Lynne Meadow will step aside after a 53-year run as artistic director of the highly influential Manhattan Theatre Club that included guiding shows by such playwrights as Christopher Durang, John Guare, Beth Henley, Terrence McNally, Eureka Day‘s Jonathan Spector and many others.
Meadow will continue her longtime association with MTC, which stages both Broadway and Off Broadway productions, by serving in a new role of Artistic Advisor. MTC’s Board of Directors will work with an external search firm to identify a new artistic director. A projected timeline was not disclosed.
“I have loved and cherished creating my theatre,” said Meadow in a statement, “and I have dedicated myself, for over 50 years, to welcoming and working with the greatest talent in every aspect of our institution. It was my dream when I started in 1972 off-off-Broadway that the Manhattan Theatre Club would become a landmark in New York City. I am immensely proud of the extraordinary body of work so many gifted artists have built together, and I am looking forward to helping to continue the legacy of this great organization under the leadership of its new artistic director.”
Under Meadow’s stewardship, MTC has produced over 600 world, American, New York and Broadway premieres, including 61 shows at its Broadway home, now named the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Awards earned include seven Pulitzer Prizes and 31 Tony Awards, including this year’s Best Revival of a Play for Eureka Day.
“For over five decades, Lynne has been an incredible force, not just at Manhattan Theatre Club but in the American theatre,” said David C. Hodgson, the Chairman of Manhattan Theatre Club’s Board of Directors. “She has given us so many gifts, in the immense body of work MTC has produced and the many artists she has nurtured. The Board and I are very grateful for all the hard work she did to make her brilliant vision a reality. We are looking forward to MTC’s next act and are thrilled that Lynne will continue to advise us in the years to come.”
MTC’s Executive Director Chris Jennings, who joined Meadow in today’s announcement, will partner with MTC’s new artistic director to helm the company. “It has been an immense honor and joy to be Lynne Meadow’s partner for the last two years,” Jennings said. “As a longtime admirer of hers, getting the opportunity to work alongside this theatre icon has only exceeded my wildest dreams. I am thrilled that she will continue to support a new artistic director and me as we continue to build on Lynne and Barry Grove’s remarkable legacy.”
Meadow was named artistic/executive director of the fledgling nonprofit Manhattan Theatre Club in 1972. Her mission statement was to work with living American and international playwrights as a director and a producer, to present their plays at various stages of development, and to attract top-level stage talent.
MTC originally occupied three floors of the Bohemian National Hall on East 73rd Street, which included a 150-seat proscenium theatre, a 100-seat cabaret and rehearsal studios. In 1984, after the company’s first 10 years, she and partner Barry Grove (whom she hired in 1975) moved MTC’s home base to New York City Center, where MTC continues to produce work on two stages.
Nearly two decades later, they broke ground at Broadway’s Biltmore Theatre, which they opened in 2003 and renamed the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (after a beloved Broadway press agent who died in 1974).
The search for a new artistic directorr will be conducted by Spencer Stuart.
Here is a sampling of MTC productions under Meadows’ stewardship:
1972: Yale Cabaret’s Bethlehem Steel with Meryl Streep
1972: Christopher Durang and Albert Innaurato’s I Don’t Generally Like Poetry But Have You Read “Trees”?
1973: Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s opera The Little Mahagonny directed by Michael Posnick
1978: Murray Horwitz and Richard Maltby, Jr.’s Ain’t Misbehavin’ directed by Richard Maltby, Jr. with Irene Cara, Nell Carter, André de Shields, Armelia McQueen and Ken Page
1980: Beth Henley’s Crimes of the Heart directed by Melvin Bernhardt with Mary Beth Hurt and Peter MacNicol
1981: Brian Friel’s Translations directed by Joe Dowling with Barnard Hughes
1989: Terrence McNally’s The Lisbon Traviata directed by John Tillinger with Anthony Heald, Nathan Lane and John Slattery
1990: August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson directed by Lloyd Richards with Samuel L. Jackson
1988: Richard Greenberg’s Eastern Standard directed by Michael Engler with Patricia Clarkson and Anne Meara
1991: Terrence McNally’s Lips Together, Teeth Apart directed by John Tillinger with Christine Baranski, Anthony Heald, Nathan Lane and Swoosie Kurtz
1993: Stephen Sondheim’s Putting it Together directed by Julia McKenzie with Julie Andrews and Christopher Durang
1993: Donald Margulies’ The Loman Family Picnic directed by Lynne Meadow with Christine Baranski and Peter Friedman
1994: Terrence McNally’s Love! Valour! Compassion! directed by Joe Mantello with John Glover, Anthony Heald, John Benjamin Hickey and Nathan Lane
1995: A.R. Gurney’s Sylvia directed by John Tillinger with Blythe Danner and Sarah Jessica Parker
1999: David Lindsay-Abaire’s Fuddy Meers directed by David Petrarca with Patrick Breen, Mark McKinney and J. Smith-Cameron
2000: Charles Busch’s The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife directed by Lynne Meadow with Linda Lavin, Michele Lee and Tony Roberts
2000: David Auburn’s Proof directed by Daniel Sullivan with Larry Bryggman, Johanna Day, Mary-Louise Parker and Ben Shenkman
2004: Donald Margulies’ Sight Unseen directed by Daniel Sullivan with Laura Linney and Ben Shenkman
2004: John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt directed by Doug Hughes with Heather Goldenhersh, Cherry Jones, Adriane Lenox and Brían F. O’Byrne
2009: Richard Greenberg’s The American Plan directed by David Grindley with Lily Rabe and Mercedes Ruehl
2015: Nick Payne’s Constellations directed by Michael Longhurst with Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson
2016: Prodigal Son written and directed by John Patrick Shanley with Timothée Chalamet and Robert Sean Leonard
2017: August Wilson’s Jitney directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson with André Holland and John Douglas Thompson
2022: Joshua Harmon’s Prayer for the French Republic directed by David Cromer
2023: Jocelyn Bioh’s Jaja’s African Hair Braiding directed by Whitney White
2024: Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day directed by Anna D. Shapiro with Jessica Hecht and Bill Irwin
2025: Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends directed by Matthew Bourne with Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga
