Gerald Schoenfeld is by most accounts “the most powerful person in American theater. A round, wryly funny man whose formal manner seems held over from another era, Mr. Schoenfeld is the chairman of the Shubert Organization, the largest Broadway theater chain. He took over sole leadership of the organization in 1996, when Bernard B. Jacobs, its president, died at the age of 80. Now that Mr. Schoenfeld is in his 10th year in that role and his ninth decade on the planet, his succession and what it means for Broadway remains a dominant mystery in an industry famed for its uncertainties.”