By Madoline Markham Koonce
Twenty years ago, what is now Red Mountain Theatre was a timeworn organization on the brink of bankruptcy with one staff member. Today, it has a staff of more than 40 with an annual budget nearing $6 million and a $30 million Arts Campus occupying a whole city block in downtown Birmingham.
“That’s nonprofit magic,” said Keith Cromwell, RMT’s longtime executive director.
That magic has a lot to do with Cromwell himself.
“Keith is a force and a powerhouse,” said Roy Lightner, RMT’s Singh artistic director. “He has an incredible artistic brain as well as an incredible organizational brain and has fostered this (theater) into existence. (The theater is) such a testament to the sheer willpower, magnitude and nature of who he is and how he leaned into making this possible.”
To celebrate Cromwell’s 20 years as executive director, Red Mountain Theatre is holding a Spirit of Broadway Gala in his honor on Oct. 15. Cromwell transitioned to director of institutional advancement this past summer, handing the executive director role to 12-year RMT staff member Jennifer Jaquess.
The gala will be held for the first time since 2018 after a pause for the theater’s capital campaign for the Arts Campus. The evening includes a VIP dinner, cocktail party and performances. RMT alumni, some who live around the country and some who still live in Birmingham, will be among those performing on stage.
“There is no way in one night to celebrate all the brilliance that is Keith Cromwell, but we are sure going to try,” Lightner said. “I want to celebrate the ripple Keith has left in all that he has done that has allowed greatness to come to so many others. The man is incredible, but his wake is even more incredible.”
A Vision Come to Life
Over the past 20 years, Cromwell has lived out his passion for many sides of theater: educating, creating new art, achieving artistic excellence and promoting quality theater in Birmingham and nationally.
“Watching Keith get jazzed and excited about something is palpable,” Lightner said. “You have no other choice but to get jazzed and excited with him.”
Of all the stories that could be told from these two decades, though, the story of the RMT’s Arts Campus, opened in 2021, is perhaps the best illustration of Cromwell’s visionary leadership.
“He’s always been very forward thinking and visionary to push this organization to the next level,” Jaquess said. “The Arts Campus is a testament to that vision for him. He was out front leading a collaboration of people – artists, musicians, donors, community leaders – all around what this place could be.”
The space, a decades-long dream for the organization, is at once a place where a prolific Broadway composer such Andrew Lippa can go and find everything he needs for his art – as he did recently while working on a new piece – and one where a 5-year-old can “be exposed to art for the first time in a safe and welcoming environment in which they can develop creative skills and learn collaboration and teamwork,” said Jaquess. “That was always Keith’s idea for that space and that’s how it manifested itself.”
Dreaming alongside Cromwell were Kathryn and Raymond Harbert. Kathryn Harbert chaired the capital campaign for the Arts Campus alongside Jim Gorrie and Tim Vines.
“There were so many bumps along the way to finding the perfect home for the Arts Campus – not the least of which was a worldwide pandemic,” Harbert said. “But Keith is never daunted. He had a vision to bring everything together in one place – education, production shops, state-of-the-art theater technology – and just let the energy of it all spill out into the community,” she continued.
Day to day, Cromwell appreciates having everything for all aspects of the theater under one roof.
“I can walk through the building and listen as a recording session is happening in the studio, see costumes being built, watch scenery being constructed – all while every classroom is filled with artists young and old taking classes,” Cromwell said. “The campus is cranking and it can all happen at one time. It’s really breathtaking and still puts a tear in my eye.”
Lightner had seen a lot of the theater world as he performed in New York and across the country for years before joining Red Mountain Theatre in 2021, but he had never seen something like the RMT Arts Campus, or the community support behind it.
“When Keith toured me through the building with a hard hat, I could not believe what was happening,” Lightner said. “I kept asking, ‘How is this possible? How is this possible?’ over and over again. This facility really doesn’t exist hardly anywhere in the country. Anyone who comes from New York City or major theatrical markets is blown away.”
New Work and National Work
Over the past two decades, Cromwell also has worked to develop a national profile for Red Mountain Theatre, serving on the board of The National Alliance for Musical Theatre and moving forward with a specific vision to be an incubator for new theater work.
“We want to be a place where we can understand where the industry is moving and support new work that will add to the canon,” Cromwell said.
RMT has also had a strategic presence on Broadway and has won two Tony Awards along the way for being a part of the producing teams for “Moulin Rouge” and for the 2018 revival of “Once on This Island.”
“Once the show recoups its initial investment, RMT becomes a beneficiary of the royalties going forward,” Cromwell said. “My intention has always been to build a long-term fountain of funding that can provide an endowment to sustain Red Mountain Theatre.”
One of Cromwell’s dreams is to combine his visions for new work and RMT’s national presence.
“I want to see a show on Broadway that had its start here or where a key investment in the construct and development of that show happened here,” he said.
His current hopes are pinned on a new piece by Andrew Lippa called “Love Somebody Now,” which was honed and workshopped at RMT over the course of two intense weeks in 2023.
In his new role as director of institutional advancement, Cromwell is working with strategic planning and investments, focusing on donor relationships and growing the endowment, as well as RMT’s national connections.
No matter his particular position in the organization, though, Cromwell’s greatest passion remains steadfast: seeing people transformed by theater. It’s what, after all, first drew him to Birmingham after working in theater in New York City and on national tours for 25 years.
“I fell in love with what this organization was at that time, bringing youth to education. I couldn’t believe that there were that many kids focused on this magical thing called musical theater in a place like Birmingham, Alabama,” he said.
Today, Cromwell still loves nothing more than, in his words, “to see people coming out of that theater awakened to the possibilities of their dreams – an audience member who saw something in a show that inspired them or a shift of consciousness because they learned something without it being hammered into them, or someone who takes a class and realizes that they can, in fact, do something they always dreamed of doing.”
“It’s being in the presence of people realizing their potential – that’s my bliss,” he said.
And that is theater magic.
To learn more about Red Mountain Theater and the Oct. 15 Gala, visit redmountaintheatre.org.
