The Cape Playhouse, located on the Cape Cod Center for the Arts campus in Dennis, Massachusetts, has a storied past and a reputation as “America’s Most Famous Summer Theater.” It was opened in 1927 by Raymond Moore and the picturesque venue quickly became a popular place where upscale city dwellers went to escape the heat and to see the stars that graced its stage. Performers such as Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, Gertrude Lawrence, Humphrey Bogart and more appeared in its early years, many making their stage debuts. Recent years have seen stage and screen stars such as Bernadette Peters, Olympia Dukakis, SNL’s Heidi Gardner, Leslie Uggams, Andrew Rannells, and more. Ahead of its centennial in 2027, a new Artistic Director joined the company in August 2023.
Eric Rosen is an award-winning director, producer and playwright. He is known as a transformative leader and prior to his appointment at the Cape Playhouse, he led renowned companies such as Kansas City Rep and About Face Theater. As an independent artist, he has developed projects for PBS and directed regionally.
Eric took some time to chat with us during his very busy inaugural season.
Congratulations on the Cape Playhouse appointment! What made you decide to take on this position?
I have a very romantic sense of the classic old summer stock theaters, dating to my summer as an apprentice at Westport Country Playhouse. I love the history of these places. Also, I have a young son who goes to school in Manhattan, and the thought of him spending his summers in a place like Cape Cod felt pretty magical. But mostly, when I thought about the centennial of the Cape Playhouse in just three years, I thought I might be able to help secure the future of this place, and that felt exciting.
What was the vision for programming your inaugural season at the Playhouse?
I’ve been an artistic director most of my career with the exception of the years since my son was born, and the first rule I tell any new AD is – don’t break anything. In other words, spend time trying to figure out why the place works like it does, what has worked historically, and how to bring some wisdom to a first season to make a splash without accidentally upending a cherished tradition. At the same time, I want to move the Playhouse to a more sustainable model and grow the audience as we gear up for the centennial in 2027. I had a theory that if I did these four musicals in a row, following the population burst on the Cape, which is very much a bell curve, that I could cultivate enthusiasm show after show. So we went from small musical to medium to huge – and it’s worked. That was my goal – to cultivate enthusiasm.
How is programming a summer season different than programming a year-round season, like you had at Kansas City Rep?
I find the challenge of a 14-week season to be completely different than running a Chicago or regional theater schedule, which I spent the first two decades of my career doing. We have 14 weeks, and that’s it – and we are in a place where almost everyone is on vacation. I compare the choices to beach reading, and a notion of pleasure. People are here to celebrate their free time in this extraordinarily beautiful place, and the challenge is to create work that will enhance their summers, and that it entirely different than the mission of a mission driven company like About Face, or a region-serving theater like KC Rep.
From Andy Mientus to Stephanie Torns to John Riddle, there is some real Broadway star power in this summer season. Why do you think artists are drawn to the Cape Playhouse?
For nearly a century, major artists have been coming up to the Cape Playhouse. It’s our well-earned motto courtesy of the New York Times – “where Broadway goes to summer” – and it’s been true for generations. It’s not hard to figure out why people would want to come all these decades – the Cape is really, really magical. But I feel lucky that my husband and I have deep connections to the New York theater world, so getting folks I admire to be a part of the season was much easier than I had imagined. A big strategy is to provide experiences for major and emerging stars that will make them want to come back, and to expand our connections, so that we have an ongoing and dynamic connection to the Broadway community.
You are closing the summer with the beloved hit musical “Waitress” as well as a revival of the delightful whodunit, “The 39 Steps.” What made you choose these two shows for your inaugural season?
I chose “Waitress” because I love the score and didn’t get to see it on Broadway – it ran in the years my son was very young. I’m from western North Carolina and the plight of Jenna felt very familiar to me, and I was excited to try to do it in a way that was unique to my directorial style and personal history, without any preconceived “this is how they did it on Broadway” judgments.
For “The 39 Steps,” the Playhouse has a tradition of doing a mystery in the last slot, and when I was planning the season, I asked my very dear friend Kimberly Senior what she would want to do, and it was her first suggestion. I trust the instincts of directors I admire and ran with Kimberly’s idea.
Summer seasons are known for having short rehearsal periods. How do manage to produce so many full-length shows, especially musicals, in such a short time and maintain the quality?
It truly is madness. I had never worked on this schedule until I directed at Bucks County Playhouse on small shows – “American Jade” and “Tick, Tick…Boom.” When I got this job, I had no idea how we could do huge shows like “Beautiful” and “Waitress” on this compressed calendar. There have been pitfalls and learning experiences, but also I’ve discovered a new way of working, in which speed matches the capacity of great and experienced directors and actors to make smart, fast decisions. There isn’t much room for error, but there’s also something exhilarating of working in this highly focused, breakneck pace that pulls companies together quickly.
The Playhouse also offers programming geared towards younger audiences. Is there other special programming that you hope to develop during your time here?
The area I’d most like to cultivate is our educational programming. We do a great summer camp and some learning experiences, but I don’t think we’ve begun to explore what the theater could be doing for more of the calendar year to connect with young people who live on the Cape. I’ve been passionate about arts education both at About Face and KC Rep, and built some really innovative programs – and I look forward to developing these models at the Playhouse.
Can you share some of your long-term goals for the Playhouse as it enters its second century?
The Cape Playhouse has been so many things over the past 100 years and had new iterations and methods of working in each generation. My hope for our future is that we use the centennial to usher in what I call “a new Golden Age” for the theater. What I’ve seen this summer, with consistent and surprising vitality in our audience and community, makes me believe that something great is possible. I hope that when my time is through here, the theater’s fundamentals in terms of audience, fundraising, and organizational capacity, are strong enough that it can be resilient and thrive long into the future. It’s an incredible legacy that deserves to be preserved, and also an incredible opportunity to build a place that can engage artists and audiences in a unique and exciting way. To say I want to put it on the map is silly – it’s been on the map for a century – but to say that I want the Cape Playhouse to matter to the people who live and vacation here, and to the network of theater artists that create work here – that’s my big dream of a Golden Age.
Information about the Cape Playhouse and it’s upcoming shows can be found at https://capeplayhouse.com/.
