Lincoln Center Theater Celebrates Four Decades Of Impact And Artistry

Ruthie Ann Miles will never forget how she felt when she saw the Light In The Piazza at Lincoln Center Theater. At the time, she was a student at New York University and purchased a rush ticket. “The minute the orchestra and harp started to play, I began to feel emotional,” says Miles, who ultimately made a big splash on the very same stage making her Broadway debut in the King And I, winning a Tony Award for her performance as Lady Thiang.

“I began to feel swept away. It really did solidify for me that this is what I want to do. This is the kind of storytelling that I want to project out into the world,” added Miles of the Lincoln Center Theater production. “That I got to play here at all, to start my career and do the King and I as my Broadway debut, has spoiled me for life. Coming to Lincoln Center Theater is like coming home.”

Last week, at Lincoln Center Theater’s Ruby Jubilee Gala, the theater’s great artists who have performed on its stages shared their own reflections of being swept away at Lincoln Center Theater (LCT). Over four decades, the theater continues to bring that sense of joy on its three stages: the Vivian Beaumont, the Mitzi E. Newhouse, and its newest stage, the Claire Tow.

“This theater is the closest we have in this country to a national theater, and working here, you feel the history of the artists that you are sharing space with,” said Gabby Beans, who performed in two LCT shows, the Skin Of Our Teeth and Marys Seacole.

One of her favorite memories working there was during the Skin of Our Teeth when the cast first entered the Vivian Beaumont Theater. “19 of us were making our Broadway debut. And seeing the set for the first time was so magnificent,” says Beans. Then Lileana Blain-Cruz, our director, played Drake’s “Started from the Bottom”and we were dancing in the theater and it felt like we were living that song.”

Just by sheer numbers, LCT’s contribution to American theater has been colossal. Since they began in 1985, they have produced 243 shows with nearly 28,000 performances shared with 16 million audience members. The productions have garnered 342 Tony nominations, 87 Tony awards, and a Pulitzer Prize. Their current production, Floyd Collins, is nominated for six Tony Awards.

“But beyond numbers, and perhaps much more important, our incredible artists over the past 40 years have evoked in our audience countless laughs and tears, endless debate and discussion, untold moments of angst and joy, and, infinite sparks of inspiration and creativity,” said LCT’s board chair, Kewsong Lee. Over the years, writers and composers like Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty, Adam Guettel, William Finn, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Lynn Nottage, Stephen Adly Guirgis, John Guare, Sarah Ruhl, Ayad Akhtar, J.T. Rogers, David Rabe, Suzan-Lori Parks, Michael John LaChiusa, Wendy Wasserstein, Jason Robert Brown, Terrence McNally, and on and on, have worked there.

The epic celebration, which honored producing artistic director André Bishop, was fitting for a Lincoln Center Theater production. Directed by Jason Danieley, the one-night-only gala featured songs from LCT productions spanning four decades. The cast of Falsettos reunited to perform “The Baseball Game.” Nathan Lane and Roger Bart sang “Invocation and Instructions to the Audience,” from the Frogs. Victoria Clark performed “Fable” from the Light In The Piazza. Kelli O’Hara did a dreamy rendition of “Hello, Young Lovers.” Norm Lewis sang “I’d Rather Be Sailing,” from A New Brain.

After Marc Kudisch performed “I Was Here” from the Glorious Ones, an emotional André Bishop, who is stepping down after 33 years, took the stage. As the fitting lyrics of that song go:

“All that I have are my skill and my name/And this chance/To make both of them known/This is my key to the portal/How I can leave something immortal/Something that time cannot make disappear/Something to say I was here.”

Bishop shared that LCT provided 33 years of “great happiness, occasional terror, and constant, constant amazement,” he said. He went on to pay tribute to LCT’s first leaders, Gregory Mosher and Bernard Gersten, and saluted the theater’s incoming leaders, Lear deBessonet, Bartlett Sher, and Mike Schleifer.

“And I thank all of you, all of you here tonight—artists, staff, board members, friends, members of the audience. We all play a part in American theater,” said Bishop. “And aren’t we lucky?”