If Broadway’s lights seemed a little dimmer yesterday, it was because we lost one of the most prolific and passionate Broadway Producers in a long while ever.

Jerry Frankel won 9 Tony’s, has an IBDB page a mile long and had a legion of fans in the biz thanks to his willingness to support new work (this is a guy who produced August Osage County and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) and his pull-no-punches, tell-it-like-it-is style.

That’s a rarity on Broadway, where it’s common for your friends and foes to put on their best actor face and tell you that everything is rosy. Jerry didn’t have time for that. And he also knew that anything but honesty doesn’t help anybody. So he just gave you the good stuff and the bad, like it or not.

I loved it. Especially since he was so dang smart (he was a very successful businessperson before he came into our world in the late 90’s).

I also loved how he knew the numbers like a GM, loved technology (we used to geek out about Adwords back in the mid-2000’s) and loved to gossip like a teen at times.

He was one of the theater’s greatest characters . . . and he’ll be missed.

Jerry, tell ’em what’s for up there, will ya?