Illustration: Andy Friedman
Curtain Call: Eagles on Broadway
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Been to a major Broadway show in recent years? Chances are that Boston College alumni were involved in the production. They may have even starred in it or helped to get it developed.
With work on shows such as Holiday Inn, What the Constitution Means to Me, and the Great White Way’s newest blockbuster, Hadestown, BC alumni are making a mark on American theater—creating jobs, picking up Tony and Grammy awards, and earning rave reviews from critics (sometimes, they’re even the ones writing the reviews).
In other words, it is hardly an exaggeration to say that artists who got their start at BC are today dominating the theater world—on Broadway, at highly regarded regional theaters, and beyond. These trailblazing Eagles are pushing theater daringly forward as a medium with the singular plays and musicals they write and the under-sung characters they bring to life as actors, producers, dramaturgs, and more.
A collaborative art form, theater depends on creatives with specific skill sets to bring a production from page to stage. Everyone, quite literally, has a role to play.
Here, we spotlight six Eagles forging unique paths in theater. Despite their varied careers, they share a love for and commitment to boundary-pushing works that are diversifying and enriching the American canon.
Bryce Pinkham ’05—A prolific stage actor, Pinkham has been seen on Broadway in hit plays and musicals alike, including Ghost, The Heidi Chronicles, Holiday Inn, and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. For his hysterical turn in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Pinkham received both a Grammy Award and a Tony nomination.
Richard Lawson ’05—The influential theater critic has been a steadfast and trusted voice for more than a decade in the constantly evolving field of journalism. Lawson is Vanity Fair’s chief critic (in addition to theater, he covers television and film), and he previously wrote for respected publications and sites such as The Atlantic, The Guardian, and Gawker. He is also the author of the Boston-set novel All We Can Do Is Wait.
Sarah Lunnie ’08—A dramaturg, Lunnie started out at two of the country’s best-known institutions for championing new works: Actors Theatre of Louisville and Playwrights Horizons, in New York. These days, her work helps to shape many of today’s landmark plays. Her superb storytelling has guided such seminal pieces as the Tony-nominated A Doll’s House, Part 2 by Lucas Hnath, the Pulitzer finalist What the Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Schreck, and the Drama Desk-nominated Miles for Mary—a play put on by the Mad Ones theater group, of which Lunnie is a company member.
Patrick Lazour ’13—Lazour’s musical We Live in Cairo, co-written with his brother Daniel, premiered last summer at the powerhouse American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Though the musical—which won the prestigious Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theater—was Lazour’s professional debut, it was hardly his first work: His original musical The Grand Room premiered in the Bonn Studio Theatre during his senior year at BC.
Sean Patrick Flahaven ’95—A Tony Award–winning producer who has helmed numerous recent hits, Flahaven co-produced this year’s Best Musical winner, Hadestown, and is also president of Concord Theatricals, which represents a pair of Tony-winning productions: Best Revival of a Musical, Oklahoma! and Best Revival of a Play, The Boys in the Band. Flahaven also has won a Grammy, as an associate producer of the Hamilton Broadway cast album, meaning he’s halfway to winning a coveted EGOT—Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.
Jeff Augustin ’08—A winner of the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award and Rella Lossy Award, Augustin presented his gripping The Last Tiger in Haiti at the Bay Area’s renowned Berkeley Rep in 2016. Augustin’s new play, the poignant and probing The New Englanders, debuts Off Broadway this fall at the acclaimed Manhattan Theatre Club.