Story of the Week: As Not-for-Profits Stumble, Commercial Off-Broadway Rises from the Dead

On Sunday, stagehands at Atlantic Theater Company walked off the job just before the matinee performances of the two shows currently programmed at the Chelsea-based not-for-profit. The ongoing strike follows a breakdown in negotiations between management and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), the union representing stage crew workers.

The following day, the young for-profit production company Seaview announced that it was moving into the Tony Kiser Theater, the Times Square-based off-Broadway venue recently vacated by the not-for-profit Second Stage. The press release hailed the move as solidifying Seaview’s “commitment to commercial off-Broadway theater.”

Story of the Week will examine the connection between these two seemingly unrelated stories and what it portends for the future of off-Broadway. But first, in case you missed it…

Why are stagehands at Atlantic Theater Company on strike?

In February 2024, Atlantic’s crew workers (carpenters, electricians, wardrobe, etc.) voted 129 to one to unionize with IATSE, becoming the first crew at a major off-Broadway not-for-profit to do so. Crews at the Vineyard Theatre and Public Theater quickly followed in what appears to be a moderately successful campaign to unionize off-Broadway.

“We call on all off-Broadway workers to consider joining this movement for collective strength and representation,” said IATSE organizer Dan Little during a press conference on February 29, 2024.

But now it’s January 2025 and the Atlantic stage crew still doesn’t have a contract. The length of negotiations led IATSE to file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in November claiming that Atlantic management was not negotiating in good faith. The company postponed the production that was meant to be the season opener, NSangou Njikam’s A Freeky Introduction, in lieu of proceeding with a contract.

But both of Atlantic’s stages churned to life last week when Mona Pirnot’s I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan and Eliya Smith’s Grief Camp began preview performances — and this unquestionably raised the stakes of the negotiations.

According to IASTE’s account of events, the parties met twice last weekend. On the morning of the January 12, Atlantic management made several demands from which they were not willing to budge. This seems to be what triggered the strike that afternoon.

Atlantic counters that it has offered a 20 percent increase in wages and other benefits to its crew, and that IATSE had ignored an interim raise of a 13 percent in exchange for a no-strike agreement for the duration of negotiations. The company also warns, “If IATSE is successful in getting their proposed financials with Atlantic, it would set a precedent for other off-Broadway companies and we may see the demise of some of our greatest institutions, including Atlantic.” The contract with Atlantic would almost certainly be used as a template for future agreements with other not-for-profit companies, all of which are struggling to stay in the black.

I’m hugely sympathetic to the desire to earn a living wage in one of the most expensive cities on earth. Do you think theater criticism pays all my bills? I moonlight as a building superintendent to cover rent. But as someone who works in digital media, it’s hard not to be reminded of the unionization efforts that took place at several online publications shortly before they imploded.

Writers at Gawker, Vice, and Buzzfeed News voted in the last decade to unionize, and all three publications are now either fully shuttered or a shell of their former selves. I am doubtful that the not-for-profit theater, which has a similarly precarious business model, can afford the added expense of unionized stage crew without a significant boost in revenue — something that is impossible when the company is not selling any tickets.

While Atlantic initially postponed its two productions, staff have now been notified that both runs have officially ended, suggesting that Atlantic is prepared to forgo all box office revenue as it digs in for protracted negotiations with IATSE.

Does this portend the death of off-Broadway? Certainly not. But as institutional not-for-profits falter, a model of off-Broadway production long relegated to the wings is stepping downstage center.

What is happening with commercial off-Broadway?

By most accounts, commercial off-Broadway is experiencing a renaissance, but that is only because recent decades have looked like the Dark Ages. The category came to be defined by two shows, Stomp (closed in 2023) and Blue Man Group (ending its run next month), decades-old ventures that can be easily enjoyed by tourists with a limited grasp of English. But the prospect of any other kind of show turning a profit off-Broadway seemed much murkier until recently.

Little Shop of Horrors (2019), the Céline Dion jukebox parody Titaníque (2022), Cole Escola’s riotous comedy Oh, Mary! (2024), and the revivals of John Patrick Shanley’s Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (2023) and Kenneth Lonergan’s Hold On to Me Darling (2024) have all been off-Broadway hits that recouped their initial investment. The latter two were produced by Seaview, a relative newcomer to the theatrical scene.

I’ve previously written about Seaview’s audacious last-minute entries into the Tony race with 2023’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window and 2024’s Illinoise. Led by 32-year-old Greg Nobile, this is a young company that moves fast and has little regard for the status quo — which is great because the status quo isn’t working.

On Monday, Seaview announced that it had taken a lease on the former Tony Kiser Theater at 43^rd Street and 8^th Avenue, longtime home of the not-for-profit Second Stage Theater, and was rebranding it Studio Seaview. A not-yet-announced first production will debut in the space this spring and will be directed by Sam Gold, a frequent collaborator who helmed the Seaview-produced Broadway revivals of Romeo + Juliet and An Enemy of the People.

“This is an opportunity to deepen our commitment to the renaissance of Off-Broadway,” said Nate Koch, Seaview’s chief operating officer and elder statesman at 39, “to keep a beloved, historic theater intact while expanding our ability as a company to showcase exceptional creativity, in an intimate setting, and without the constraints of a traditional Broadway model.”

That last point is key as production costs have skyrocketed on heavily unionized Broadway, leading to unprecedented ticket prices and box office hauls for some very popular shows. It also means a higher likelihood that a show with limited appeal, or one that just doesn’t find its audience in time, will lose its entire investment — if the show makes it to Broadway at all.

But commercial off-Broadway presents a tantalizing opportunity to mount shows with smaller budgets in front of a more intimate crowd, giving producers more breathing room and allowing word-of-mouth to spread at a more reasonable pace. Seaview plans to retain the 296-seat capacity of the theater, with a refreshed look under the guidance of veteran set designer Scott Pask.

Studio Seaview won’t be bound by the season model embraced by most institutional theaters that necessitates limited runs for all productions because the dates of the next show have already been announced. This model could conceivably see a hit show run for years at Studio Seaview, much like how the Daryl Roth Theatre on Union Square has hosted extended runs of De La Guarda, Fuerza Bruta, and now Titaníque. What Seaview is doing is not unprecedented, but it does represent the resurgence of a for-profit model of off-Broadway producing that had become marginal.

Most interestingly, Carol Fishman, who oversaw the creation of the Tony Kiser Theatre and served as managing director of Second Stage for many years before moving to Playwrights Horizons, has been announced as general manager for Studio Seaview, bringing a bit of old-school knowhow to this exciting new venture.

As for Second Stage, it continues to produce in its Broadway venue, the Helen Hayes Theatre. But its future off-Broadway productions will take place on the Irene Diamond Stage, the largest venue at the Signature Theatre-owned Pershing Square Signature Center.

Why is Signature Theatre renting out its theaters?  

James Houghton founded the not-for-profit Signature Theatre in 1991 to offer a broader perspective on a playwright’s work by presenting their plays back-to-back, often in the same season. It’s a noble goal that attracted the sponsorship of some very wealthy donors, including Michael Bloomberg, the Ford Foundation, and Bill Ackman, whose hedge fund management company is the namesake of the Pershing Square Signature Center, the 42^nd Street complex of three theaters (with studio, rehearsal space, a bookstore, and a coffee shop) that Signature moved into in 2012.

Even at the height of production (Signature presented eight shows in its 2015-16 season), Signature could not fill all three theaters year-round, but this seemed to be part of the plan. Signature could rent out its spaces to itinerant companies like the New York Musical Festival or the New Group and use the added income to supplement its budget. By becoming a landlord in the most desirable neighborhood for theater, Signature could devote itself even more fully to its mission of producing high-quality shows accessible to people of all incomes (the Ackman gift was to support the company’s mission of offering $25 tickets to the initial run of all productions). But something has gone terribly wrong.

According to a report in Philip Boroff’s Broadway Journal, the company’s auditor has raised doubt about Signature’s ability to survive on its current trajectory. The accounting firm Lutz and Carr noted a drop of $6.6 million in the company’s total assets during the 2022-23 fiscal year, with most of the remaining $33 million tied up in Signature’s real estate. The report also noted $20 million in debt related to the building of the complex (while Signature benefitted from major gifts during its capital campaign, it still needed to take out a significant loan to complete construction). And while rental income in 2022-23 was $1.4 million (more than the revenue from the box office), that is not nearly enough to keep a company the size of Signature afloat.

The problems at Signature were apparent even to those not privy to the financials. From that high-water mark of eight productions in a season, the company is down to three in 2024-25. Hopefully the rental income from Second Stage will help stabilize the situation in this period of financial crisis that has touched most of the city’s not-for-profit theaters. Signature is not the only company taking on a roommate to pay the bills. Soho Rep will move into the upstairs theater at Playwrights Horizons later this year.

It has become incredibly clear that the not-for-profit model, as it was imagined in the 20^th century, is failing in the 21^st. The new crop of leaders at New York’s institutional theaters will either have to reinvent the not-for-profit model for this new era or plan for their companies’ inevitable demise. This won’t be the end of off-Broadway theater, but it strongly suggests that the next several decades of theater in New York will be driven more by market forces than mission statements.