On its sixtieth anniversary, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center is being given a Tony Award.
In announcing the 2025 Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre, the Tony Awards Administration Committee pointed to the library’s collection of “upwards of eight million items, notable for their extraordinary range and diversity—from 11th-century music, to 20th-century manuscripts, to contemporary hip-hop dance,’ all available for free.
But there are even more reasons to celebrate
Exhibitions
All along, the library has offered regular exhibitions – filling up galleries, placed in display cases, or just hanging on corridor walls. Two current exhibitions:
Rhythm Is My Business: Women Who Shaped Jazz
Room to Move: Dance Theater Workshop and Alternative Histories of Downtown Dance
Special Events
For its anniversary, the library is stepping up its programming, with “film screenings, storytimes, reading parties, dance recitals, exclusive tours of the Library’s treasures, participatory workshops, play readings, pop-up shops, concerts, silent discos.” All free.
Examples in the month of May:
Hear Experimental Music Inspired by the Library’s Archive. May 8, 6 pm
Documentaries on the Pioneering Women of Jazz History. May 9, 5:30 pm
Performance of Zodiac Trio’s Reinterpretation of Zodiac Suite, May 12, 6 pm
Works & Process: Harlem Lite Feet Stories & Demonstration, May 15, 6 p.m.
Reading of a Slapstick Comedy Developed at the Library: “For Love or Funny”,May 19, 2 and 6 p.m.
Lori Belilove on Isadora & Anna Duncan, May 28, 1 pm
Exploring the History of Scenic Designer Robin Wagner, May 29, 6 pm
Play Club
Play Club is like a book club, but for plays, with a different play read and discussed each month, with separate sessions via Zoom and in person. This month’s play under discussions is “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” by Rajiv Joseph, online May 12 from 6:30 – 7:30; in person May 22 from 6:30 – 7:30
Digital Treasures
Much of the library’s collection is available online. The Billy Rose Theatre Collection Photograph File for example, offers 34,260 personalities, 16,991 productions, and 3,263 topics, from acrobats to women dramatists, all of it searchable. I’ve dipped into the digital archives fruitfully for years, as you can see from the photographs above and below, of Sarah Bernhardt and Edwin Booth, Denzel Washington and Audra McDonald.
There was a time when Billy Rose — Broadway producer, impresario, lyricist, columnist, and all-around theatrical showman — was a leading figure on Broadway. He is now known mostly for two things: He was the third and final husband of “Funny Girl” Fanny Brice (she was his first of four wives), and he gives his name to The Billy Rose Theatre Division, which is an integral part of the Library for the Performing Arts.
Theatrical Recordings
The Theatre on Film and Tape Archives (aka TOFT)
Since 1970, the library has made video recordings of Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional theatre productions (more than 5,000 so far), as well as thousands more of interviews, documentaries, award presentations, and other theater-related programs.
Among the new arrivals: The Phantom of the Opera, which became available only after ending its 35-year run in 2023, Sondheim’s posthumous Here We Are, Shucked, Some Like It Hot, Here Lies Love, Fat Ham, and New York, New York, and recent revivals of Funny Girl, Camelot, and Parade.
TOFT’s recordings are available to the public, although it’s best to make an appointment, and certain of the recordings require that you create a Special Collections account.
A Place to Create
The Harvey Fierstein Theatre Lab is a flexible theatrical space that can be used for everything from developing new works, to rehearsing to conducting master classes
The Blog
The library’s blog posts , most prolifically by Douglas Reside, curator of the theater collection, who often provides fascinating context to current productions. Among his latest posts: the “no doubt purposeful allusions to Chekhov” throughout the play “Purpose” by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Librarian Gabriella Steinberg recommends nine classic plays by women playwrights.
The Circulating Library
You can check out plays and theater books that are otherwise hard to find — or just take advantage of the free wi-fi — which is what I’m doing right now.
