If 2001 was the year in which Sept. 11 shattered our dreams for the new millennium, 2002 was the year in which recovery took center stage. It wasn't easy. The psychological, economic, and artistic aftereffects of the attacks will likely linger for years to come. But for all the media chatter about resilience in the face of tragedy, the theatre truly learned in 2002 what a powerful bounce-back could look like. Hundreds of grants totaling millions of dollars helped struggling Off- and Off-Off-Broadway nonprofits, while the 2001-02 Broadway season ended with less alarming grosses than first feared. Indeed, by year's end, a few weeks of record-breaking box office seemed ordinary.
Whether one measures recovery by statistics or state of soul, part of the healing from Sept. 11 during 2003 will also come from watching the industry continue to focus on its long-term health. This also won't be easy. But looking back at the 2002 news, it's clear there is beginning to be an awareness that we, as a community, have an inextinguishable stake in each other's well being. And it's in that beginning that there is hope-for a more prosperous, intelligent, and popular theatre than the one we knew before.
Heralding the Headlines
January: The Loews Corporation announces "The Gift of New York," offering over 150,000 tickets to Broadway and Off-Broadway shows (plus museums, zoos, and baseball games) to over 30,000 family members victimized by Sept. 11. The initiative contrasts with a League of American Theatres and Producers program, "Spend Your Regards to Broadway," rewarding consumers with $500 in retail receipts with pairs of Broadway show tickets. (Off-Broadway was excluded from participation.) Another League effort, "Season of Savings," meanwhile, included Off-Broadway, but asked participating productions to pay to partake. The League releases "Who Goes to Broadway?," an annual report on Main Stem demographics, while Off-Broadway suffers another setback: "The Fantasticks," after 17,162 performances, rings its final curtain down.
At the National Arts Club, an NYC Dept. of Finance raid spotlights the alleged fiscal improprieties of President O. Aldon James, while, in another legal case, cabaret producer John Jerome, a.k.a. John Loan, is charged with embezzling millions from Alliance Capital, where he worked as events manager, and using the funds to produce and promote CDs of various vocalists.
February: Actors' Equity exits the National Broadway Tour Awards, protesting the League's efforts to honor union and nonunion productions equally; AEA "strongly" urges a membership boycott. At the box office, "Spend Your Regards" is a hit: 50,000 tickets at $50 a piece go like hotcakes as hundreds redeem receipts for tickets. Marketing is also on tap at the 45th annual APAP (Association of Performing Arts Presenters) conference. President and CEO Sandra Gibson focuses the confab on how presenters "target" markets; the event climaxes with the Broadway Festival, with numbers from 13 musicals at Town Hall.
On Staten Island, a $125 million movie complex, Stapleton Studio, is announced, while on West 42nd Street, the reopening of Theatre Row nears; the complex soon once more becomes an Off-Broadway centrifugal force. Next door, a pit is dug where Playwrights Horizons will rise anew; down the block, the Shubert Organization's 499-seater-the Little Shubert-continues construction. The Roundabout Theatre Company announces its purchase of Studio 54, and, at the Players Club, a six-year spat with the Hampden-Booth Theatre Library is resolved. At Columbia University, "Who Pays for the Arts?" examines how recession and Sept. 11 affected arts and culture in the nonprofit sector.
March: Tony Randall's National Actors Theatre announces a move to the 655-seat Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University, with plans for an autumn-time "40-week, multi-production season." Off-Off-Broadway, TOSOS II, a new incarnation of NYC's first gay theatre company, launches an ambitious reading series, while Westbeth Theatre Center announces it is fleeing from its Bank Street home after failing to reach accord with its landlord.
In the third film-related real estate item in three months, Studio City New York, a 15-story, $375 million movie complex, is unveiled for Midtown's far west side. At the financially troubled Crossroads Theatre Company, Tony Award-winner George Faison becomes acting artistic director, promising the venue can "rise again." More real estate news: Symphony Space reopens after a $12 million, multi-year renovation, and the artist-residents of a building co-owned by "Fiddler on the Roof" wordsmith Sheldon Harnick go public with a warrant of habitability lawsuit.
DowntownNYC! releases "Snapshot Survey of Economic Loss and Job Loss," a study devoted to Sept. 11's effects on life below 14th Street. The report's pessimistic statistics partly prompt the League to announce the return to NYC of 44% of the $2.5 million in subsidies it received for "Spend Your Regards," which the Bloomberg administration speedily re-channels to Off- and Off-Off-Broadway companies. Elsewhere, the NYC International Fringe Festival announces a 50% application rise, while the Pew Charitable Trusts announces a three-year, $2.7 dollar program to solicit audience's opinions.
April: Sheldon Harnick and his building co-owners reach a settlement with rent-striking tenants; days later, they announce the building's sale. In another legal case, John Jerome, a.k.a. John Loan, remains at Riker's Island. With his bail set at $1 million, his embezzlement trial is slated for later in the month. Then, unexpectedly, he pleads guilty and an early May sentencing date is set. Further impugning the National Broadway Touring Awards, AEA sends membership memos again criticizing the honors. And speaking of national stages, U.S. Sens. Schumer and Hatch introduce legislation granting collective-bargaining rights to playwrights. Dance Theatre Workshop's state-of-the-art, 27,000-square-foot digs nears completion, and on Broadway, Henry Goodman, Nathan Lane's much-ballyhooed replacement in "The Producers," is fired; Brad Oscar takes over with dispatch.
May: Main Stem box office fluctuates, often wildly, with Tony nominations having a huge effect on some shows and no effect on others. Money also talks: The Shubert Organization announces the Winter Garden has been renamed the Cadillac Winter Garden after signing of a "multimillion-dollar, multi-year" agreement with General Motors. At last, the National Broadway Touring Awards go forth, but none of the 17 actors attend the event, honoring AEA's boycott. Downtown, the $7.6 million River to River Festival is announced, with 1,500 artists and performers to be seen-free-in over 20 summertime venues.
June: The Tonys beget bitterness: The Post reports a letter from "Sweet Smell of Success" producer David Brown, accusing journalists of "undermining" the show. In more upbeat news, while Sept. 11 impacted on box office for the season just ended, totals were just 3% under 2000-01. And Dodger/Stage Holding announces negotiations to convert a Midtown Loews Cineplex Odeon into a five-venue Off-Broadway complex. From journalism, two stories: Playbill acquires Stagebill, and Clear Channel Entertainment, the behemoth showbiz conglomerate, announces Show People, a new quarterly, for September. Nationally, an Americans for the Arts study, "Arts & Economic Prosperity: The Economic Impact of Nonprofit Arts Organizations and Their Audiences," shows nonprofit companies generating $134 billion in annual economic activity. Two other surveys follow: "Giving USA," from the American Association of Fundraising Counsel, finding that Americans gave $212 billion to charity in 2001, and the Foundation Center's "Arts Funding Update," indicating that American arts and culture topped $3.7 billion in 2000.
July/August: A proposal for new means of egress at PATH stations generates opposition; the Lucille Lortel Foundation, owner of its namesake's theatre, joins the effort. Later, Port Authority re-reviews the proposal. In its biannual study assessing Broadway's impact on NYC's economy, the League shows the Main Stem contributed $4.2 billion to the city's well being during the 2000-01 season (Sept. 11 isn't included). Less heartening news from Theatre Communications Group (TCG): The annual "Theatre Facts" finds half of all member nonprofits running a deficit. At TDF, two stories: an increase in ticket subsidies (from $4 to $8 per), and their downtown TKTS booth, destroyed Sept. 11, reopens near the South Street Seaport. Summertime swings: Off-Off-Broadway booms with the 27th annual Samuel French Short Play Festival, the Fringe Festival gearing up, and, Off-Broadway, Cocteau Rep announcing its inaugural Equity contract. Another post-Sept. 11 study, "Creative Downtown," recommends ways for culture to stay vital, while uptown, the Broadway Inner Circle, hawking megabuck Main Stem tickets, adds even more shows to its roster. Back downtown, the Fringe flaunts a $100,000 ticket advance, while uptown, at New York Magazine, its controversial dance critic gets canned, prompting an industry outcry. Meanwhile, a Harlem councilman announces a bill banning cell phones in public gathering spots as the League announces "Season of Savings" discounts for the fall, and Washington Mutual Bank announces a 28,000-ducat buy for a Nov. 16 "Spotlight on Teachers."
September: Following "Hairspray" 's success, the show's erstwhile director, Rob Marshall, ponders suing for a piece of the profit pie. On the Upper West Side, an Equity actor and his costume designer wife sue Gov. Pataki, seeking nullification of key aspects of housing laws. In a second Pataki story, rules governing what nonprofits do to get NYS financial assistance for capital projects are eased. After speculation, the National Actors Theatre, now at Pace University, announces operations under a LORT B contract, making Brecht's "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui," starring Al Pacino, its first show in its new digs. Uptown, Mayor Bloomberg agrees to let the NFL season kickoff into Times Square; producers change curtain times to 8:30 pm (and the NFL donates millions to NYC). Two more Sept. 11 reports: "Artists Under Siege," examining how the attacks hurt artists, and "Assessing the Post-9/11 Funding Environment," spotlighting how philanthropy was affected. On Broadway, the Tony nominating committee clarifies what is a "new" work, owing to the controversy over "Fortune's Fool," Turgenev's century-old stage work. At A.R.T./NY's new 520 Eighth Ave. space, 21 nonprofits move in, yet north of there, Theatre-Studio faces eviction.
October: New playhouses proliferate, and Back Stage considers the "Building Boom." The same week, Rocco Landesman, president of the Jujamcyn Organization, announces the Martin Beck Theatre will be the Al Hirschfeld come June 21, the caricaturist's centenary. After announcing its departure, the Mint Theater announces it will stay on West 43rd Street; The Directors Company will also remain. One vacancy averted, another announced: Cameron Mackintosh says "Les Miserables" will close on March 15, after 6,612 performances. Stage diva and screen legend Arlene Dahl discloses the Broadway Walk of Fame; Carol Channing will be stepped on first. More screen news: Stapleton Studio stumbles when NYC demands the cinematic start-up scamper from its Staten Island home; a lawsuit follows. And speaking of laws, AEA officials testify at City Hall in favor of a cell-phone ban while Mayor's office officials speak against. Performance artist Penny Arcade runs for a State Senate seat on the Green Party line, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater parties to honor its gala groundbreaking for its new Ninth Avenue headquarters. Finally, three Broadway producers separately announce new regional theatre acquisitions, while, at the Crossroads Theatre, a new president is named.
November: After the Moscow theatre hostage tragedy, NYC venue security gets scrutinized. Recovery is a priority at C.W. Shaver & Co., which wins a contract to unclog Sept. 11-related funding to those still in need. Dixon Place, forced to leave its East Side digs, would also seem to need new quarters, but it's returning to its old Bowery spot. In one of Canadian law enforcement's biggest cases, Livent founders Garth Drabinsky and Myron Gottlieb face 19 counts of fraud, but bail is set at a not-so-felonious $95,000 each. Fraud, fraud, everywhere: Breakdown Services talks about its illegal distribution dilemma, announcing additional measures to stop it. A.R.T./NY releases an annual report, detailing how the Mellon money millions moved about the metropolis. Participants in the Kennedy Center's Capacity Building Program begin working with minority-based groups to shore up funding, while "The Lion King" becomes the first Broadway show offering e-ticketing services. As 2002's penultimate month ended, a City Council committee endorsed a cell-phone ban, but lawyers for the Samuel Beckett estate resisted a revisionist "Godot."
December: Despite publicly castigating the Bloomberg administration, Stapleton Studio may be history. History is also made when Americans for the Arts learns that Ruth Lilly, pharmaceutical fortune heir, made an $87 million gift to the group. Even more fiscally boggling is an Internet sales tax-an idea whose time is near-and how it affects performing artists. Finally, looking at 2003, the 2002-03 season might feature 40 Broadway productions, a five-year high.
Prizes and Plaudits, Grants and Generosities
January: The Mellon Foundation becomes the first major philanthropic organization announcing a relief fund-$50 million-to help NYC "cultural and performing arts organizations" affected by Sept. 11. The Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A.R.T./NY), the American Music Center, and the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) all receiving $2.65 million as re-grant funding for smaller nonprofits. A week later, the Lucille Lortel Foundation flags a $1 million program to do the same thing. Finalists for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, given to women playwrights forging English-language stageworks, are announced.
February: The Carnegie Corp. announces grants from $25,000 to $100,000 for 137 cultural and arts organizations in each borough. Vartan Gregorian, Carnegie's president, admits an "anonymous donor" funded the $10 million effort. "Broadway Bears" raises $168,812 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA). The Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF) announces the 2002 Gielgud Fellowship recipients, and in Boston, the Huntington Theatre Company awards Jon Robin Baitz a new work commission. The T. Schreiber Studio gives Marian Seldes its fourth annual achievement award, and at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Richard Rodgers Development Awards go to "The Fabulist" and "The Tutor." Finally, the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA) names six plays as finalists for its New Play honor, a $15,000 prize.
March: The first wave of Mellon re-grant money begins flowing from A.R.T./NY. In cabaret, 31 MAC nominations are announced and, at the 17th annual Back Stage Bistro Awards, 28 artists have their ivories wildly tinkled. TCG names recipients for its Extended Collaboration Grants and Observership Program, with Mabou Mines a $33,000 winner. More honors: Theoni V. Aldredge receiving the 2002 Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award, and the National Medal of Arts going to the Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Judith Jamison, and Mike Nichols. Jason Robert Brown and Lori McKelvey receive the 12th annual Kleban Awards.
April: MAC Awards: Bucky Pizzarelli receives Lifetime Achievement, Karen Akers and Cabaret Scenes win Board of Governors Awards. On legit, Lucille Lortel Award nominations are released: "Urinetown," eight; "Metamorphoses," six, and "Elaine Stritch at Liberty," Ruby Dee, and Second Stage Theatre cop honors. Ultimately, "Metamorphoses" wins three, and "Urinetown," two. The Pulitzer Prize for Drama goes to Suzan-Lori Parks for "Topdog/Underdog," a day after the play moves to Broadway. Horton Foote's "The Carpetbagger's Children" receives the 2002 ATCA New Play Award, and then, the 52nd Outer Critics Circle Awards are out: "Oklahoma!," 10; "Thoroughly Modern Millie," eight; "Urinetown," six; "Into the Woods," four; "The Graduate," zip. The DCA awards $5 million in matching funds through its Cultural Challenge Program; New York Theatre Workshop and Brooklyn Academy of Music get $80,000 each. Awards season continues sizzling with nominations for the 68th annual Drama League Awards and the 21st annual TDF Astaire Awards, while, in philanthropy, the NEA gives $60,726,300 to 851 institutions nationwide; 200 grants worth $6 million go to NYC-based nonprofits.
May: Nominations for the 47th Drama Desk Awards: "Millie," 12; "Sweet Smell," 11. Ultimately, "The Goat" and "Metamorphoses" will win in a Best Play tie and "Millie" will be Best Musical. The Outer Critics give "Oklahoma!" five awards and "Urinetown" three. Its own awards now over, the Lortel Foundation announces 49 nonprofits to receive support from its $1 million relief fund. A smaller honor, a $2,000 Spencer Cherashore Fund grant, goes to Lola Pashalinski, so her play, "Gold Goes With Everything," can be completed. Back on Broadway, BC/EFA's Easter Bonnet competition nets $1.8 million and then, the Tony nominations: "Millie," 11; "Into the Woods" and "Urinetown," 10 apiece. The New York Drama Critics Circle names Edward Albee's "The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?" Best Play, and Elaine Stritch acquires a special citation for her solo show. The Drama League Awards gives "Metamorphoses" and "Urinetown" Best Play and Musical and then, sigh, more awards: 29 Obies go to 10 actors, two directors, four designers, and three playwrights, plus special citations, and at the Astaires, sigh, Susan Stroman is Best Choreographer for a third year. The 57th annual Theatre World Awards go to newborn Broadway babes, including Spencer Kayden of "Urinetown" and Louise Pitre of "Mamma Mia!"
June: At last, the Tonys: "Millie," six; "Urinetown," three. The surprise? John Rando as Director for "Urinetown." The Howard Gilman Foundation announces $3.2 million in grants to nonprofits and Broadway Bares XII, the annual naughty nudity night, nets BC/EFA $395,000. More Mellon money-over $700,000-comes from A.R.T./NY, with 58 nonprofits receiving assistance.
July/August: Christmas in July: 18 companies receive $65,000 from the JPMorgan Chase Regrant Program, another A.R.T./NY effort. Good tidings also erupt in Washington, D.C., when the Kennedy Center Honors spotlights James Earl Jones and Chita Rivera. The SDCF produces a weekend seminar, "Building the American Musical," boasting Hal Prince as its key interviewee. The first-ever International Festival of Musical Theatre in Cardiff, Wales, announces the choice of nine new musicals to be showcased: six of the shows are American, chosen out of 186 entries from 16 countries. NYFA finishes distributing $4.6 million in grants to 135 organizations and 352 individuals and the Hewes Design Awards announces a flotilla of nominees.
September: JPMorgan Chase announces yet another $4 million in grants to another 240 nonprofits and at the 16th annual BC/EFA Flea Market and Grand Auction, over $450,000 is raised. At the national level, the NEA awards 154 grants totaling $1.4 million through its "Challenge America" initiative, including nine New York State groups receiving $10,000 apiece. The New York Dance and Performance Awards-the Bessies-honor visual design, music, and performances, and Cornelius Eady wins Newsday's Oppenheimer Award for "Brutal Imagination."
October: The 2002 Kesselring Prize goes to Melissa James Gibson for "[sic]," which won an Obie in June. In another award, choreographer and performer Liz Lerman wins a MacArthur Fellowship, also called a "Genius Grant." TCG, with AT&T, announces funding for new plays; seven venues take OnStage Awards, and two playwrights receive Roger L. Stevens Awards for promising work. More TCG grants, in direction and design, go to five artists, and at the Artios Awards, Daniel Swee, Tara Rubin, and Jim Carnahan take top honors.
November: The SDCF selects Jack O'Brien for its 2002 Mr. Abbott Award and, uptown, the AUDELCO Awards makes "Harlem Song" whistle a happy tune, with seven honors. Statewide, Manhattan Theatre Club and the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA) receive Governor's Arts Awards, and Clint Eastwood snags the SAG Lifetime Achievement Award.
December: The American Theatre Wing announces yuletide largesse, sending nonprofits aloft with 48 grants and four scholarships at its 45th annual luncheon. The SDCF gives Bartlett Sher its 2002 Joe A. Callaway Award for direction, while, in the direction of musical theatre, the ASCAP Foundation gives Stephen Sondheim its annual Richard Rodgers Award. BC/EFA's Gypsy of the Year yields $2.6 million for BC/EFA.
Placements and Replacements
January: Veteran fundraiser Joy Cooper becomes director of development at TDF, vowing to "make people understand...the full range of TDF's activities." Douglas C. Evans, managing director of the Globe Theatre, resigns after 18 months to become executive director of Connecticut's Commission on the Arts, overseeing a $13 million endowment. Then comes the sudden death of Dr. Michael P. Hammond, the new chairman of the NEA.
February: Julia Hansen, president of the Drama League for over 20 years, retires; Patricia S. Follert, a member of the League's trustee board since 1994, is her replacement. Gordon Edelstein becomes the fourth artistic director in the history of Long Wharf Theatre, replacing acting A.D. Greg Leaming.
March: Sheila Biggs and Katherine Rosati, for 20 years artistic directors for the National Theatre of the Performing Arts, leave to pursue new interests. New interests were also on the minds of Don V. Cogman, Katherine Cramer DeWitt, David Gelernter, Teresa Lozano Long, Maribeth Walton McGinley, and Deedie Potter Rose-President Bush nominated them to the National Council on the Arts, the NEA's advisory body.
April: Robert Johanson, longtime artistic director of Paper Mill Playhouse, announces his departure as of July 31.
May: At Manhattan Theatre Club, James Pentecost becomes associate artistic director, Murphy Davis becomes director of artistic production, Paige Evans the director of play development, and Elizabeth Bennett, literary manager. At Primary Stages, Founder-Artistic Director Casey Childs announces Andrew Leynse as producing director as of May 13. (On Sept. 1, Childs becomes executive producer, the title he also holds at "All My Children.")
June: Judith Daykin, 10-year president and executive director of City Center, announces she will step down.
July/August: Mara Manus, 42, is the Public's new executive director, filling a slot vacated by former NYC official Fran Reiter. Another city organization-the Cultural Institutions Group-welcomes a new chairperson, Karen Brooks Hopkins, president of BAM. Broadway and Off-Broadway producer Robyn Goodman acquires a new title: Roundabout Theatre "artistic consultant."
September: The National Alliance of Musical Theatre (NAMT) taps Kathy Evans for executive director and Angel Rivera, ad industry executive, becomes SAG's national director of diversity/affirmative action.
November: Musical Theater Works names Thomas Cott the new artistic director, replacing Lonny Price, and at Paper Mill Playhouse, Angelo del Rossi resigns as president and chief executive officer.