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Our thoughts are with Bernadette Peters and the Wittenberg family.
TRAGIC END TO A PERFECT LOVE TALE
By Michael Riedel
The husbands of major Broadway stars often fall into two categories.
One type is a Svengali-like manipulator who drives hard bargains with producers and stage-manages every aspect of his famous spouse's public image.
The other is quiet and supportive, bemused by the zaniness of life in the theater, content to stand just outside the spotlight in which his wife basks.
Michael Wittenberg, the husband of Bernadette Peters, belonged firmly in the second camp.
"He was a delightful and lovely man who thought we were all a little weird in show business," said Barry Weissler, who, with his wife, Fran, produced the 1999 revival of "Annie Get Your Gun." The show won Peters a second Tony Award.
Wittenberg, a 43-year-old investment adviser, was killed with three others in a helicopter crash Monday in the Balkan nation of Montenegro, where he was inspecting properties.
The theater world was stunned and grieved over the tragedy, which hit one of its most beloved performers. "They were such a terrific couple, and I'm heartsick that this has happened," Barry Weissler said.
Fran Weissler added, "We had many lunches and dinners with Michael and Bernadette during 'Annie Get Your Gun,' and they were always a pleasure. Michael was smart, opinionated and completely supportive of Bernadette and her career."
Peters, 57, rushed to Long Island yesterday to be with Wittenberg's family, friends told The Post.
The actress was distraught but "holding it together," one person said.
Peters and Wittenberg, who were married in 1996, were not one of Broadway's high-profile, glamorous couples.
They were guarded about their personal lives, and were seldom seen on the New York theater circuit, preferring to spend as much time as they could alone together in their penthouse apartment on the Upper West Side.
They did not have children, but lavished much love and care on their two dogs, a pit bull named Stella and a mixed terrier named Kramer (after the Seinfeld character), which they had adopted.
Their marriage, friends say, was strong and happy.
Peters herself called the marriage "a secure, rooted place" that "allows me to branch out."
In a scene that could have been drawn from a Neil Simon romantic comedy, Peters and Wittenberg met one night outside her apartment.
She was waiting for a date; he was dressed in tuxedo on his way to a charity event.
"So he walked up to me, a stranger, and said, 'Are we ready to go?' How's that for confidence and a sense of humor?" she recalled.
At the time, Wittenberg, nearly 14 years her junior, was a respected portfolio manager for Salomon Smith Barney.
Peters, a gentle, red-headed beauty who has always looked at least 10 years younger than her age, was single.
She had not been publicly linked to anyone since a four-year relationship with Steve Martin ended in the early 1980s.
A person who worked with her on the Broadway show "Song and Dance" in 1985 said she kept her romantic life to herself.
"You never heard anything about who she was dating," he said.
Friends of Peters say that, like many performers who achieve Broadway superstardom, the actress was married to her career, perhaps, some worried, at the cost of a family.
And so they were delighted when the handsome, dark-haired, athletic Wittenberg walked into her life.
Not long after their romantic sidewalk meeting, they were married at the Dutchess County farm of Peters' best friend, Mary Tyler Moore.
The couple had fun together.
Miami was a favorite vacation spot, and during a two-week break from the run of "Annie Get Your Gun," they took up salsa dancing.
"We took lessons in the daytime and danced almost every night," Peters said. "At the end [of the vacation], we were exhausted."
When they got back, Wittenberg went straight to the phone book "to look for dance places in New York," Peters added.
When she was out of town with a show, Wittenberg was often at her side.
Unlike some spouses, he never kept clear of the off-stage drama.
During the rocky tryout of "Annie Get Your Gun," when nearly everybody in and around the show had an opinion about what was wrong and how to fix it, Wittenberg was a steady, calming presence.
In New York, during the run of "Gypsy," in which Peters played Mama Rose, Wittenberg often hung out backstage, buying sushi dinners with his wife for the cast and crew.
Theater people hoped that the tragic and sudden death of her husband would not put an end to Peters' great Broadway career.
"It is my hope," Weissler said, "that we'll be able to do another show with her one day. She is a great star and a wonderful person."
* * *
Michael Wittenberg, husband of Bernadette Peters, died on September 27 in a helicopter crash in the small European country of Montenegro. He was approximately 43 years old. According to B92, a Bosnian news service, Wittenberg was one of four people that died in the crash, which was thought to be caused by the helicopter's rotor blade striking a power line.
Broadway star Peters married Wittenberg, an investment advisor, on July 20, 1996 at the home of friend Mary Tyler Moore. She told the Philadelphia City Paper in 2000 that she met her future husband in front of her Manhattan apartment building one night, as she was waiting for a date that was late. "Michael was on his way to a charity event and was in a tuxedo," she remembered. "So he walked up to me, a stranger, and said: 'Are you ready to go?' How's that for a sense of confidence and a sense of humor?"
Both Wittenberg and Peters were involved in the animal rescue charity Broadway Barks. They couple did not have any children.
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