EXCLUSIVE: In July 2023, when the Public Theater cut 19 percent of its staff, Artistic Director Oskar Eustis vowed to significantly reduce his own pay as a gesture of solidarity amid the austerity.
The charismatic 66-year-old leader followed through. In 2023, Eustis’ total compensation dropped 8 percent from the previous year, to a still-hefty $1.1 million, according to a Public Theater financial document posted on its website last week.
His base pay dipped to $881,000 from $964,000, according to the document, known as IRS Form 990. Benefits, including retirement contributions, were little changed at $241,000. A Public spokeswoman didn’t respond to emailed questions for this story.
Running a major nonprofit theater company remained lucrative in 2023, despite uneven ticket sales and rising production costs. André Bishop, Lincoln Center Theater’s producing artistic director, earned about the same as Eustis: $882,000 in salary, with total comp, including benefits, of $1.1 million. Bishop retired last month from the Upper West Side institution and was succeeded by Lear deBessonet as artistic director.
In the year ending August 2024, a smaller staff helped the Public achieve a $10 million increase in net assets, following an $8 million drop in 2022-23, according to its audited financial statements. The 2023-24 season included the premiere of the hit Alicia Keys off-Broadway musical Hell’s Kitchen, which later transferred to Broadway; and the Itamar Moses play The Ally, which was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
The Public — one of the nation’s highest-profile theater companies — remains under pressure. Its off-Broadway box office income was about $8 million in 2023-24, down from $12.5 million five years earlier. Contributions and earned revenue were $59 million, off by $27 million, or a third, from 2018-19.
Hamilton isn’t providing the subsidy it once did. In exchange for developing the musical off-Broadway, the Public’s entitled to a royalty of 1.5 percent of box office and 5 percent of net profits of Broadway and touring productions, according to Hamilton financial papers filed with the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James.
On Broadway, Hamilton grosses are off their highs. And there’s just one North American touring company, down from four pre-pandemic. The Public’s overall royalty income — dominated by Hamilton — plunged from $24 million in 2018-19 to $7 million in 2023-24.
Like other nonprofit theater companies, the Public is co-producing with other institutions and renting out its venues. About half of the shows planned for next season at its Astor Place home involve collaborating — and presumably sharing expenses — with other companies.
Eustis’ 2020 compensation got unwanted attention. It gained 10 percent that year, according to a Public Theater Form 990 filed with the New York Attorney General. The increase coincided with pandemic-related staff furloughs, the cancellation of Shakespeare in Central Park and Eustis’ pledge to take a 40 percent pay cut.
Cara Joy David in BroadwayWorld cited a Public spokeswoman that due to unexpected government aid, Eustis’ pay was cut by 25 percent instead of 40 percent. When an executive takes a reduction after a raise, an annual disclosure may not tell the whole story about compensation.
In an unusual twist, in December 2022, a few months after Broadway Journal reported about Eustis’ 2020 comp increase, the Public filed an amended return with the IRS and posted it on the company’s website. Eustis’ 2020 salary was revised down to $789,000 — below his original listed salary of $901,000 and his 2019 salary of $807,000. His overall comp was little changed by the revision and still shows an increase from 2019.
Nonprofit organizations are permitted to amend a return when the original contains an error. The Public hasn’t commented about the revision.
Next month, the Public is scheduled to reopen the Delacorte Theater in Central Park after a major renovation. Twelfth Night starring Lupita Nyong’o is being staged by the company’s associate artistic director and resident director, Saheem Ali. Should he want the job, Ali is a candidate to replace Eustis, who took over the Public in 2005 and has said that he plans to leave when his current contract expires on July 31, 2028. The board intends to hire a successor well before Eustis exits.
