Bruce Curless, ‘backbone of South Jersey theater,’ has died at 78
The legendary showman founded the Ritz Theatre Company in Haddon Township in 1985.
The South Jersey theater community has lost one of its most influential figures following the death of legendary showman Bruce Curless.
Mr. Curless, the founder and longtime producing artistic director of the Ritz Theatre Company in Haddon Township, died Oct. 28 after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer, the organization announced this week. He was 78.
Widely considered the godfather of South Jersey theater, Mr. Curless founded the Ritz in 1985, transforming a former vaudeville showroom on the White Horse Pike into a training ground for generations of artists.
“He was more myth than man, sometimes,” said Matthew Weil, associate artistic director and production manager at the Ritz. “He was just so larger than life — just an artist through and through.”
The newly founded company embarked on its first season in 1986, during which Mr. Curless debuted his beloved children’s character “Ritzy the Wolf,” a role he reprised many times over the years and for which he won two Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards, according to the company’s website.
The Ritz was also where he met his wife, Kim, an opera singer, Weil said.
The couple’s daughter, Roberta, “has been on our stage since before she could walk” and is now a talented choreographer and director in her own right, he said.
Mr. Curless’ impact in the region cannot be overstated, former colleagues say.
Walk into nearly any theater across South Jersey and you’ll find someone with connections to Bruce or the Ritz, Weil said.
Whether it’s Pitman’s Broadway Theatre, the South Camden Theatre Company, or the Burlington County Footlighters, “he really served to pollinate the region with theater artists,” Weil said.
“He really sort of was the backbone of the South Jersey arts scene,” he said. “And we’re going to miss him.”
But beyond Mr. Curless’ prowess as an artist and visionary, he was first and foremost an incredibly kind human being, Weil said.
Originally from Indiana, Mr. Curless maintained a notably Midwestern cadence during his time on the East Coast, he said, exuding an undeniable warmth each time he entered a room.
“Central to his legacy is just how he sort of moved through the world,” he said. “Theatre can be cold sometimes. There’s a lot of rejection, there’s a lot of hard deadlines and hurt feelings and it’s a results-driven kind of business. But he had a knack for leading with love.”
Mr. Curless’ kind nature was evident on Sara Viniar’s first day of work at the Ritz in 2015.
It was one of her first jobs out of college, and Viniar was surprised to find not only a close-knit arts community but also a boss who genuinely cared about her.
“When I worked there, I felt like Bruce cared about me as a whole human, not as an employee. If I was having a bad day or hard time with anything in my life, Bruce would just sit down and talk to me about it,” Viniar said.
“And I really feel like, to so many people in South Jersey, he became such a father figure and just someone who would guide you through things,” she said.
Weil was one of those people who considered Mr. Curless a mentor.
“Bruce sort of took me under his wing and saw something in me that I wasn’t ready to see myself,” he said.
Together, he and Mr. Curless have worked side-by-side for the past 10 years, guiding the theater through last year’s 40th anniversary while also planning for the future — inevitably, one without the man who has always led the way.
As Weil prepares to take the reigns as producing artistic director at the Ritz, he says he’s not trying to fill Mr. Curless’ shoes.
“I think that that’s something that, if I tried to do that, I could only fail,” Weil said. “I’m going to try and place my focus on making my own pair of shoes that will sit beside his.”
A memorial service for Mr. Curless will be held at the Ritz Theatre, 915 White Horse Pike, Haddon Township, on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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