Roger L. Stevens, the theatrical producer who brought more than 200 plays to London and Broadway stages and built Washington's Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, died Monday of complications from pneumonia. He was 87.
Stevens was the first to introduce to audiences works by such writers as Tennessee Williams, Harold Pinter, T.S. Eliot, Arthur Kopit, Friedrich Durrenmatt, Eugene O'Neill, Tom Stoppard and Jean Giraudoux. He produced shows including "West Side Story," "Bus Stop," "A Man for All Seasons," "Tea and Sympathy," "Deathtrap," "First Monday in October," "Mary, Mary," "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "Death of a Salesman."At President John F. Kennedy's request, he raised public funds and elicited matching funds from Congress for the $70 million required to build a national cultural center on the Potomac River.
When Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Congress designated it as a national monument to the president. The center opened in 1971 with Stevens as chairman, a post he held until 1988.