Wilder Family LLC, the estate of iconic playwright Thornton Wilder, has appointed Jeremy McCarter as its new literary executor, the first time in almost 30 years the title has been held by someone outside the Wilder family. McCarter, a writer and producer, succeeds Wilder's nephew, Tappan Wilder, in the role.
According to a statement from Tappan, the move will allow "Jeremy to make decisions regarding Thornton Wilder’s intellectual properties and the estate’s ongoing relationships with its institutional partners. We have also asked Jeremy to devote special time and energy to the adaptation possibilities in Wilder’s full range of works."
The appointment comes in a time of renewed attention to Wilder's works, including an upcoming Broadway revival of Our Town, London's upcoming Hello, Dolly! (adapted from Wilder's The Matchmaker), and the premiere of Wilder's unfinished play The Emporium at Houston's Alley Theatre.
McCarter previously collaborated with Lin-Manuel Miranda on Hamilton: The Revolution and (along with Quiara Alegría Hudes) In the Heights: Finding Home, books tracking the development of each of the musicals. He's been published in New York Magazine, The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Wall Street Journal.
"Thornton Wilder is my favorite writer: a restless innovator, an enviable stylist, a genius with an uncanny ability to see the cosmos and our tiny-but-enormous place in it," says McCarter in a statement. "I’m honored and deeply grateful to the Wilder Family for a chance to be a steward of his work—to help more readers and viewers and listeners to discover it, and find ways for artists to go on being inspired by it, as it has always inspired me."
Tappan Wilder will continue on as a managing member, with Rosey Strub continuing as managing director and Amanda Woods handling special projects.
It remains to be seen if McCarter's appointment will signal a new era in the management of Wilder's works. The playwright's estate has been notoriously hard-nosed about adaptations in the past, with major musical versions of both Our Town (by The Fantasticks' writing team of Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones) and The Skin of Our Teeth (by John Kander and Fred Ebb) having their rights revoked by the estate after getting fairly far along in the development process.
