4 minute read
The Perfect Gentleman of New York Theater
I confess I am struggling with the reality of realizing the remarkable and exquisite reign of ANDRÉ BISHOP as producing artistic director of the Lincoln Center Theater is about to end.
The theater under his guidance has proven to be a second home to me over the years and decades, and the support of Lincoln Center Theater has contributed enormously to my own career and the development of material I would never have dreamed might be offered to me.
As a result, I’ve been asked to comment on my friend André and his achievements. And I find, somewhat to my surprise, I had previously been asked similarly in the past to contribute to a profile published originally in Vanity Fair in 2016. Looking over that article, I realized how consistent a shining light and inspiration André has been in my own life, and because of that very consistency, because his integrity, taste, and leadership remain in my estimation, individual and stellar, I would humbly suggest revisiting it once more.
What I said, then, I still mean.
That his presence will be missed is a colossal understatement.
ANDRÉ BISHOP WORRIES. That much is clear. Within the generous confines of his warmth and support, you can sense the worry. It never robs him of wit, and it never stops that sly, conspiratorial smile, but he worries. You would, too! After all, he’s run two consecutive and wildly successful theater endeavors (the only person I’ve ever known to turn the trick twice): first, Playwrights Horizons, which he inherited from its progenitor, Bob Moss, turning it into one of the most prolific and important of Off Broadway birth sites, and for the past 25 years Lincoln Center Theater, with its trio of beautiful performance spaces, tucked like Russian dolls into an elegant corner of the Upper West Side, where classics, premieres, debuts, and spectacle vie for attention, bumping up against and spilling over into Broadway on a regular basis, and earning him an astonishing total of 15 Tony Awards!
He’s had help, of course, and he welcomes it, whether it’s the June - November partnership he achieved with the legendary Bernard Gersten, himself something of a singular chapter in American theater, or the symbiosis he’s encouraged with director Bartlett Sher, his go-to man for everything from new drama to sumptuous revivals. He’s enjoyed remarkably smooth continuity over the years with his brilliant right-hand associate, Julia Judge, in such a way that you never feel you are being handled, even when you are being handled. That in and of itself is a minor miracle in this business.
"Jack!” the deeply mellifluous voice responds whenever you call. “I was just thinking of you!
It may well be true: he has never been able to lie effectively, and somehow, somewhere, over the years he managed to lose the impulse. But he’s never cruel either. Considerate. Measured. Thoughtful. He will sit through a run-through of your nascent work, arms folded before him, chuckling, watchful, listening, and, after the requisite reassurances, withdraw upstairs until you are ready and able to hear a beautifully judged version of truth. It never fails to apply.
And so, finally, he remains for many of us the perfect editor, collaborator, cheerleader—never competitive, ever supportive, abundant with that rarest of human glories: loyalty! He loves your success— he courts it. But first and primarily, he loves you! And so we all return, we all respond, we all remain the recipients. He is, at last, the true and perfect gentleman of the theater. ▪
Header Photo: André Bishop and Jack O'Brien In the Vivian Beaumont Theater during rehearsals for The Cast of Utopia, Part 1: Shipwreck.
