Story of the Week: Lynne Meadow Steps Down as MTC Artistic Director After 53 Years

On Thursday, June 26, the New York theater community was jolted by a major announcement: Lynne Meadow, the longtime artistic director of Manhattan Theatre Club—one of Broadway and off-Broadway’s most esteemed nonprofit institutions—will step down from her role when a successor is found.

The news came as a surprise for one reason: Meadow has helmed the company for an astonishing 53 years, and amid a wave of post-pandemic leadership transitions across New York’s major theaters, she had remained the last one standing. Until now.

Story of the Week delves into this watershed moment for MTC and reflects on the remarkable legacy Meadow leaves behind.

But first…

What is the history of Manhattan Theatre Club, and how did Lynne Meadow become its defining force?

Founded in 1970 by a group of business leaders—Albert E. Jeffcoat, Margaret Kennedy, Philip Barber, and A. Joseph Tandet—Manhattan Theatre Club emerged off-off-Broadway from a desire to create a home for serious drama, with an eye toward developing new works and artists.

After a brief succession of early artistic directors, the board discovered 25-year-old Lynne Meadow, a Bryn Mawr graduate on leave from the Yale School of Drama, after she directed All Through the House by Anthony Scully. Initially offered a three-month contract, Meadow officially took the reins in September 1972—and never let go. In 1975, she was joined by Barry Grove as managing director, launching a partnership that would define the company for nearly five decades (Grove retired in 2023 after 48 years by her side).

Originally housed in the National Bohemian Hall at 321 East 73rd Street, MTC remained there until 1984, relocating the following year to its current home at New York City Center, where it operates two off-Broadway stages. In 2003, it also took stewardship of the long-dormant Biltmore Theatre on Broadway, now renamed the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.

The Rise of a Powerhouse

Within just six years, Meadow had transformed MTC into an award-winning force. In 1978, the company claimed its first Tony Award for Ain’t Misbehavin’, a Fats Waller revue that began in MTC’s cabaret space before transferring to Broadway. Three years later, Beth Henley’s Crimes of the Heart, which MTC presented off-Broadway, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Since then, six more MTC productions have earned Pulitzers—The Piano Lesson, Proof, Doubt, Rabbit Hole, Ruined, and Cost of Living. MTC shows have garnered 31 Tony Awards, most recently for the 2024 revival of Eureka Day.

Meadow has accepted every major theater accolade on MTC’s behalf, and presented more than 600 productions in her 53 years at the helm. The annual company budget that was $75,000 when she first began now sits at $30 million. Her most recent seasons included the plays Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Mary Jane, Prayer for the French Republic, Poor Yella Rednecks, and Dakar 2000. Not a bad way to go out.

Lynne Meadow’s Legacy

Meadow’s curatorial sensibility is arguably her greatest legacy. With an uncanny eye for talent, she has championed writers not just at the start of their careers, but throughout their artistic lives.

She was an early advocate for South African playwright Athol Fugard, presenting Boesman and Lena and Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act in the 1970s. She nurtured enduring relationships with playwrights such as Terrence McNally and John Patrick Shanley (each with 13 MTC productions), as well as Richard Greenberg and Donald Margulies (11 productions apiece). These are some of the pivotal titles by those four writers that Manhattan Theatre Club presented through the years: Love! Valour! Compassion!; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; Doubt; Three Days of Rain; The Assembled Parties; Sight Unseen; Collected Stories; and Time Stands Still.

Meadow also helped bring to the stage four plays from August Wilson’s monumental Century Cycle (The Piano Lesson, Jitney, King Hedley II, and Seven Guitars), multiple works by Alan Ayckbourn (House and Garden, in MTC’s adjoining off-Broadway theaters) and Charles Busch (including the long-running Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, which Meadow directed), and major revivals of plays by Amy Herzog (Mary Jane), Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive), and Lillian Hellman (The Little Foxes). She helped usher in premieres by Jocelyn Bioh (Jaja), Lynn Nottage (Ruined), Joshua Harmon (Prayer and We Had a World), Florian Zeller (The Father), and many others.

Even with the occasional misstep (Romantic Poetry may be the one blemish most often remembered), Meadow’s track record is unparalleled. There are worse ways to bookend your tenure than with your company winning a Tony Award (Eureka Day).

But it’s not just playwrights who’ve benefited from her stewardship. The MTC family of artists includes directors like Daniel Sullivan, scenic designers like John Lee Beatty, and actors including Laura Linney, Cynthia Nixon, Mary-Louise Parker, and Jeremy Pope. All have done multiple MTC productions, and there’s a reason why they all keep coming back.

More important is her and the company’s acknowledgement that while celebs sell tickets, you can’t pick stars over quality. For every Constellations starring marquee names Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson, there’s a Where the Mountain Meets the Sea, featuring New York stage greats Billy Eugene Jones and Chris Myers).

What’s Next?

Manhattan Theatre Club’s 2025-26 season is already announced, and Meadow is cementing her legacy even further. On Broadway, we’re getting a new James Graham play called Punch (MTC has previously presented his drama Ink) and The Balusters by longtime MTC playwright David Lindsay-Abaire (Kimberly Akimbo, Good People, Rabbit Hole, and Ripcord). Off-Broadway, there are new plays by Martyna Majok (Queens) and Ngozi Anyanwu (The Monsters). Fifty-three years in, with the office door about to close, and she’s not resting on her laurels.

Few figures have shaped the contemporary American theater as profoundly as Lynne Meadow. As she steps into an advisory role following the appointment of her successor, her influence will undoubtedly remain essential to the new leadership—though filling her shoes will be difficult. After all, MTC was defined by her exemplary taste, and separating itself from her vision is going to be a formidable task.