Biography of Mike Broemmel

Mike Broemmel is a prolific playwright whose work has been staged across the United States and internationally. During the past 20 years, over three dozen of his plays have been staged, many enjoying award recognition and long-running productions.

2025 and 2026 mark pivotal years in Broemmel’s career. In 2025, he premiered three major works: An Echoing Spring: A Story of Matthew Shepard, a poignant and unflinching exploration of Shepard’s life and legacy. Hailed as “a poetic, brilliant call to action,” the play confronts the tragedy of Shepard’s 1998 murder while illuminating the enduring fight for LGBTQ+ rights and human dignity. 

When Strawberries Bloom: The Creation of Golda Meir chronicles the extraordinary life of Israel’s first female prime minister, from her childhood in Kyiv to her years as a global stateswoman, and is slated for an Off-Broadway run. Critics have praised it as “sweeping, intimate, and urgently relevant.” 

Queen of the Painted Ladies, tells the life of Wild West madame Mattie Silks, premiered in the United States before traveling to Northern Ireland, where it was described as “raucous, poignant, and unforgettable.”

In 2026, Broemmel launches a Las Vegas theatre residency with Witness: The Life Story of Virginia Hill, a work critics have called “incisive and devastatingly human.” The residency will continue with plays centered on Meyer Lansky, Al Capone, and Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel. 

2026 also brings the premieres of An Unreachable Star, chronicling the life story of Connie Francis and called “a moving portrait of resilience and artistry,” Divinely, Alone: A Picnic with Divine, hailed as “an audacious tribute to a queer icon,” Vicious Circles & A Writer of Note: The Tempest of Dorothy Parker, praised in early presentations as “razor-sharp and achingly funny,” and cabaret, the life story of Christine Jorgensen, anticipated as “a groundbreaking theatrical reclamation.” 

The Wind Is Us: The Death that Killed Capote, which dramatizes the life and final days of Truman Capote, enters its fourth year of production in 2026, with performances including an international run in Northern Ireland. Audiences have called it “mesmerizing, chilling, and unforgettable.”

Earlier milestones in Broemmel’s career include Stand Still & Look Stupid, which was featured at Féile an Phobail, Northern Ireland’s largest arts festival, in 2019. The play has been described as “a masterwork of character and consequence.” His work has continued to gain international attention, with I’m Harvey Milk running Off-Broadway in 2023, a production hailed as “powerful, inspiring, and deeply human.” In 2024, a series of plays were staged at the Denver Performing Arts Complex alongside performances at the Imagine Belfast Festival, cementing his reputation as “one of the most compelling voices in contemporary theatre.”

Before his career in the arts, Mike began in the White House Office of Media Relations in the 1980s, also serving in the Office of the First Lady. He spent nearly a decade immersed in politics, working for notable elected officials and even running for office himself. 

His passion for the arts extended beyond writing—he chaired a metropolitan arts council for six years and led a statewide coalition of community arts agencies.

In addition to theatre, Mike is a novelist, short fiction writer, and biographer. Critics have called him “the 21st century’s answer to John Steinbeck at his most nitty-gritty.” His forthcoming nonfiction book, Death American Style: Rituals, Rites & Practices in the 21st Century, examines the ways Americans navigate death, mourning, and memorial in modern society. Drawing on history and its impact on contemporary practices, the book explores how cultural traditions, religious rites, and evolving social norms continue to shape the rituals of loss in the United States. In 2025, Broemmel also returned to writing feature and investigative articles for national magazines, extending his voice once again into the realm of long-form journalism.