# Carole Shorenstein Hays

Carole Shorenstein Hays (born September 15, 1948 as Carole J. Shorenstein) is an American theatrical producer.

## Early life and family

Shorenstein Hays was one of three children born to real estate developer Walter Shorenstein and Phyllis Finley. Her father was born Jewish and her mother converted to Judaism. She had two siblings: CBS producer Joan Shorenstein (who died of cancer in 1985) and real estate investor Douglas W. Shorenstein (who died of cancer in 2015), the former chairman of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (his term ran from 2011 to 2014). She lives in Sea Cliff, San Francisco, California with her husband Jeff Hays. They have two children, Wally and Gracie. She was appointed to the National Park Foundation Board of Directors in 2009.
Shorenstein attended New York University but did not graduate. She worked at United Artists as a movie publicist for the film Live and Let Die.

## Theater Career

In the late 1980s, Shorenstein Hays joined her father's long time friend, James M. Nederlander as a business partner and established herself as a respected producer of critically acclaimed and financially successful works. She owns the Curran Theatre and served as President of SHN, a theatrical producing company in San Francisco. Several of the plays she produced have received Tony Awards, including a revival of Fences in 2010 .
She has produced many award-winning Broadway plays. In addition to her Broadway endeavors, she was the President of SHN (Theatres), a theatrical producing company in San Francisco. She gave up her stake in SHN in 2019 and the company changed its name to BroadwaySF. She is the only Broadway producer to win the Tony Awards as producer for two different productions of the same play—August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize–winning Fences, winning Best Play for the original production in 1987 starring James Earl Jones, and Best Revival for the 2010 run starring Denzel Washington. She served as lead producer of the Broadway production of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, which won the 2005 Tony Award for Best Play and The Pulitzer Prize. Carole also co-produced the Broadway production of Julius Caesar starring Denzel Washington. She has produced these additional Tony Award-winning plays on Broadway: Richard Greenberg's Take Me Out, Edward Albee's The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia, and Pulitzer Prize winner Proof by David Auburn. Other Broadway productions include Tony Kushner's Caroline, or Change, Suzan-Lori Parks's 2002 Pulitzer Prize-winning Topdog/Underdog, Charles Busch's The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Patrick Marber's Closer, David Mamet's The Old Neighborhood, the Royal Court/Théâtre de Complicité production of Eugène Ionesco's The Chairs, and the RSC production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

## Productions

| Play | Location | Premiere | Finale |
| The Grand Tour | Palace Theatre | January 11, 1979 | March 4, 1979 |
| Woman of the Year | Palace Theatre | March 29, 1981 | March 13, 1983 |
| Can-Can | Minskoff Theatre | April 30, 1981 | May 3, 1981 |
| Oliver! | Mark Hellinger Theatre | April 29, 1984 | May 13, 1984 |
| Fences | 46th Street Theatre | March 26, 1987 | June 26, 1988 |
| A Midsummer Night's Dream | Lunt-Fontanne Theatre | March 31, 1996 | May 26, 1996 |
| The Old Neighborhood | Booth Theatre | November 19, 1997 | May 10, 1998 |
| The Chairs | John Golden Theatre | April 1, 1998 | June 13, 1998 |
| Not About Nightingales | Circle in the Square Theatre | February 25, 1999 | June 13, 1999 |
| Closer | Music Box Theatre | March 25, 1999 | August 22, 1999 |
| Proof | Walter Kerr Theatre | October 24, 2000 | January 5, 2003 |
| The Tale of the Allergist's Wife | Ethel Barrymore Theatre | November 2, 2000 | September 15, 2002 |
| The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? | John Golden Theatre | March 10, 2002 | December 15, 2002 |
| Topdog/Underdog | Ambassador Theatre | April 7, 2002 | August 11, 2002 |
| Take Me Out | Walter Kerr Theatre | February 27, 2003 | January 4, 2004 |
| Caroline, or Change | Eugene O'Neill Theatre | May 2, 2004 | August 29, 2004 |
| Gem of the Ocean | Walter Kerr Theatre | December 6, 2004 | February 6, 2005 |
| Doubt | Walter Kerr Theatre | March 31, 2005 | July 2, 2006 |
| Julius Caesar | Belasco Theatre | April 3, 2005 | June 12, 2005 |
| Well | Longacre Theatre | March 30, 2006 | May 14, 2006 |