Christopher Ashley, who has served as artistic director of La Jolla Playhouse for the past 18 seasons, has been hired to lead New York’s Roundabout Theatre Company, one of the nation’s largest and most prestigious nonprofit theaters.
Fortunately for San Diego theater fans, it will be a long goodbye. Ashley will serve through 2025 before taking up his new position at Roundabout, where he will oversee the programming for three Broadway and two off Broadway theaters.
Over the next 15 months in La Jolla, Ashley will plan the soon-to-be-announced 2025-26 and the 2026-27 season. He will also direct the world premiere of the play “3 Summers of Lincoln,” as well as two yet-to-be-announced world premiere musicals.
News of Ashley’s appointment to Roundabout, announced Wednesday morning, follows by just one week the news that he will be honored in 2025 with the “Mr. Abbott,” award, one of the theater industry’s highest accolades given to Broadway directors and choreographers who have made an indelible mark on the national theater scene.
In a phone interview Wednesday, Ashley said he is very excited for the opportunity, though he will miss not only the staff at La Jolla Playhouse but also the many friends he has made in the local theater community.
“There are very few theaters that could convince me to leave La Jolla Playhouse. It’s a spectacular place to be and I’m so proud of everything we’ve accomplished. But it’s an amazing opportunity for me,” he said. “The possibility of leading the American theater conversation from the Roundabout is something I look forward to. Some of the most amazing artists in the world have worked at the Roundabout and I hope we can continue that journey in the future.”
“I also want to say what an honor it has been to be part of the San Diego theater community,” he continued. “At theaters large, medium and small, so much great work is happening from so many first class artists and it has been a real privilege to be part of that.”
Founded in 1965 and based in midtown Manhattan, Roundabout Theatre Company operates three Broadway theaters (the Todd Haimes and Stephen Sondheim Theatres and Studio 54) and two off Broadway spaces (the Laural Pels and Underground Black Box Theatres). The company is renowned for its development of new plays and revivals of both classic plays and musicals. Over the years, Roundabout productions have won 38 Tony Awards.
Roundabout has been without a leader since April 2023, when Todd Haimes, who served as Roundabout’s artistic director and CEO for 39 years, died at age 66 after a long battle with cancer.
Unlike the solo leadership model that Haimes created at Roundabout, Ashley said he wants to share leadership responsibilities at the New York theater with a newly created position of managing director, which has long been the model at the Playhouse. Ashley shared leadership with the Playhouse’s former managing director Mike Rosenberg from 2007 to 2017, and since 2018 with Debby Buchholz.
“I love having a partner and collaborator and someone to celebrate and tussle with, and a theater is stronger for having a dual leadership model,” Ashley said.
Another of Ashley’s priorities at Roundabout will be to introduce to the programming mix the production of new musicals, which has been his specialty over the past 30 years.
Ashley’s departure on Dec. 31, 2025, will mark the end of a nearly two-decade tenure at the Playhouse, during which time he directed nearly two dozen productions, oversaw the development of 50 world premieres and shepherded 20 shows to Broadway, among them the Tony Award-winning musicals “Memphis” and “The Outsiders,” as well as the internationally acclaimed “Come From Away,” for which he won the 2017 Tony Award for Best Director.
Ashley also spearheaded the creation of the Playhouse’s popular and widely-acclaimed Without Walls (WOW) program of immersive and site-inspired work, including the annual WOW Festival. In 2013, Ashley launched the Playhouse’s DNA New Work Series, creating an incubator for playwrights and directors to develop their works — many of which have later been programmed as part of the Playhouse’s subscription season.
Ashley also created the Playhouse’s annual Resident Theatre Program in 2010, which provides a home and resources to an itinerant local theater company. He has also overseen the launch of the annual Director Fellowship, paid internships, and the Veterans Playwriting Workshop, while also building on the success of the Playhouse’s signature Performance Outreach Program (POP) Tour for young audiences.
Before being hired at the Playhouse, Ashley was a much-in-demand Broadway stage director and the Playhouse has been the beneficiary of his many long-term friendships with playwrights, musical composing teams, actors, choreographers and designers, including Pulitzer Prize winners Ayad Akhtar, Paula Vogel and Doug Wright, along with artists Joe DiPietro, Anna Deavere Smith, Matthew Broderick, Danya Taymor, Moisés Kaufman, Idina Menzel, and others.
“We are profoundly saddened to see Chris depart the Playhouse, but we wish him well on this wonderful new adventure,” said Playhouse Board Chair Sheri L. Jamieson, in a statement. “He has been a true visionary, a dynamic leader and a beloved Playhouse artist and colleague over the last two decades, growing the Playhouse’s reputation as one of the most vital and esteemed theatres in the country. Chris is leaving on a supremely high note, having spearheaded several acclaimed programs. We are deeply grateful for his stellar artistic leadership and for fostering the mission and values that the Playhouse will continue to embody as we look toward the future.”
Buchholz, the Playhouse’s managing director, said she has appreciated Ashley’s “unflagging passion for bold and transformative theater.”
“It has been a true joy working with him at the Playhouse over the last 18 seasons,” Buchholz said. “An inspirational artist, leader, colleague, and friend, Chris’s thrilling artistic vision for the Playhouse, along with his incredible warmth and generosity have made working in partnership with him a dream. He will be dearly missed by the entire San Diego arts community.”
La Jolla Playhouse’s board of directors will launch a national search for Ashley’s replacement in the coming months. Ashley said he hopes to be part of the conversation about his successor.
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