At Circle Rep he worked on dozens of world premieres of plays by playwrights including Lanford Wilson, Sam Shepard, David Mamet and Jules Feiffer with an acting company that included Jeff Daniels, Tanya Berezin, Judd Hirsch, Barnard Hughes, William Hurt, Richard Thomas and Fritz Weaver.
Plays included Talley's Folley, 5th of July, Buried Child, Fool for Love and Balm in Gilead directed by John Malkovich in a co production with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company.
In 1985, he formed Richard Frankel Productions and together with partners Tom Viertel and Steve Baruch produced Penn & Teller's first off-Broadway show, which first brought them to national attention.
In 1994 Richard Frankel Productions and Marc Routh, along with others, produced Stomp, which ran at the Orpheum Theatre in New York City for 29 years and still tours throughout the United States.
[4] Apart from shows produced by Frankel and his partners, the company managed the Broadway productions Rock of Ages, Finian's Rainbow, and Forever Tango.