The Women Count project has released its latest study, “Women Count VII: Women and Non-Binary Hires Off-Broadway Before and After the Shut Down.” The report, published in June, analyzes hiring trends across Off-Broadway productions. The goal is to assess gender parity and track the hiring of women and nonbinary individuals specifically in creative and production team roles.
The report, the seventh published since 2014, looks at hires before and after the pandemic-induced theater shutdown, encompassing (and broken down by) the 2018-2019, 2019-2020, 2021-2022, 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 Off-Broadway seasons. Data was collected from 24 theater companies and 431 productions. Hiring information is included for directors, playwrights, composers, lyricists, designers (broken down by discipline), choreographers, conductors and stage managers. The data includes the Off-Broadway offerings from all of Broadway’s nonprofit organizations: Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center Theater, Roundabout Theatre Company and Second Stage Theater.
While this report does not include Broadway shows, the data shows a direct impact on the Main Stem and feeds into the same New York theater ecosystem. Many productions that originated at or played an Off-Broadway venue go on to transfer to Broadway, often with their production team intact. In the 2023-2024 season alone, nine of the 39 total new productions, including 2024 Best Play Tony Award winner “Stereophonic” and Best Musical nominees “Hell’s Kitchen,” “Illinoise” and “Suffs,” transferred from an Off-Broadway engagement. So far in the 2024-2025 season, “Oh, Mary!,” “Job” and “Once Upon a Mattress” all had a previous life Off-Broadway.
Across 24 theater companies, the Women Count VII examined 112 productions in 2018-2019 (69% of which were new works), 102 in 2019-2020 (75% new), 50 in 2021-2022 (82% new), 90 in 2022-2023 (79% new) and 77 in 2023-2024 (79% new).
