Luigi Caiola Dies: Broadway Producer Who Assisted In Development Of More Than 50 Shows Was 64

Greg Evans
·2 min read

Luigi Caiola, who co-founded the Broadway production and investment company Caiola Productions with his sister Rose and participated in the development of more than 50 shows, died November 26 at his home in Miami. He was 64.

His death was announced by his family. A cause has not been determined.

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A managing member of B&L Management LLC, a New York City real estate development company founded by his father Benny Caiola in 1974, Luigi Caiola, along with sister Rose Caiola, launched Caiola Productions in 2011 out of their shared passion for the theater. The entity has been involved in dozens of Broadway shows, including Tony Award winners Dear Evan Hansen, The Color Purple, Once on This Island, Company, All the Way, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and the recent revival of Parade.

Born on September 15, 1959, Caiola was a fervent activist for the LGBTQ+ community. Having survived New York’s devastating AIDS crisis of the 1980s and ’90s, he often said that, among the shows in which his company took part, he was most proud of The Inheritance, Matthew Lopez’s play that reimagined E.M. Forster’s Howards End with two generations of gay men in 21st century New York City. The Inheritance opened on Broadway in 2019 and won four Tony Awards including Best Play.

More recent Caiola co-productions or productions include Prima Facie, The Piano Lesson, Harmony, Here We Are and Rock and Roll Man, the Off Broadway musical about pioneering radio DJ Alan Freed that won the 2023 Audelco Award for Best Musical.

Caiola Productions was awarded the 2023 Arts Ally Award from the New York Drama League.

A founding member of the Board of Directors of the Tyler Clementi Foundation, a group committed to ending bullying in schools and communities, Caiola served on the Boards of New York City Center; The Bay Street Theater and Cultural Center in Sag Harbor, Long Island; the Friends Seminary in Manhattan where his three children attend high school; and Family Equality, an organization dedicated to ensuring that everyone has the freedom to find, form, and sustain their families by advancing equality for the LGBTQ+ community.

Caiola is survived by his partner Sean; their three children Maria, William, and Adam; his mother Bettina Caiola; siblings Alfred, Jaime, Benny, Bora, Rose and Eddie; and a large extended family.

A funeral service at New York’s St. Ignatius Church will be held Monday, Dec. 4. The family asks that In lieu of flowers donations be made to Family Equality.

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