Frank Rich Joins HBO as Creative Consultant

Former New York Times Theatre Critic, and current OpEd Columnist Frank Rich has signed on as a creative consultant to HBO, it was announced today by Richard Plepler, co-president, and Michael Lombardo, president programming group and west coast operations.

In this capacity, Rich will both initiate and help develop projects at the pay-TV network.

"Frank is one of the smartest and most astute observers of popular culture and we are thrilled that we can call upon his judgment and superb instincts," said  Plepler and Lombardo.

Added Rich, "To my mind, HBO has always been the gold standard for some of the best work in television.  I'm excited to be a part of this collaboration."

Rich will recuse himself from writing about HBO and Time Warner in his weekly OpEd column,  which is largely about politics and public affairs.

Frank Rich became a New York Times op-ed columnist in 1994 after serving for thirteen years as the newspaper's chief drama critic. These days, he covers politics and also serves as an adviser on the paper's overall cultural news report. Two of his previous books are MUST-HAVES for theatre fans everywhere. Hot Seat: Theater Criticism for The New York Times, 1980-1993 contains a collection of all of his New York Times theatre reviews, which provide insight into thirteen years of Broadway including many of its big hits and misses. He is the also author of the childhood memoir Ghost Light, which is filled with many tales of the start of his love of theatre. Rich is married to Alex Witchel, who also writes for the Times.

Ghost Light's film rights have been optioned by the film producing team of Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (HAIRSPRAY, Chicago, The Music Man, The Bucket List, Cinderella, Annie, Gypsy, A Raisin in the Sun, Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows).

Amongst many great articles which showed his great influence while occupying the chief theatre position at the Times, Rich is deservedly credited for inviting Disney to Broadway with a December 29, 1991 piece which sparked Disney's interest in bringing Beauty and the Beast to stage. Rich wrote that "The Hit That Got Away -- The best Broadway musical score of 1991 was that written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman for the Disney animated movie Beauty and the Beast."