongside Nicky Paraiso.
[22] In 1984, members of The Wooster Group, including Willem Dafoe, Kate Valk, and Ron Vawter, joined Weiss in And That's How the Rent Gets Paid, Part IV (or, The Confessions of Conrad Gerhardt).
Later that year, he re-worked the show in Allentown with Paraiso, Dorothy Cantwell and a cast of local actors, and brought that iteration to NYC at the Wooster Group's Performing Garage.
[27][28] From that point until his retirement in 2003, Weiss was a fixture on and off-Broadway, appearing in The Front Page (with John Lithgow and Richard Thomas), Macbeth (with Glenda Jackson and Christopher Plummer),[29] Our Town, Mastergate, The Real Inspector Hound and The Fifteen Minute Hamlet, Face Value, Carousel, The Play's the Thing, Present Laughter (with Frank Langella), Ivanov (with Kline), The Iceman Cometh (with Kevin Spacey), The Invention of Love, Mr. Peters' Connections, Flesh and Blood (with Cherry Jones),[30] and Henry IV (with Kline, Ethan Hawke, and Audra McDonald).
[31] Weiss was also lauded for his performances in regional productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream,[32] Coriolanus,[33] A Christmas Carol,[34] Harvey,[35] Moliere's The Bungler,[36] and the world premiere of Arthur Miller's Reservation Blues.
[37] Weiss appeared in television episodes of Law & Order and The Equalizer, as well as in films Interstate 84, Mr. Destiny, and Vanilla Sky.