Richard H. Steiner, a Broadway theatrical producer, earned his MBA in 1970. His Broadways career began in 1985 when he launched his first musical, Big River, based on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, with music and lyrics by country music's "King of the Road" Roger Miller. It won seven Tony awards, including Best Musical.
In 1987 Steiner coproduced Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods, followed in 1991 by The Secret Garden, based on the classic children's book by Frances Hodgson Burnett. In 1995 the musical revue Smokey Joe's Café opened on Broadway and ran for five years. It is Broadway's longest running musical revue and won the 1996 Grammy for Best Musical Show Album. His next two musicals both won Best Musical at the Tony awards: The Producers, which opened in 2001 and captured a record twelve Tonys, and Hairspray, which opened in 2003 and received a total of eight.
Steiner also coproduced the 2002 Pulitzer Prize–winning play, Topdog/Underdog, as well as the 2003 revival of Little Shop of Horrors. First-class productions of Big River, The Producers, Hairspray and Little Shop of Horrors continue to be seen around the globe.