Veloudos was a towering figure in Boston theater

By Rich Fahey

If you were attending a performance at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, you knew not to arrive late.

There were several reasons: Shows at the Lyric tended to start on time was one.

Two, you might miss the pre-show: The customary curtain remarks made by the legendary Spiro Veloudos, the longtime producing artistic director at the theater, who made it a point of stressing proper theater etiquette when it came to cell phones, and “texting, which is just as odious.”

And third and the most important of all, you might have to pass in front of Spiro himself to get to your seat during his speech, and the disapproving glare you would receive would be far worse than Sister Margaret’s or your mother’s.

The death of Veloudos, 71, was confirmed by his sister, Sheila Demetriadis, on Tuesday, Oct. 3. He had stepped down as the artistic director of the Lyric Stage Company of Boston in 2019. He suffered from Type 2 diabetes for years, and a dangerous infection led to the amputation of most of his left leg in December 2016.

His passing left a hole in the Boston theater world that will be almost impossible to fill.
As a director and artistic director, first at the outdoor Publick Theatre on Soldiers Field Road and then at the Lyric Stage, he was fearless. Spiro would take huge, sprawling musicals and somehow shoe-horn them into the intimate 244 -seat Lyric Stage theater on Clarendon Street.

“Sunday in the Park with George,” Stephen Sondheim’s sprawling epic on Georges Seurat and his iconic painting? No problem. “Sweeney Todd?” Check and double check.

He may have reached his apex in 2010 with the two part “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby” with a cast of 24 juggling more than 150 speaking parts.

When people asked my advice on what to see in Boston, I would often point to the theater tucked inconspicuously atop the former Women’s YWCA.

He, along with people such as Rick Lombardo at the New Repertory Theatre and Paul Daigneault at SpeakEasy Stage, made many of the productions in Boston’s mid-sized professional theaters must-see events.

Before diversity and inclusion came to the fore in the theater world, Veloudos was walking the walk and talking the talk. He championed female directors and playwrights, and playwrights, actors, and artists of color, and made it a point to showcase local talent that had decided to forego New York and stay in Boston for the long run.

He served as a mentor to many, including Courtney O’Connor, the Lyric’s current artistic director, and Dawn Simmons, now the co-producing artistic director of the Front Porch Arts Collective.   

He had a passion for the works of Sondheim, even producing some of Sondheim’s less known and difficult works to stage, such as “Pacific Overtures” and “Passion.” Over 20 years he directed 10 Sondheim works in all among the 65 shows he directed at the theater.

Veloudos was a constant and welcome presence in the theater lobby before shows, chatting up longtime subscribers, newbies, and reviewers. He viewed his staff and patrons as part of a large family.

He was very proud of the many awards he and the Lyric were awarded by both the Boston Theater Critics Association and the Independent Reviewers of New England. He set up a “scoreboard” in a lobby inside the theater which listed all of the Norton and IRNE awards he and the Lyric had received and he was a constant presence at both the Norton Awards and the IRNE Awards.  

After his 2016 illness, he experienced a “It’s a Wonderful Life” type outpouring of support and love from the theater world. It made him determined to return, and he did, even amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. He may have been a proud Greek-American, but he was an American original.