Broadway Singing Coach, 87, In Coma After Random Attack In Manhattan
The 87-year-old Broadway singing coach Barbara Maier Gustern remained in a coma Monday after a random attack outside her apartment in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood left her with serious brain trauma.
Gustern, who coached the cast of Daniel Fish’s acclaimed 2019 Broadway revival of Oklahoma!, was on her way to the Public Theater’s Joe’s Pub venue to watch the performance of a student last Thursday when she was shoved to the ground from behind by an unknown woman. Crime Stoppers NYPD released security images of the suspect, who police described as a female with long dark hair wearing a black jacket and a white skirt or dress.
No arrests have been made.
According to a Facebook message posted by Gustern’s grandson AJ Gustern, the coach and singer has been unconscious and intubated at Bellevue Medical Center since the night of the attack – she was briefly conscious when EMS arrived, and was able to provide a description of the attack – and was suffering from traumatic damage to the left side of her brain. “Should she awake, she will most likely suffer speech problems and may be unable to move her right side,” her grandson wrote. “It is a very serious injury.”
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Gustern, whose students have included playwright and actor Taylor Mac, performer Justin Vivian Bond and singer Debbie Harry, was rehearsing an upcoming cabaret show at her Chelsea apartment with her collaborators Barbara Bleier, Paul Greenwood and actor/playwright Austin Pendleton when she left to attend the Joe’s Pub concert. Bleir gave the following account on Facebook of what then happened:
At about 8:30 last night, Barbara, Austin Pendleton, Paul Greenwood and I finished a rehearsal for the show that we were to have this coming Sunday. The rehearsal was at Barbara’s home on West 28th Street. When we got downstairs, Barbara rushed out to get to a late show, Paul left, and Austin waited in the lobby with me for a car to come. Within a few minutes, there was a pounding on the lobby door, and a young man was helping a badly wounded and bleeding Barbara into the lobby. She, and the young man were able to tell us that she had been attacked by a woman, likely in her 30’s, and to describe the woman a bit. We called 911 for an ambulance, and Barbara was able to tell the EMS personnel her name, the date, etc. However, once in the ambulance, she became less coherent and began to lose consciousness. Once at the emergency center, tests were done and a brain bleed was diagnosed. She was taken to the nearest trauma center, and we were advised that we would not be allowed in due to COVID protocols. The neurosurgeon called me within the hour, and advised immediate surgery, since she was deemed in good enough health to endure the surgery, and pressure on the brain and further bleeding had to be prevented. They proceeded with surgery, and Barbara has gone from critical to stable condition at this point.
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