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NEW YORK - Doris Cole Abrahams, a theatrical producer who helped bring Peter Shaffer's "Equus" and Tom Stoppard's "Travesties" to Broadway, died of heart failure on Feb. 17 in Manhattan, where she lived. She was 88, said her daughter Carole Abrahams.
Ms. Abrahams, with one Broadway production under her belt at 24, took her zeal for the theater with her when she left New York for London in 1946 with her British husband, Gerald M. Abrahams, the chairman of the raincoat company Aquascutum.
After producing lavish parties for her husband's clients and friends, she found her way back to theater by joining Oscar Lewenstein Productions, and was involved with plays such as "Billy Liar" and "Luther," both with Albert Finney, and "Semi-Detached," with Laurence Olivier.
In the mid-1960s she formed her own company, Albion Productions, which mounted eight plays in the West End, including Stoppard's "Enter a Free Man" and "Travesties," and a revival of the 18th-century play "Wild Oats," with a young Jeremy Irons in the cast.
In 1974, teaming with Kermit Bloomgarden, Ms. Abrahams brought "Equus" to the Plymouth Theater, with Anthony Hopkins in the role of the psychiatrist who treats a disturbed teenager fixated on horses. It won Tony Awards for best play and best director of a dramatic play (John Dexter).
"Travesties," which she brought to Broadway with David Merrick and Burry Fredrik in 1975, won a Tony for best play.
Doris Cole was born in the Bronx and grew up in Manhattan and Brookline, Mass. Her father was a magician, and her parents ran a magic shop.
Bitten hard by the theater bug, she started out sweeping stage floors and acting in summer stock. After setting up as an agent while still in her teens, she went on to co-produce "Blue Holiday," an all-black revue with Ethel Waters and Josh White, at the Belasco Theater on Broadway in 1945.
Marriage to Gerald Abrahams suspended her theatrical career for a time. He died in 1999. In addition to her daughter Carole, of Sebastian, Fla., she leaves another daughter, Linda Abrahams of Manhattan; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
After "Equus," Ms. Abrahams returned to New York and shuttled back and forth to London, bringing plays like such as Mary O'Malley's "Once a Catholic" to Broadway and producing for regional theaters. With Fredrik and Leon S. Becker, she also produced "To Grandmother's House We Go" on Broadway in the early 1980s.
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