A popular NYC theater is owned by the Catholic Church. Now it's being censored.

The Connelly Theater won't be able to stage its bold, artistic productions now that the Archdiocese of New York is demanding approval of all scripts

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For years now, the Connelly Theater in New York City’s East Village has been the launching pad for a number of productions that later went on to successful runs on Broadway or in London. That may come as a surprise to anyone who knows that the building itself is owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.

Connelly Theater (via Instagram)

You might think the theater would be run much like Catholic hospitals, with Church rules dictating what occurs on their property—no matter what the public wants or needs—but none of that seemed to be a problem. Even though the theater’s contract allowed the Church to censor material if it wanted to, its leaders never did. The theater manager always submitted show contracts to the local priest in charge (there were a few different people in that role over the years) and they were always green-lit. Was the priest paying attention? Did he not care? Who knows.

Or maybe the Church didn’t mind because the shows helped fund the (expensive and tuition-free) girls’ Catholic school that was also housed in the same building.

Or maybe the Church liked that the shows were good for local businesses, whose sales always went up whenever a play became popular. The Connelly Theater staged shows like “Circle Jerk” (which was a Pulitzer finalist in 2021) and hosted the SheNYC festival (which aims to platform “women, trans, and non-binary people”).

That won’t be happening anymore.

The latest priest who oversaw the theater stepped away from his role over the summer. He wasn’t replaced. Instead, the Archdiocese is signing off on all the contracts. And its leaders have now started to censor material that contradicts Catholic beliefs, basically micromanaging which productions can rent the space.

Why are they doing this now? It’s not clear, but you may recall that, last year, a priest allowed singer Sabrina Carpenter to film a video inside his building, leading to an outcry from people who found the video offensive. It’s possible the Church wants to take a more heavy-handed approach to how its buildings are used.

While the Church has a legal right to do all this, the relationship between the two sides has been permanently severed while the arts community deals with the ramifications of this change.

[Producer] Lucas McMahon… said in an email that the archdiocese had “destroyed the viability of an important cultural institution” and that it was “a crushing loss to the Off Broadway and artistic community.”

The SheNYC summer theater festival, which for eight years has staged plays by female, nonbinary and transgender artists at the Connelly, was told by [manager Josh] Luxenberg this month that it was not likely to be approved by the archdiocese, and is now trying to find an alternative for next summer.

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Luxenberg, who at the time of his resignation was the theater’s director as well as its general manager, said he was unwilling to continue in the job under the current circumstances. “Remaining in this position now requires screening production proposals for any content that is objectionable to the Catholic Church,” he said in an email. “This puts me in the untenable position of becoming a censor rather than an advocate of artistic freedom.”

You can’t blame him for leaving. The Church won’t allow him to do his job.

The Archdiocese’s director of communications told the New York Times last week that “It is the standard practice of the archdiocese that nothing should take place on church-owned property that is contrary to the teaching of the church.” But they acted a hell of a lot faster in shutting down the theater productions than they’ve ever done in response to abusive priests. It could also be argued that the messages in those productions centered around love and acceptance, which could be Catholic values if the Vatican’s bigotry didn’t keep getting in the way.

Showing the humanity of LGBTQ people and vulnerable communities doesn’t necessarily contradict Church teachings. Neither do plays that center around abortion rights, even if Catholicism itself opposes abortion. The Church seems more interested in making sure people don’t challenge its beliefs rather than giving anyone a reason to accept them.

The end result is that shows that have been canceled are now scrambling to find new spaces, the administrators are resigning, and it’s not even clear if the Catholic school will have the funding it needs to stay open. The Archdiocese is cutting off its nose to spite its face. How ironic would it be if a Catholic school shut down because LGBTQ-friendly artists weren’t around to prop it up anymore?

For the time being, theater producers are speaking out. The producers of Job, which is now on Broadway after first opening at the Connelly, said the Church’s move “undermines” the mission of great theater:

We are shocked and disappointed that the Catholic Church has shuttered one of downtown’s most beloved theaters. Simply put, Job would not be on Broadway without the Connelly Theater.

Great theater is an exchange of ideas — an opportunity for audiences to develop empathy and understanding. The Church undermines that quest for shared humanity with its decision. We call on the Archdiocese to reopen the Connelly so artists and audiences can once again gather and experience the transcendence of live theater. And in the meantime, we invite Cardinal Dolan to come to the Hayes Theater to see JOB on Broadway. He can experience first-hand the powerful theater he is now turning his back on.

SheNYC is also in a perilous position and its leaders have pointed out the impact the Church’s decision has on its future:

We’ve been told that plays about gender, sexuality, and especially reproductive rights (with the church specifically calling out shows we’ve done in the past at the theater) will not be approved going forward, and are considered “not appropriate” for the venue. 

Our contract will only be renewed for 2025 if we only select shows that avoid these topics – topics that are so important to our artists, audience, and mission. This makes it impossible to produce the SheNYC Festival at the Connelly in alignment with our mission and values.

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We’re now in a tight spot, trying to find a new theater to house our 2025 Festival, and it’s likely to be way more expensive than what we’ve got the budget for, as we had a generous rate with the Connelly. Our 2025 budget was already stretched thin due to the addition of new programs for our 10-year anniversary, and we expect this change to put us in a deficit. 

The Archdiocese won’t care because the arts help people develop more empathy, compassion, and tolerance. It elevates voices we aren’t used to hearing. It highlights problems with our society so that we can address them in the real world.

You’re more likely to find acts of love and mercy inside a theater than you ever would inside a conservative Catholic facility and that’s why the Church, with its immense wealth, is doing what Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have done with theirs: Shut down the voices they don’t want to hear using whatever power they have to get it done.

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