He was not born for the theater, however. Despite his youthful aspirations as a composer, he found work on Wall Street, becoming a broker partner before the death of his wife and three of four children in a plane crash in June 1975 in New York City that changed his trajectory.
He told the Times in 1998, building a business and making money no longer made sense to him.
Eventually, he turned to Broadway, redefining himself through a new career.
Brook Berlind, his second wife, defined the change in terms of the stage.
“His life was totally forked by the accident,” she said. “There was Act I and Act II. I don’t think many other people could have been so successful after such a catastrophe. “
His 1976 debut production of Rex, a Richard Rodgers musical about Henry VIII, was criticized by a Times theater critic. His last show, a Tony winner taken on stage by several producers, was the 2019 revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein Oklahoma.
Other programs included the original 1980 production of Amadeus, who won a Tony for best play and Sophisticated Ladies, a 1981 musical lasting two years with music by Duke Ellington.
Star-filled revivals included Death of a Seller in 2012 with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Hello Dolly in 2017 with Bette Midler.
Throughout his career, Berlind has faced failures along with successes, finding value in some losing productions.
“I know it’s not worth it economically,” he said The times in 1998. “But I love theater.”
Berlind displayed his own talent for the dramatic after the 9/11 attacks, when he took then Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s encouragement to Broadway seriously and appeared on stage on 9/23, after the completion of what was scheduled to be the last performance in Kiss me kate.
“The show will continue,” he declared to an emotional audience, extending a two-year season for three months, despite falling sales.
Survivors include his wife and son, two granddaughters and a brother.