Late Santa Rosa man subject of New York Watergate musical 'Mark Felt, Superstar'

“Mark Felt, Superstar,” based on the life of the former Watergate whistleblower known as Deep Throat, who died at his Santa Rosa home in 2008, will open Off Broadway in January.

Felt, a high-ranking FBI official, leaked information to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodword about the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building in Washington, D.C.

Investigative reporting by Woodward and Carl Bernstein, based on Felt’s information, ultimately led to President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974.

After his retirement, Felt lived quietly with his daughter Joan in Santa Rosa until 2005, when an ailing Felt confirmed through his daughter that he was Deep Throat, a name borrowed from a popular pornographic movie of the ’70s.

The musical, with book, music and lyrics by Joshua Rosenblum, will run Jan. 7-15 as part of the “New2NY Series” at the York Theatre Company. The play previously had a four-performance preview last April at The Triad’s Stage 72 theater, also Off Broadway.

Rosenblum has shown interest in musicals based on politics in the past, previously creating “Bush Is Bad,” which ran for a year and a half at the Triad.

Felt died at home of congestive heart failure at age 95. In January of 2009, Woodward spoke at public memorial in Santa Rosa, saying, “Thank God for Mark Felt.”