One Tony Closer to New York?

Bartlett Sher picked up a Tony over the past weekend for his directing the NYC revival of South Pacific (which also won for best revival of a musical). His contract with Intiman runs through 2009, so I asked our John Longenbaugh how he thought the kudus would affect Sher's tenure in this town.

Says John after the jump...

From John Longenbaugh:

Intiman’s artistic director Bart Sher’s mantelpiece is just a little heavier this week after winning a Best Director Tony for his New York revival of South Pacific. The Tony win spills a little bit of refracted glory back to Seattle, even if a mention of the old hometown didn’t make it into his acceptance speech. But while Mr. Sher is still signed up through next season at Intiman, the press release sent out announcing his win has some language that makes it even clearer that they’ll be lucky indeed to have him for another season after ’09. First off, much is made of the fact that he’s been here for 10 years--admittedly a healthy life-span for the artistic director of a regional theater. Then there’s this slightly ominous sentence: “Sher is also working closely with the Intiman Board to set a course for the future that encompasses both the best opportunities for him and Intiman’s continued growth and stability.” Here's one possible translation: Sher’s proposing an exit strategy that’s as painless as possible at the end of next season.

The Tony will certainly make it easier for Sher to work with whatever artists he chooses-- which right now include New York actor Andrew Weems (currently in his one-man show Namaste Man at Intiman), and his continued collaboration with playwright Craig Lucas, who’ll see two of his shows, The Singing Forest and Prayer for My Enemy, remounted in new versions. But Sher’s not had the best track record of working with Seattle artists. In his first curtain speech after accepting the job back in 2000, he gave a big thank-you to corporate sponsor United Airlines--who, he pointed out, were responsible for a lot of the great actors we’d be seeing on the stage in the months to come. A couple years later, he was the first to invite hometown favorite Mike Daisey to a Seattle Equity stage--though only after Daisey had run his ht show 21 Dog Years at a local fringe venue for six months, then taken the show off to a successful off-Broadway run. And while he’s been amenable to working with many of the Old Guard of Seattle theater, actors like Suzanne Bouchard, R. Hamilton Wright, and Michael Winters, there’s been little of the vigorous outreach to newer and younger Seattle actors.

If this next season should be indeed Sher’s last, I’ve got a proposal: Along with bringing along some of those amazing New York artists he’s had a chance to work with to our local audiences, maybe he could consider casting a few more Seattle artists as well. After this last Sunday, “I worked with Bart Sher” just got a lot better looking on any actor’s résumé. Maybe he’ll be generous enough to spread some of that newly-minted repute around the local acting community.