Career
Richards also created the New York Center for Children to care for abused children and their families. Richards most recently produced the new musical "Big Maybelle: Soul of the Blues" starring Lillias White at The Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, New York, in the summer of 2012. Richards died on November 26, 2012 from cancer at the age of 80.
The marquees of Broadway theatres were dimmed in his memory the night of November 27, 2012 at 7 p.m.