On a rainy Monday afternoon, as New York’s theatermakers braced for the eye of their own season’s storm, a select few found refuge at Manhattan’s Tusk Bar, where CAA hosted its annual Women on Broadway celebration. The event—organized by a powerhouse team that included ATG Entertainment’s Bee Carrozzini and Kristin Caskey, producers Lia Vollack and Sue Wagner, Wendy Orshan, and agent Joe Machota—honored women’s recent and upcoming contributions to the stage.
In late 2025, that toast belonged primarily to Whitney White, who this year directed the Broadway premiere of The Last Five Years, helmed the Sia- and Honey Dijon–scored Saturday Church at New York Theatre Workshop, developed and performed in Macbeth in Stride at BAM, and is currently preparing Liberation for its Main Stem transfer after a successful off-Broadway run. Many of White’s collaborators were there to celebrate: playwrights Jocelyn Bioh and Bess Wohl (in tinted aviators, a fitting nod to her ’70s-set Liberation), actor Joaquina Kalukango, and producers Rachel Sussman, Eva Price, and Danielle Perelman.
It being a Monday afternoon, with many guests still in previews or workshop mode, most opted for a sensible glass or two of wine. The more adventurous sampled the bar’s featured cocktails: the Smoke Show (a Grey Goose martini with smoked olive oil) and the Ruby Slipper (a gin highball with yogurt-washed Hendrick’s, Amante, and pink grapefruit). All glasses were raised when CAA’s Kennedy Woodard delivered a speech celebrating the work of women past and present—and the hard-won advancements that have led to a moment in which women now serve as artistic directors of major companies on both sides of the Atlantic. Toasts went out to Patricia McGregor of New York Theatre Workshop and Jenny Gersten of New York City Center, with nods to Lear deBessonet at Lincoln Center and Indhu Rubasingham at London’s National Theatre.
The guest list spanned generations and styles—from Steppenwolf legend Laurie Metcalf to Ego Nwodim, whose first post–Saturday Night Live role will be her off-Broadway debut in Lincoln Center’s The Comedy Series next month. Solo-show performers took well-earned breaths from their lauded runs, including Julia McDermott (Weather Girl) and Jen Tullock (Nothing Can Take You From the Hand of God), who welcomed Dylan Mulvaney into their ranks. The reception, which also drew Micaela Diamond, directors Leigh Silverman and Miranda Haymon, and enough CAA agents to book every last cocktail napkin in the room, carried on past its scheduled 6 p.m. close—but not too late. After all, there’s still work to be done.
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