Second Stage becomes the first Broadway nonprofit in decades to name a new leader
Theatre in the second phaseone of four nonprofits with Broadway homes, named a new artistic director Thursday as the industry prepares for a wave of leadership changes.
Second Stage, founded in 1979 and distinguished by its dedication to presenting the work of living American writers, said its board has selected Evan Cabnet as its next artistic director. Cabnet is currently the artistic director of LCT3Lincoln Center Theater’s program for emerging writers, directors and designers. Cabnet will succeed Carole Rothman, one of the theater’s founders, who has led the organization for 45 years and is stepping down in August.
Second Stage has a proud history of presenting critically acclaimed work, including the Pulitzer-winning shows “Between Riverside and Crazy,” “Water by the Spoonful” and “Next to Normal.” Its plays and musicals have won numerous other awards; most recently, the organization’s production of “Appropriate” won this year’s Tony Award for best play revival.
Second Stage owns Broadway’s smallest house, the 600-seat Hayes Theater. Like many nonprofit theaters, Second Stage has shrunk its footprint since the pandemic — letting go of its Off Off Broadway space on the Upper West Side and letting go of its Off Broadway location in Times Square at the end of this year, though it plans to do such work to continue producing in other spaces, starting next spring at the Pershing Square Signature Center. The organization currently has 47 employees and an annual budget of $27 million; this season it plans to stage two Broadway shows, two Off Broadway shows and a Next Stage Festival for early career work.
The leadership of Broadway’s four nonprofits has remained unchanged for decades, and the industry is watching closely to see how a new generation of leaders might differ from their predecessors. Two of the other nonprofits will also be looking for new artistic leaders: Lincoln Center Theater Artistic Director André Bishop is ending his 33-year tenure next spring, and Roundabout Theatre Company Artistic Director and CEO Todd Haimes died last year after 40 years with that organization. (Broadway’s fourth nonprofit, Manhattan Theatre Club, is led by Lynne Meadow, who has been that organization’s artistic director for 52 years.)
Cabnet, 46, was born in Philadelphia and has lived in New York since 1996. He currently lives in Brooklyn. He has led LCT3 since 2016; previously he was a freelance director and artistic collaborator at Roundabout. He starts his new job on September 1; the first season of shows he chooses will start in the fall of 2025. In an interview he talked about his plans; these are edited excerpts from the conversation.
Why did you want this job?
My commitment is and has always been to new work, and contemporary American work, and new voices, and the alignment of my personal mission with the mission of the institution felt like an extraordinarily good fit. I’m excited not only to work with new and emerging talent, but also to be a champion of more established writers, and to revive recent plays that are worth seeing.
Second Stage has had this commitment to living American writers. Do you plan to maintain this promise?
Yes. Carole’s legacy is extraordinary — it is unparalleled. And it is my hope, it is my job, it is my dream to uphold and honor that legacy. The mission remains the same.
I assume you did some due diligence before taking this role. What is your feeling about the health of Second Stage?
It is an exceptionally healthy organization.
But like many other nonprofits, they are doing fewer shows than before and have dropped the Off Broadway and Off Off Broadway stages.
Look, there are challenges in the nonprofit theater world. The first thing I always look at is the quality of the work on the stages – that’s always the most important thing – and if you look at what Second Stage has done, especially in the last few seasons, it’s extraordinary. And the truth is, theater has always had challenges – I don’t see it as more challenging than it was before the pandemic, it’s just a different set. [of challenges].
Should Second Stage have a permanent Off Broadway location?
The amount of moving parts that go into a decision like that involves information I don’t have yet. What I can say is that it’s less about real estate and more about what kind of work we produce, who the artists are that we champion, and what kind of audiences we welcome.
This will be your first job where you will be responsible for programming a Broadway stage.
It’s exciting. What we’ve learned recently is that there’s a real hunger for serious American plays on Broadway. I don’t say serious, as if they all have to be tragedies, but I mean formidable. We’ve proven that. And this is very much in line with what I’ve been doing for a long time.
Do you think Second Stage is becoming a primarily Broadway company, or what is your interest in the Off Broadway part of the business?
We treat all our initiatives equally. There are the established writers and the established plays that we will produce at the Hayes; there are mid-level artists or maybe emerging artists that we’re going to produce Off Broadway; and the Next Stage Festival will provide opportunities for writers who have never been produced at that level. We don’t play favorites. They are all most important and all receive equal attention.
Do you feel like the country is flooded with excellent work, so you have great options, or do you feel like a lot of nonprofits are struggling with a handful of excellent shows?
There are so many playwrights in America working at such an incredibly high level and we see it when we look at nonprofit seasons across the city — there is an abundance of wealth when it comes to great plays. But one extraordinary thing about Second Stage’s mission is its recent revival piece of the puzzle — “Appropriate” is a prime example. Over the last 20, 25 years we’ve seen so many incredible plays produced at institutions that, for whatever reason, had a short run or didn’t get the attention they deserved, and one of the things that Second Stage does well is is to give these plays new life so that they can take their place as part of the American canon.
What is your position on movie stars?
I always start with the play. We figure out who is the best person for the part, and we go from there. Sometimes it’s a famous actor, sometimes it’s not.
I associate you with plays. Second Stage has done a number of major musicals Off Broadway over the years [“Dear Evan Hansen,” “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” “Next to Normal”]Do you have a preference for that art form?
Absolute. I want to consider those projects and I want them to be part of the lifeblood of the organization moving forward, especially Off Broadway.
