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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE

LINCOLN CENTER THEATER
ANNOUNCES DEDICATION OF THE 2025-2026 LCT3 SEASON
TO LONGTIME BOARD MEMBER LEONARD TOW
WHOSE LEADERSHIP, GENEROSITY, AND VISION
HELPED SHAPE THEIR THEATER

THE 2025-2026 LCT3 SEASON WILL FEATURE
THE COMEDY SERIES, NIGHT SIDE SONGS,
A WOMAN AMONG WOMEN, AND THE READING SERIES

New York, NY (September 26, 2025) – Lincoln Center Theater announced today that this LCT3 season is dedicated to Leonard Tow, whose leadership, generosity, and vision helped shape their theater. Tow joined the board at Lincoln Center Theater in 2001 and served for nearly 25 years. He held the title of Vice Chair Emeritus. Tow passed away peacefully at the age of 97 on August 10, 2025.

Tow was an active participant on the board as well as an active theater-goer at Lincoln Center Theater, seeing nearly every show produced in the LCT theaters. He was a major champion of new plays and emerging playwrights. Through his involvement and philanthropy in various fields and industries outside the world of theater, he helped to bring a broader perspective into all aspects of the work at Lincoln Center Theater.

LCT Board Chair Kewsong Lee said, “Len was a committed theater-lover, deeply generous supporter, and smart advocate for the new work that was developed at Lincoln Center Theater, particularly under the LCT3 umbrella. We believe Len had the best attendance record for any of the shows at LCT. This dedication is a celebration of his life and his love for our theater. We salute and honor Len, his family, and all those at The Tow Foundation who carry Len and Claire’s work forward. Our home is their home.”

“How incredibly fortunate we are to have had our friend Len Tow in our orbit. His lifelong passion for the theater led him to become one of the greatest champions of our art and artists. I had the great honor of knowing Len personally for over a decade, and I will forever be grateful for the support and kindness he showed me time and again. He truly understood an artist’s process, which made him an invaluable partner in helping make visions come to life. Len believed that making theater was an act of service, and his influence can be seen in generations of artists and audiences. We will miss him so very much,” said LCT Kewsong Lee Artistic Director Lear deBessonet.

His significant philanthropic support led to opening of The Claire Tow Theater in 2012, which is named in honor of his beloved, late wife, Claire Tow, who was also a passionate supporter of the arts.

“One cannot overestimate the sheer impact Len Tow has had on the landscape of the American Theater, and especially on LCT. He understood that great theatre needs to take many shapes and sizes to flourish, including the 112-seat intimate jewel that is the Claire Tow Theater. His belief in opportunities for new artists and new audiences guides us every day,” said LCT3 Artistic Director and Producer Maria Manuela Goyanes.

The 2025-2026 LCT3 season at The Claire Tow Theater will include The Comedy Series, featuring a roster of comedians in residence beginning October 29^th with Emmy^®-winning comedian, actor, and one of the most global voices in stand-up comedy, Vir Das; Night Side Songs, by The Lazours, reuniting with Lortel and Obie Award-winning director Taibi Magar; A Woman Among Women, marking the return of playwright and author Julia May Jonas to LCT3, directed by Sarah Cameron Hughes, in partnership with The Bushwick Starr and New Georges; and The Reading Series, which will foster and celebrate playwrights’ voices who are new to LCT, with public readings that will be presented over the course of the year.

The Claire Tow Theater and LCT3 programming specifically focus on emerging voices and artists who LCT hopes to have long relationships within LCT on all of their stages in the future. Additional artists and dates for The Comedy Series and The Reading Series will be announced shortly.

To download photos of Leonard Tow and The Claire Tow Theater, please click here.

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ABOUT LINCOLN CENTER THEATER

LCT’s mission is to bring exceptional theater to life. Building on a legacy of artistic excellence, LCT strives to expand what is possible: to make the magic of theater more palpable, empowering visionary artists and extending the invitation for the community to join in celebrating the power of live performance. To see that mission to fruition in a new era at the New York institution, commencing with the current 2025-2026 season, Lear deBessonet assumes the role of Kewsong Lee Artistic Director, alongside Managing Director Mike Schleifer, Executive Producer Barlett Sher, Producer Nicole Kastrinos, Executive Director of Development and Planning Naomi Grabel, and LCT3 Artistic Director and Producer Maria Manuela Goyanes.

Following the season launch with the free Silent Disco Listening Party of the Warriors concept album by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis held on July 30, 2025, deBessonet will open her inaugural season at the Vivian Beaumont Theater with a new production of her celebrated New York City Center Gala revival of Ragtime. The season will also include productions of Kyoto, Amahl and the Night Visitors, and The Whoopi Monologues at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater; The Comedy Series, Night Side Songs, A Woman Among Women and The Reading Series with LCT3 at the Claire Tow Theater; as well as expanded programming including collaborations with groundbreaking artists including Chef Kwame Onwuachi of Tatiana and one special benefit at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.

Founded in 1985 by Board Chair Hon. John V. Lindsay, Executive Producer Bernie Gersten and Director Gregory Mosher, and led for 33 years by André Bishop, LCT is one of the leading nonprofit theaters in the country, producing an annual season of plays and musicals that have been seen by millions around the globe. It is one of 11 autonomous constituents of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Each year, the three theaters that make up LCT welcome nearly 300,000 audience members to its home on the Lincoln Center campus.

Over the last 40 years, LCT and its outstanding productions have received many of the highest accolades, including 87 Tony Awards, 97 Drama Desk Awards, 79 Outer Critics Cricle Awards, 33 Obies, 11 NY Drama Critics Circle Awards, and one Pulitzer Prize, as well as two finalists.

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