Griffith worked steadily throughout the 1930s as a performer and stage manager in a string of Broadway plays such as; The Decoy, Dinner at Eight, and Merrily We Roll Along.
In the 1940s and 50s Griffith moved away from performing and focused on stage managing Broadway musicals namely; Best Foot Forward, Where's Charley?, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
Griffith decided he wished to begin producing for the theatre and recruited a young Harold Prince to devise a new musical based on a popular novel of the time 7½ Cents.
They brought back almost the entire production team of The Pajama Game and earned their second Tony Award for Best Musical.
The show that was created, West Side Story, wasn't a hit at first but has now become a classic of American musical theatre.