Roundabout Theatre Company Inc
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
What it says it does
OUR MISSION - Roundabout celebrates the power of theatre by spotlighting classics from the past, cultivating new works of the present, and educating minds for the future. OUR WORK - We produce familiar and lesser-known plays and musicals with the ability to take artistic risk as only a not-for-profit can. We discover talented playwrights and provide them long-term artistic support to contribute to the future of the theatrical canon. We reduce the barriers-financial, physical and cultural-that can inhibit theatergoing. We collaborate with a diverse team of artists to identify programming for consideration. We build transformational education experiences that enhance teacher practice, deepen student learning, and ignite the futures of young people through career training and placement.
- Income
- $84.6 million
- Spending
- $82.1 million
- Spent on programs
- 87%
- Reserves
- 7.2 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- fees for its services, 66%
- Employees
- 1,126
- Volunteers
- 0
- Highest pay
- $814,375, executive producer
Source: Form 990 for the year ending August 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Good: 89 out of 100. Higher than 69% of charities in its peer group (arts and culture, $10m to $100m).
Reserves
28 of 35Spendable reserves would cover 7.2 months of spending.
Debt
16 of 20It owes 28% of what it owns.
Living within its means
15 of 15Income exceeded spending by 3% of income.
Income trend
15 of 15Income rose 2% on the year before.
Spending floor
15 of 1587% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 24 cents.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending August 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Strong: 100 out of 100. Higher than 34% of charities in its peer group (arts and culture, $10m to $100m).
Independent board
25 of 2541 of 42 voting board members are independent.
Conflict of interest policy
15 of 15Has a written conflict of interest policy.
Whistleblower policy
8 of 8Has a written whistleblower policy.
Record keeping policy
7 of 7Has a written policy on keeping and destroying records.
Board minutes
5 of 5Keeps minutes of board meetings.
Board sees the tax return
10 of 10Gave the board a copy of this return before filing it.
Pay set independently
5 of 5Sets its chief executive's pay through independent review and comparison.
Independent check of accounts
15 of 15Its accounts were audited by an independent accountant.
No reported misuse
10 of 10Reports no diversion of assets, excess benefits or loans to insiders.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending August 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Impact evidence
Describes programs. Its tax return describes what it does but we have found no measurable results in it.
Programs described in its return (9)
- $64.0 million spent. THEATRICAL PRODUCTIONS: During the 2024-25 season, Roundabout produced five full-scale productions on one of our Broadway stages (the Todd Haimes Theatre, Studio 54, Stephen Sondheim Theatre), Off-Broadway stage (the Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre), and Off-Off-Broadway stage (the Black Box Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre). Our productions and programs reached approximately 500,000 audience and community members. Our production calendar is still not at pre-pandemic levels of programming. Roundabout has been an industry leader in developing and expanding theatre audiences, creating, and implementing outreach and theatre appreciation programs targeted to new audiences. The following are Roundabout's programs and outreach initiatives, through which Roundabout remains committed to a full complement of programs that reduce the barriers-financial, physical and cultural-that can inhibit theatergoing: . Roundabout is committed to serving the broadest possible audience with innovative and large-scale programs that are in step with community needs. Roundabout serves the community by providing affordable tickets to world-class theatre-subscribers pay less than half the single ticket price, with further discounts available to groups such as the deaf and hard of hearing, teachers, families, young adults, veterans, and audience represented in Affinity Programs. . Through Access Roundabout we make theatre accessible for lower income audience members. During the 2024-2025 season, we made available 30,089 dramatically discounted tickets. This included 4,819 "Pay What You Wish" tickets; 13,594 $30 tickets to any performance of any production for Hiptix members aged 18-40; 64 half-priced student rush tickets; and 11,612 $30-$45 general rush tickets. . Our offerings are designed to create access for a wide spectrum of people with disabilities. We strive to carry this philosophy through to all our touchpoints and the theatre industry at large. In our 2024-2025 season Roundabout offered sign interpreted performances through our continued partnership with Hands On, on-demand closed captioning and audio description, captioning for our digital offerings, and our innovative relaxed performances now in it's 8th season of programming. In addition, we expanded our offerings to neurodivergent theatregoers through a new partnership with Seats on the Spectrum. . As a not-for-profit theatre, Roundabout is also committed to going beyond just producing great plays to informing and educating audiences about a play's writer, its themes, and its historical context. Roundabout held 41 informative in-person pre- and post-show discussions and created 31 online audience resources (Theatre Talk videos and Upstage articles) throughout the 2024-2025 season. Our Upstage Playgoer's Guides, a production-specific educational and dramaturgical digital tool designed to enhance the theatergoing experience, received a total of over 11,344 unique online views for new materials and 36,649 for all existing materials.
- $740,368 spent. ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT: The 2024-25 season was programmed by Scott Ellis in the second year of his term as Interim Artistic Director. In the Todd Haimes Theatre, we opened the season with a revival of Yellow Face, a comedy by David Henry Hwang, directed by Leigh Silverman, and starring Daniel Dae Kim and Francis Jue. This was the first time the play had been revived since the early 2000's (and its first Broadway production) and earned Francis Jue a Tony Award for Best Performance by and Actor in a Featured Role in a Play. Roundabout next produced in the Haimes Sanaz Toossi's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, English, directed by Knud Adams. This play was originally slated for the Roundabout Underground after appearing in the reading series. That production was postponed due to covid, which lead to a co-production with Atlantic Theater Company in 2022. It is that production that Roundabout finally brought home and mounted on our Broadway stage. We rounded out the Haimes programming with Pirates! The Penzance Musical, a newly conceived version of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance set in New Orleans with a new book by Rupert Holmes and new orchestrations by Joseph Joubert and Daryl Waters, directed by Interim Artistic Director, Scott Ellis and choreographed by Warren Carlyle. The production was conceived by Scott Ellis, Rupert Holmes, Warren Carlyle, and Joseph Joubert. In our Off-Broadway Laura Pels Theatre, we began the season with The Counter by Meghan Kennedy, directed by David Cromer, and starring Anthony Edwards and Susannah Flood. This play was a Roundabout commission and Meghan's third production with the company. Following this production was the outstanding play, Liberation by Bess Wohl, directed by Whitney White, with Susannah Flood returning to the Pels for her second show in the 24-25 season. This play exploring the lead character's mother and her role in the women's rights movement in the early 70's was an enormous success, leading to an extension in the Pels which has not happened for several seasons. It also made a successful limited run transfer to Broadway in the fall of 2025 and has been recognized with Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards. We paused production in the Underground for the 2024-25 season and instead established two playwright residences for writers Vichet Chum and Nikki Massoud. Each writer received a five- day workshop of a play (Chum's All the Little Boxes directed by Mei Ann Teo, and Massoud's He Who Has 10,000 Horses directed by Sivan Battat). They also received follow up around-the-table readings to hear revisions, received tickets to all our season productions, and access to our staff and artists in the Roundabout world. In addition, they each received two weeks at our solo desk co-working space, and a writing retreat in the Berkshires with one of our partner theaters for our Outer Space program. The Refocus Project elevated the work of two "Spotlight Artists" for 2024-25, Migdalia Cruz and William S. Yellow Robe, Jr. We did a reading of a play by each artist in the Pels followed by a panel conversation; Sneaky by Yellow Robe, directed by Madeline Sayet and Latins in La-La Land, directed by Laurie Woolery. We also explored their work through discussions and essays in our Upstage Guide. Our Artists-in-Residence programs continued with the ninth year of the Roundabout Directing Fellowship with Saki Kawamura as our Directing Fellow, and the sixth cohort of the Leon Levy Roundabout Directors Group (RDG). The group is now given an expanded Professional Development Fund that reimburses directors for expenses related to their professional growth in the theatre industry. It is once again led by former Directing Fellow and RDG member, Mack Brown. Space Jam - the program created to provide playwrights with the space, time, and resources they need to create their work - was able to continue into its tenth year. We provided four weeks of studio space, a week at a time, through our flagship program Apollo. In this portion of the program, we worked with approximately 38 unique artists, (53 total if counting repeats) by providing space in our rehearsal studios and allowing for connections and networking opportunities. We were able to bring back our Solo Mission program, (closed during the pandemic) where we provide a desk for one week for one artist in a co-working space and supported 42 artists with this resource (we were able to add a second desk, which increased the number of artists we were able to serve). We also continued our Outer Space program - where we send writers on retreats outside of the city to give them the time and space to focus on their craft. In terms of creative development, the 2024-25 season saw another 21 readings and workshops aiming to further develop pieces in our pipeline of work, and 2 new commissions.
- $6.0 million spent. EDUCATION: During the 2024-2025 season, Education at Roundabout impacted over 45,000 people. Roundabout Partner Schools are NYC-based and represent all five boroughs. Roundabout's education programs use the stimulating power of the arts to inspire and engage through three core program areas, Teaching and Learning, Career Training, and Community Partnerships. Education at Roundabout's season featured a robust slate of programs, primarily focused on expanding our in-person learning and programming. We facilitated in-school classroom residencies, school-wide partnerships, and professional development workshops for teachers. We continued to host our free after-school program, Roundabout Youth Ensemble, while welcoming a new cohort in our technical theatre skills training program, the Theatrical Workforce Development Program (TWDP). Additionally, we grew and further defined our Community Partnership programming with the New York Public Library. Below is an overview of the programs: TEACHING AND LEARNING . Professional Development at Roundabout offers a variety of workshops to enhance each educator's ability to use theatre as an effective teaching tool in the classroom. These workshops are offered throughout the year to teachers, schools, and at DOE city-wide events. Teaching Artists and Staff also facilitate workshops at local and national conferences. Workshops are often customized to meet different learning objectives. [FY25 Impact: 1,248 educators] . Roundabout Youth Ensemble is our student-run theatre company where public high school students take responsibility for their learning by making all the artistic, technical, and administrative decisions for each production. Throughout the school year the Manhattan borough company met in-person at Roundabout's rehearsal studios in Midtown. Two borough companies continued meeting in Brooklyn and Staten Island through Roundabout's partnerships with James Madison High School and Port Richmond High School, respectively. In the summer of 2025, the ensembles transitioned to work at Roundabout's Steinberg Center for Theatre for the school year and to rehearse its original play which was performed in the Roundabout Blackbox to live audiences in August. [FY25 Impact: 93 students; 17 schools] . School Partnerships are at the core of our work, serving middle and high schools with limited access to the arts. The vehicles for learning in School Partnerships are intensive residencies that are thoughtfully developed and tailored to meet the goals of individual schools. The residencies provide in-depth programs that connect the process of theatre production to the school curriculum. Residencies can range from 8-12 Teaching Artist visits in a single classroom to year-long partnerships that take place in several classrooms or grade levels within the school. Specialized Teaching Artists work with educators to determine residency goals and success measurement tools to ensure that residencies fulfill targeted education needs. Throughout the year, Roundabout worked with schools to center student voice and empower students in making their own artistic decisions. [FY25 Impact: 3,700 students in 239 residences in classrooms and afterschool] CAREER TRAINING . Career Development at Roundabout offers a wide range of hands-on learning and engagement opportunities for pre-professionals interested in theatre administration or related careers. In the 2024-2025 season. This year, Roundabout launched the new iteration of its career training program: the Theatrical Workforce Development Program in Arts Administration or TWDP Admin. This program aims at reducing barriers for New Yorkers seeking to enter the non-profit arts administration sector. The Education department also hosted 2 high school interns during the summer through the Bloomberg Arts Internship program, in which the intern gained hands on-experience in supporting the day-to-day operations of a theatre administration office. Roundabout participates in managing the How To Stand Out workshop series in collaboration with other theatre institutions in New York City, providing professional development and guidance to early career arts administration professionals or those looking to pivot to an arts administration career. [FY25 Impact: 5 participants, 119 alumni; 111 young adults engaged in recruitment and skill building workshops] . Hidden Career Path Days are school day field trips, hosted in partnership with the IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) labor union, feature the careers of theatrical technicians through hands-on demonstrations that enhance students' knowledge and highlight possible pathways to backstage careers. Students were also able to tour the backstage of various arts and entertainment venues in New York City, including the Metropolitan Opera, Todd Haimes Theater, Sondheim Theatre on Broadway, New Amsterdam, Richard Rodgers, and the Imperial Theater. [FY25 Impact: 171 students] . Theatrical Workforce Development In the fall of 2016, alongside labor union partner the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Roundabout launched the Theatrical Workforce Development Program, which connects young adults to careers in technical theatre. This three-year program trains and places young New Yorkers into paid professional positions. The program is intended to: break down the barriers that prevent young adults from gaining economic stability, bring fresh new voices into a field of high-quality, skill-based jobs in a growing economic sector; and to educate and encourage a new generation of passionate theatre professionals. In 2024-25, the program welcomed a new cohort of Fellows, with all Fellows completing the training year and advancing to jobs and internships in NYC and across the country. [FY25 Impact: 20 Fellows and 94 Alumni served; 150 young adults engaged in recruitment/skill building workshops] COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS AND AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT . Theatre Plus programs enhanc
- ROUNDABOUT ARCHIVES:
- Roundabout's archive captures and
- preserves the artistic and
- institutional output of the company
- and provides access to staff
- $459,224 spent. and artistic collaborators.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending August 31, 2025, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Legitimacy checks
Is it registered with the IRS? Passed.
Listed in the IRS master file of tax-exempt organizations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
Has the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status? Passed.
Not on the IRS automatic revocation list.
Source: Automatic revocation of exemption list, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 30, 2026.
Are donations tax-deductible? Passed.
On the IRS list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Source: Publication 78 data: organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 10, 2026.
Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.
Most recent return on file covers the year ending August 2025.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.
Recognized by the IRS since October 1965.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
Is it in good standing with state regulators? Passed.
Not on California's list of charities barred from soliciting. Other states are not yet checked.
Source: May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes list, California Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, file dated October 7, 2026.
Ratings and checks are our reading of public records, using the published method. They are not a statement about anyone's honesty. If you work for this organization, you can send corrections or results, confirm you want gifts through Veridonate, or ask to be removed from giving.