Stewart F. Lane (born May 3, 1951) is a
Broadway producer, director, playwright and former actor. He has also written books, including Let's Put on a Show![1] and Jews of Broadway. He has also produced in Dublin. In addition to publishing two plays, he has directed across the country, working with
Stephen Baldwin,
Shannen Doherty,
Chazz Palminteri, and more. He is co-owner of the
Palace Theatre (Broadway) with the
Nederlander Organization and a partner in the
Tribeca Grill with
Robert De Niro,
Sean Penn and
Mikhail Baryshnikov.[2] He has written three books: Let's Put on a Show!, Jews on Broadway: An Historical Survey of Performers, Playwrights, Composers, Lyricists and Producers, and Black Broadway: African Americans on the Great White Way.
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BroadwayHD
In 2015, Lane and his wife, Bonnie Comley, launched BroadwayHD. BroadwayHD is a subscription-based streaming service for stage performances with a mission to promote and preserve live theatre, extending the reach of Broadway and Broadway-caliber shows to anyone, anywhere. With a growing catalog of over 300 full-length productions, each show is filmed with high definition cameras that capture the excitement of a Broadway performance and deliver the best angles, video quality, and sound quality to users.
Off-Broadway and regionally, Lane produced: Jay Johnson: The Two and Only, Fortune's Fools, Sarah Abraham by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Marsha Norman, Eating Raoul – The Musical, Hitchcock's The 39 Steps and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz composed by Allen Menken.
In London, Lane produced Thoroughly Modern Millie (Olivier Nomination), Ragtime (Olivier Nomination and Lobby Hero. In Dublin, he produced the world premiere of JFK: A Musical Drama
Lane previously sat on the board of directors of Rogar Studios and currently is on the board of trustees of The Actor's Fund of America. Lane sat on the board of governors of the
Broadway League for eleven years and still remains a member of the League. He is on the board of advisors for the American Theater Wing and previously The Times Square Group. Lane is the chairman of the board of directors of the Theatre Museum.
Lane has created scholarship funds at Columbia University Business Graduate School, and Boston University College of Fine Arts Undergraduate School, (B.F.A) as well as major support to the University of Massachusetts, Emerson College and Fiorello H. La Guardia High School for the Performing Arts School.
Authorship
Lane wrote Let's Put on a Show, a guide to theatre production, in 2007.[6] In 2011 he wrote Jews on Broadway: An Historical Survey of Performers, Playwrights, Composers, Lyricists and Producers which talks about Jewish performance from immigrants and Yiddish productions on the Lower East Side to their impact on Broadway.[7]
He has also written the plays In the Wings (published in spring 2008 by Hal Leonard), If It Was Easy (published by Performing Books and nominated for Best New Play by the
American Theatre Critics Association), and the musical A Moment in Time (musical)|A Moment in Time (with music and lyrics by
John Denver). He has directed extensively with productions of A Moment in Time (at the Dix Hill Performing Arts Center in Huntington New York), The Foreigner, The Gig, Ain't Misbehavin', If It Was Easy, The Golden Age, Frankenstein, Final Appeal with
Chaz Palminteri and
Stephen Baldwin, and In the Wings with
Shannen Doherty.
Black Broadway: African Americans on the Great White Way, Lane's third book, was released in 2015.[8] The book is a comprehensive discussion of African American's contribution to theatre.
Other activities
Representing former Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani, Lane served on the Board of Directors at the
New York State Theater at Lincoln Center and the Transitional Committee where appointed both the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs and the Commissioner of Film, Theater & Broadcasting.
Lane serves on the board of trustees at Boston University[citation needed] and the board of advisers in the College of Fine Arts.[9] He co-chairs the CFA Campaign for Boston University as well as the Dean's Advisory Board. In 2002, Lane was awarded Boston University's Distinguished Alumni Award.[10]
In 2013, Lane co-founded
BroadwayHD with his wife,
Bonnie Comley.[11][12] In 2014, Lane and Comley produced an HD broadcast of Romeo and Juliet starring Orlando Bloom, which was screened in over 2,000 movie theaters.[13][14] The theater streaming platform officially launched in 2015.[15] In 2016, BroadwayHD and its founders, Lane and Comley, broke the Guinness World Record for the first Broadway show to be live streamed. Roundabout Theatre Company's production She Loves Me was streamed on June 30, 2016, on BroadwayHD.[16]
Currently, Lane is president and chief executive officer of Stellar Productions International and Stewart F. Lane Productions. He is the co-owner and operator of the Palace Theatre in New York City, and partnered in the Tribeca Grill Restaurant with
Robert De Niro.
Personal life
Lane is married to fellow producer Bonnie Comley[17] and they live in NYC with their five children.[citation needed]