Broadway's DEI Downfall, Building Bridges Through the Arts, and More
Read Kevin Lynch's essay about how DEI continues to undermine Broadway. Plus the latest news, upcoming events, and reads from our community.
The Big Read: Is DEI Undermining the Core of Broadway’s Pit Orchestras?
For FAIR’s Substack, composer and music producer Kevin Lynch dives into how discriminatory DEI practice continue to dominate hiring on Broadway pit orchestras – and the way forward.
If Broadway genuinely wants to pursue equity, it must be merit-based and identity-blind. As it stands, DEIA doesn’t dismantle bias—it rebrands it under a new name and punishes those who challenge the orthodoxy. It demands conformity to group identity over personal skill, experience, and persistence.
Fairness has never meant guaranteed outcomes. It means equal opportunity—not engineered results. There’s no entitlement to pit work. These roles are earned through passion, sacrifice, and years of invisible effort. Demographics don’t capture the late nights, the unpaid gigs, the practice hours, or the life sacrifices.
If Broadway’s idea of evolution is replacing excellence with ideology, it’s not evolving. It’s collapsing. Skill built this industry, and appeasement will kill it.
Fair For All is proud to fight for artists like Kevin Lynch in advancing fairness and equal opportunity across the arts & entertainment industries. Read our National Endowment for the Arts Civil Rights Complaint.
Read Kevin’s full essay here:
A Summer of Building Bridges Through Performing Arts
This summer, FAIR in the Arts had the opportunity to collaborate with our friends at Braver Angels Music on bridging divides and advancing peace through the performing arts.
On August 3rd in New York City, Braver Angels and NY Theater Workshop presented Mind the Gap – a project bringing together a politically diverse group of participants to interview each another and collaboratively create theater based on their conversations. Over a single weekend, this group devised and performed an original show for the community. Kudos to all FAIR artists in Mind the Gap!
On August 15th at The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, FAIR in the Arts Manager Brent Morden joined Braver Angels for a panel discussion on how music can advance peace. This panel was part of the Woodstock Anniversary Week, which also featured an inter-political collaborative songwriting workshop and presentations from Music in Common, Daniel’s Music Foundation, and more partner organizations.
Upcoming Events
August 24th through September 7th in NYC: DISMANTLING PROSPERO by Tom Rowan
NEW YORK CITY – Dismantling Prospero is a new play by Tom Rowan with original music and dance sequences. It follows a dynamic and single-minded professor of dance as he rehearses a new ballet version of The Tempest with his students–and inadvertently sets off a storm of protests on the campus. This timely, provocative, and potentially controversial piece takes on diversity training, cultural appropriation, homophobia, cancel culture, and more with humor and insight.
Directed by Kevin Ray, it opens August 24th and plays six performances through September 7th as part of the Dream Up Festival at the legendary downtown venue Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue, in Manhattan.
Dismantling Prospero is supported in part by funds from the FAIR Artist Grant. Learn more about supporting the FAIR Artist Grant fund here.
Freedom in the Arts Threatens Legal Action Against University of Leicester
Led by FAIR Arts Fellow Rosie Kay, Freedom in the Arts (FITA) has issued a formal legal letter (a pre-action protocol for judicial review) to the University of Leicester, demanding the withdrawal of its Trans-Inclusive Culture Guidance. The Guidance, for museums, galleries, archives and heritage organisations, is alleged to misstate UK equality law, promote unlawful conduct, and contribute to a chilling effect on free expression in the arts.
“There is widespread, deeply held perception that it is political closure and ideological orthodoxy that governs the arts. Questioning it, adding nuance, or rejecting it risks grave career and personal consequences.” — Afraid to Speak Freely, FITA 2025. Read the full press release here.
Around the Web
This month, we’re reading:
Our Shared Reality Will Self-Destruct in the Next 12 Months – Ted Gioia for The Honest Broker (8/20/25)
Some Heroes Wear Jeans: Sydney Sweeney Hasn’t Apologized to the Mob – Ted Balaker for The Shiny Herd (8/5/25)
Yes, comedians are being cancelled – Andrew Doyle (8/1/25)
August 2025 Newsletter. Feminism and the First Days of School – Chris Munce for Choralosophy (8/1/25)
Questions? Tips? Anything you’d like to share? Reach out to us at arts@fairforall.org.