NEW YORK -- Invalid as the Fabulous Invalid may be, the 15 midtown blocks of Broadway are still the place where playwrights cement a national profile.
Given that straight plays are an increasingly rare commodity on Broadway, the recent loss of three major figures in American drama -- Arthur Miller, August Wilson and Wendy Wasserstein -- feels especially devastating. It also raises questions about the challenges facing upcoming playwrights as they attempt to penetrate the national consciousness to the degree of their predecessors.
Sure, everyone identifies David Mamet with foul-mouthed guys firing rat-a-tat dialogue, or Sam Shepard with gritty, laconic neo-cowboys. But does anyone outside of diehard theater aficionados recognize the names John Patrick Shanley, David Lindsay-Abaire, Richard Greenberg or Christopher Durang?
Even with a mainstream success or two, it takes a Broadway boost to help forge a writer's reputation beyond a single hit play.
"It's a big deal to have that toehold on Broadway," says Lynne Meadow, a.d. of Manhattan Theater Club, the nonprofit org whose three stages include one on the Great White Way, the Biltmore.
But with big-money musicals dominating the scene and a jam-packed season edging out new contenders, it's getting harder and harder for straight-play scribes to reach critical mass.
Take Lindsay-Abaire ("Fuddy Meers"). His first Rialto outing, the MTC-produced "Rabbit Hole," earned enough prominent critical raves (along with a handful of pans) to raise hopes for an extended-run hit.
But the production has already extended two weeks to April 2, and any longer would bump up against the next Biltmore production -- another new play, Conor McPherson's "Shining City," skedded to start previews April 13. ("We're exploring all options," says MTC exec producer Barry Grove, in looking to keep "Rabbit" running.)
A couple of Off Broadway hits are also finding there's no room at the Broadway inn. Both the Second Stage production of Douglas Carter Beane's new comedy "The Little Dog Laughed" and the Signature Theater's staging of Horton Foote's "A Trip to Bountiful" have proved popular enough to get their producers pondering Broadway transfers -- if only there were slots for them.
"It's just a logjam," says Carole Rothman, a.d. of Second Stage. "You can't find a place to put a play."
And as Broadway shows are running longer and longer, it's closing the door to new productions says Signature a.d. James Houghton.
Like MTC, both theaters are locked into season schedules that limit engagements on their own stages. And other Off Broadway venues aren't an option. "It can't work financially to move to another space Off Broadway," Houghton says. "It's just a losing proposition on all accounts."
Rothman, who plans to wait until a theater opens up in the fall to get "Little Dog" on Broadway, isn't interested in an Off Broadway transfer for another reason. "Douglas Carter Beane has to be a Broadway playwright, doesn't he?" she asks. "We need a younger generation of homegrown talent up there."
While it may be getting harder and harder to find room on the Great White Way, young writers can nevertheless make other inroads into the national consciousness.
"There are many more factors to building a playwright's name than just getting them to Broadway," says Gersh agent John Buzzetti, whose roster of up-and-coming scribes includes Lindsay-Abaire.
"It's wonderful to have a mentor," suggests producer Daryl Roth ("Proof"), who had an Off Broadway hit with "Thom Paine (based on nothing)," by Will Eno -- a Pulitzer finalist whose mentor, Edward Albee, has acted as an advocate for the scribe.
The profile of Stephen Adly Guirgis ("Our Lady of 121st Street"), she adds, is raised by his association with Philip Seymour Hoffman, the Academy Award-nominated actor ("Capote") who has directed many of his plays with the LAByrinth Theater Company.
And a berth Off Broadway, with a commercial producer or a respected nonprofit, also begins to get the word out. "If your play is well received at, say, New York Theater Workshop, it then goes on to have a life in the nonprofit regionals," says William Morris agent Peter Franklin. "That's where my clients make their money."
Fests such as the annual Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, Ky., catch the eye of producers and presenters around the country. Playwrights who have fanned their reputations at Humana in recent years include Rinne Groff, Adam Rapp and Gina Gionfriddo.
"The production doesn't have to be big," Roth says. "It just has to get the attention of the people who are writing about theater."
Still, that's harder to do, especially in Gotham, when a show isn't treading the Broadway boards.
"For whatever reason, mostly atavistic, Broadway is still mythically large in the minds of American theatergoers, even though we know Broadway is not a place for new plays anymore," says Todd London, a.d. of New Dramatists, the non-profit org dedicated to playwright development.
Houghton says an additional reason he eliminated the possibility of an Off Broadway transfer for "Bountiful" was that it wouldn't attract press the way a move to Broadway would.
"We couldn't garner the same attention with a same-level move," he says, especially as the Rialto gears up for the annual Tony hype. "The story isn't there."
And even if a play makes it to Broadway, it's tough to make a buck. Last season's "The Pillowman," Martin McDonagh's latest play, coasted into New York on a wave of critical praise and a starry cast that included Jeff Goldblum and Billy Crudup, but still barely recouped its $2.2 million capitalization after a 28-week engagement.
However, vet producer Roger Berlind ("Doubt," the upcoming revival of "The Faith Healer") believes the outlook isn't as bleak as some make it out to be.
"While musicals dominate the gross figures, there's still room for plays," he says. "A serious play doesn't have the broad appeal of a musical, so you have to apply different criteria for financial success. Things are only harder right now because there are no venues available."
With that in mind, Meadow says, it's too early for her to be thinking too much about how to accommodate the potential longevity of "Rabbit Hole." "The important thing is, David Lindsay-Abaire has a new show on Broadway."
Contact Gordon Cox at
gordon.cox@variety.com