Background
He was born in Brooklyn, New New York
He was born in Brooklyn, New New York
Gottfried was a 1959 graduate of Columbia College in New York City, and attended Columbia Law School for three semesters, next spending one year with United States. Army Military Intelligence.
Early career In 1968, Little, Brown and Company published his first book, A Theater Divided, a study of post-World World War II American theater. In 1970 Putnam published Opening Nights, a collection of his essays. By then, he had become a regular contributor to the Arts and Leisure section of The New York Times" Sunday edition
Drama critic and educator In 1974, he became the drama critic for the New York Post.
Four years later, he "Americanized" the West End musical Bar Mitzvah Boy for an off-Broadway production. In 1979, Gottfried began writing for the Saturday Review, the same year Harry North. Abrams, Incorporated. published his Broadway Musicals.
In 1991, it was joined by a sequel, More Broadway Musicals. and "In Person," a tribute to performing artists. Until recently the drama critic for the New York Law Journal, Gottfried has conducted a series of "Conversations" at the 92nd Street Y as well as at the New School of Social Research and the Metropolitan Museum of Artist
Participants have included Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Harold Prince, Jane Alexander, Christopher Walken and Richard Dreyfuss.
Gottfried also has been a contributor to The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Vogue, the Yale Drama Review and Condé Nast Traveler. He also writes regular articles on the performing arts for Stagebill, the program distributed in theaters and concert halls across America. He has been a guest professor of theater at the Columbia University School of the Arts, Carnegie-Mellon University, Rutgers University and the Colorado College, as well as a Visiting Artist/Professor at the College of Santa Fe.
He died of complications of pneumonia at the age of 80 on March 6, 2014, in Manhattan.
Gottfried began his writing career as the classical music critic for The Village Voice, doubling as an off-Broadway reviewer for Women"s Wear Daily, a position that made him the youngest member of the New York Drama Critics Circle in the organization"s history.