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New York Times
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
After Hundreds of Shows and 15 Tonys, André Bishop Takes a Bow
André Bishop, the longtime producing artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater, could have chosen almost anything for the final Broadway production of his tenure. He's known for Golden Age musicals, and has a long history with new plays. But he opted to exit with 'Floyd Collins,' a dark and tragic 1996 musical about a trapped cave explorer. Why would anyone select that as their swan song? 'I just thought it's the kind of serious musical that I want to go out on, because everything in it is something that I believe, in terms of the musical theater,' he told me in an interview last week at his nearly empty office — nearly empty because he's been giving away his theater memorabilia after deciding he didn't want his home to turn into a museum. He donated his archives — 174 cartons of papers, photos and notebooks — to the Houghton Library at Harvard University, his alma mater. 'Now there would be some people who say, 'Why do you have to do all these sad shows? Why can't you do something toe-tapping?' Well, that's just not my nature,' he said. 'I felt that Floyd's looking for a perfect cave was very close to mine looking for a perfect theater — that somehow these theaters that I've worked in for 50 years were these perfect caves that I happened to stumble on." Bishop, 76, has spent the last 33 years running Lincoln Center Theater, which has a $50 million annual budget, 22,000 members, 65 full-time employees, two Off Broadway stages, and one Broadway house (the Vivian Beaumont). He programmed over 150 plays and musicals, 15 of which won Tony Awards, and then announced in 2023 that he would retire this summer; Monday was his last day on the job, and he is being succeeded by Lear deBessonet, the artistic director of the Encores! program at City Center. His departure is part of a wave of change at Broadway's nonprofits; all four of the nonprofits with Broadway houses are naming successors for artistic leaders with decades-long tenures. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
For 53 Years, She Led a New York Theater. Now She's Stepping Down.
Lynne Meadow, the last of the long-serving artistic directors who for decades led the four nonprofits with Broadway theaters, plans to step down from her current position, she said in an interview. Meadow, 78, has served as artistic director of Manhattan Theater Club since 1972, and by her own count has produced or presented more than 600 shows, making her one of the most prolific and successful figures in the American theater. Among the successes: the repeatedly extended Lynn Nottage play 'Ruined,' which won a Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2009, and Jonathan Spector's 'Eureka Day,' which won a Tony Award earlier this month. She said she will stay with the organization as an artistic adviser, but that a search for a new artistic director is already underway. Her move will follow that of André Bishop, whose 33-year run leading Lincoln Center Theater ends next week; Carole Rothman, who in 2023 ended a 45-year tenure atop Second Stage Theater; and Todd Haimes, who died in 2023 after running Roundabout Theater Company for 40 years. The departures mean that, after decades of constancy, a new generation of leaders will oversee the nonprofit presence on Broadway. These institutions, which together control six of the 41 Broadway theaters, over the years have been an important ballast for the industry, preserving a place for new plays, risky work and large-orchestra musical revivals during periods when those types of projects have been less appealing to commercial producers. 'I'm doing this because I feel that the timing is right to do this — there are things that I want to do,' Meadow said. 'I'm not tired, and I'm not bored, and I'm not depressed, but I'm excited for Chapter 2.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
