Matt Polk got his first glimpse of Devin Keudell one day in the early 2000s, when Mr. Keudell was standing in a doorway at the Broadway League’s Spring Road Conference, an annual industry conference for theater on Broadway and across the country held at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan.
“It was a pretty innocuous moment, though I did file away his image in the back of my mind,” said Mr. Polk, 45, a New York press agent for Broadway Theater who founded Polk & Company. He graduated from Syracuse University.
It wasn’t until 2007 when Mr. Keudell walked through a doorway again in the direction of Mr. Polk. This was at the Winter Garden Theater in Manhattan, where Mr. Keudell was already working as the general manager of the Broadway musical, “Mamma Mia!”
“I remember that meeting, though not as vividly as Matt,” said Mr. Keudell, 56, a general manager for Broadway theatrical productions in New York. He is an owner and a partner in Bespoke Theatricals. He graduated from Portland State University.
“I remember being introduced to Matt and watching him run around like the Energizer Bunny,” said Mr. Keudell, laughing. “He had an endless amount of energy.”
“And there was something else I remember,” Mr. Keudell added. “I noticed he had a twinkle in his eye.”
That twinkle faded in the ensuing years, but began to shine bright once more in 2013, when Mr. Polk, who now had his own business, called Mr. Keudell and “asked him for a professional meet-and-greet,” as Mr. Polk put it, for “a time and place where I could pick his brain about the entire industry.”
They had their meeting, and Mr. Polk described Mr. Keudell as being “very encouraging and supportive.”
But then came the chance of a lifetime, the opportunity for both men to work together on a show, “Rocky the Musical,” at the Winter Garden Theater. It was a chance to combine their talents for the first time in their long careers.
“We established a friendship during the show,” Mr. Polk said. “We would go out for dinner once a month or so and see each other at the theater.”
Across the years, Mr. Polk said he had come to compartmentalize Mr. Keudell “in a friendship category.”
But he soon found out that you cannot keep a good man “compartmentalized forever.”
In June 2016, they decided to attend a Tony Award party together, and when several friends found out about it, they encouraged Mr. Polk to date Mr. Keudell.
At their next dinner together, Mr. Polk was ready to cross the friendship line with Mr. Keudell, until Mr. Keudell began chatting about people he dated.
Mr. Polk was shaken, as Mr. Keudell excused himself for a trip to the bathroom. Mr. Polk, abandoning ship, asked for the check, but Mr. Keudell returned to their table before it arrived, and slid into his chair and said to Mr. Polk, “You know, I’ve always wanted to date you.”
The sparkle was back. “I took his hand at the table and said I would very much like to date him, and that’s when we began our relationship,” Mr. Polk said. “The relationship moved quickly, because we had already established such a close friendship, it was easy to transition with a foundation of trust.”
The couple eloped on Nov. 20 with Rabbi Robin Sparr officiating in a courtyard on Commercial Street in Provincetown, Mass.
They had originally intended to marry May 24 at Elder Hall, an event space in Portland, Ore., before 28 guests that would have included Mr. Keudell’s parents, Molly and Ken Keudell of Portland, and Mr. Polk’s parents, Renee Peppercorn and David Polk of Cleveland.
Shortly after the couple married, Mr. Polk was asked how he and Mr. Keudell are dealing with the fact that Broadway remains dark as the coronavirus continues to disrupt.
“As general manager, Devin is focused on the development of new Broadway productions for when Broadway reopens, as well as making sure that his existing Broadway productions will be ready to reopen when Broadway resumes.
“I’m focused on managing the brands of the Broadway productions he is working on while the shows are in suspension,” Mr. Polk said in an email, adding that his office is also continuing to work on a variety of film and streaming projects.
