On Friday in the late afternoon, the York Theatre Company sent out a brief press release announcing that James Morgan, its longtime artistic director, had stepped down, effective immediately, with no real explanation or recognition of Morgan’s work.
For decades, Morgan has been the face, heart, and soul of the York, a relatively small Off-Broadway company focused on musical theater that formerly operated out of a basement at Saint Peter’s Church before it was flooded in January 2021. Morgan was in attendance at virtually every performance at the York, chatting with subscribers and usually giving a long-winded but well-meant pre-curtain speech hawking both subscriptions and cookies. Morgan helped create a sense of community that made subscribers feel valued.
It has since come to light that the resignation was prompted by a heated argument during a board meeting between Gerry McIntyre, the company’s associate artistic director (who has also resigned), and Morgan over the lack of audience diversity at recent shows produced by the York at the Theatre at St. Jean’s. In a letter released on Monday, Morgan was apologetic over the incident and attributed his reaction during the meeting to both the medical aftereffects of a stroke in 2022 and being defensive.
The York has faced the challenge of producing musical theater with a very limited budget for an older Upper East Side audience. Over the years, it has been most successful with revivals of older musicals (usually presented in concert format in its “Musicals in Mufti” series), including “Enter Laughing” (which received a knockout production in 2008 that should have transferred to Broadway, followed by a less successful remount in 2019) and the Maltby and Shire revue “Closer Than Ever” in 2012. One new musical produced by the York that almost moved to Broadway was “Yank!,” a romance about a young gay soldier during World War II.
The James Morgan situation highlights an unavoidable and unsettling dilemma faced by theater companies throughout the country that are still adjusting to new expectations over diversity, equality, and inclusion: should the company’s board of directors ask Morgan to return, given his longstanding record of service to the company and his public apology, or should the York move on, even if it may not survive without a zealously dedicated leader like Morgan at the helm? Might this situation provide the impetus for the York to reinvent itself artistically and find a new audience?
Perhaps there is a middle ground in which Morgan returns to the organization and guides it through the transition process, while the York recognizes Morgan’s half-century of commitment to the organization.
Broadway League will honor Adrian Bailey and Gavin Creel with full light dimming ceremonies
In response to a firestorm of public criticism, the Broadway League has reversed its decision to recognize the late actors Adrian Bailey and Gavin Creel in only a limited capacity (with light dimming ceremonies at only select Broadway theaters) and will instead honor them by dimming the lights of all Broadway theaters. The organization also announced that it is in the process of reviewing its “current dimming policy and procedures.” The dimming ceremony for Bailey will be held on Thursday, Oct. 17, while the ceremony for Creel will be announced at a later date. A ceremony will also be scheduled to honor English actress Maggie Smith.
‘Suffs’ will close on Broadway
“Suffs,” the Broadway musical that dramatizes the suffragist movement that culminated in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, will play its final performance on Jan. 5 following 301 regular performances. Shaina Taub, who wrote the songs and book (for which she won two Tony Awards), also leads the cast in the role of Alice Paul. A national tour will launch next fall in Seattle. Unlike most other musicals that transfer to Broadway following an Off-Broadway debut, “Suffs” underwent extensive reworking after premiering at the Public Theater in 2022.
