Norman S. Nadel, 1938
B.A., Denison University
New York
Citation awarded on Saturday, June 8, 1963
Norman Sanford Nadel is one of the nation’s most famous performing arts critics. His reviews, expressed with verve, humor, and discrimination, brought a new sense of values to theatre and music for his millions of readers and lecture patrons.
One of the “Unholy Seven,” as theatre critics of New York’s seven general circulation daily newspapers are known, he is the drama critic of the New York World-Telegram & Sun. An accomplished musician who plays all brass instruments, the piano, violin, and viola, he founded the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in 1940. As the writer of his widely-read theatre and music column in Ohio’s Columbus Citizen and Citizen-Journal for 14 years, Norman was the “voice” behind countless numbers of cultural projects in central Ohio. Attracting national attention early, he is the only drama critic to win the Variety Spotlight award for Outstanding Service to American Theatre. Highly in demand a lecturer, he averages 80 platform appearances from coast to coast each season.
