Frederic Vogel; Broadway Producer Ran Seminars for Would-Be Theater Investors

Frederic B. Vogel, a Broadway producer who founded a workshop program in 1982 to teach the financially risky business of staging a play, has died. His age, he liked to say, was “in dispute,” but his family said he was in his 70s.

Vogel died Tuesday from complications of lung cancer at his home in New York City, said Kathie Packer, his niece.

His practical approach to teaching would-be producers centered on making sure they waded into the dangerous waters of theater investment ready to swim -- and sink.

“My workshops can do two things,” Vogel told The Times in 1993. “One, train people how to produce; or two, convince them to go into dentistry instead.

“I always tell investors that when you write the check, kiss it goodbye,” he said.

When Vogel launched the Commercial Theater Institute, based in New York City, he wanted to provide theater insiders with a place to network and to help them understand the increasingly unwieldy way theater productions are financed.

Over time, the three-day seminars and 14-week classes became seen as an unofficial must-have certification course for serious producers.

The institute counts many accomplished producers among its alumni, including Kevin McCollum, who co-produced “Rent” on Broadway, and Nick Scandalios, the executive vice president of the Nederlander Organization, which owns nine Broadway theaters.

In a statement, Gerald Schoenfeld, chairman of the Shubert Organization, which owns or operates 16 theaters on Broadway, called Vogel “a dear friend” who was “a pioneer in education for aspiring theater professionals.”

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Vogel was the youngest of four children of Stanley, an entrepreneur, and Elizabeth. The obfuscation of his age extends to voting records, which reflect a birth date of March 20, 1936. That would have made him a terribly young Navy ensign during World War II, when he served in Japan.

Though the war interrupted his education, he returned to earn a bachelor’s degree in arts and letters from Pennsylvania State University in 1948, a university spokeswoman confirmed Friday.

His career in the theater began when he started appearing in stage shows at 9. By the early 1950s, he sang and acted in minor parts on Broadway. He segued to off-stage roles, working as a stage manager, box office treasurer and general manager for summer stock, national tours and Broadway.

Over the last 30 years, Vogel invested in about 50 shows, including hits (“Same Time, Next Year” had a three-year run in the 1970s) and flops (“Marlene” lasted three weeks in 1999).

Following his own classroom advice regarding the importance of relationship-building, Vogel preferred to stick with a particular producer over time.

Vogel’s final Broadway credit was as a producer of “Enchanted April,” which ran for four months in 2003 and received a Tony nomination for best play.

A producer to the end, the whimsical Vogel wrote a final directive in one of his last notes to his family: “This is to express my rights to still be in charge following my death.”

In addition to his niece, Vogel is survived by a sister, Naomi V. Zitin of Philadelphia, and two nephews.