His Theater Career Soared Like a Balloon, Filled With Hot Air

Christopher Massimine found success as a theater executive in New York and Utah, but now he faces questions about errors on his résumé, a fictitious degree and a phony award.

If theatrical matchmakers had been asked to recommend someone to remake the National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene, a small nonprofit with a niche audience, into the buzzy producer of an Off Broadway hit, Christopher Massimine might not have been first on a yenta’s list. In 2012, when Massimine became an executive with the century-old theater that produces shows for a largely older audience, he was a 26-year-old Italian American Catholic with limited experience as a theatrical administrator and even less with Yiddish. But when he left seven years later, the Folksbiene’s “Fiddler on the Roof,” directed by Joel Grey, was moving from its own theater, within the Museum of Jewish Heritage, to Stage 42, one of Off Broadway’s largest venues. The show had already enjoyed a sold-out run at the museum, and the theater’s revenue had more than doubled in a year to nearly $5 million.