Before the opening of every new production at Bucks County Playhouse, producing director Alexander Fraser scans the audience and walks to the front of the stage to deliver a speech.
In his 12 years with the Playhouse, he has talked about preparation, execution, and the magic of seeing all these things coalesce. He’s thanked all the people involved in the production and the rows of theatergoers who’ve made it worth the grind.
When he arrived in New Hope over a decade ago, Fraser was “terrified” of these speeches. Now he relishes the spotlight.
“I hated doing them in the beginning, but now I’ve turned into Joan Rivers,” he joked.
Saturday’s opening of the 1949 musical South Pacific, however, won’t have him do his usual spiel. The opening of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic is his last as the Playhouse’s producing director.
“It’s just surreal,” Fraser, who announced his departure last year, said. “It’s been a whirlwind couple of months …It’s been sweet and I feel really complete. I don’t have any regrets about it. I think it’s the right thing to do.”
Fraser is retiring from full-time production, and instead lending his services to develop new musicals and nightclub experiences. His production partners, Robyn Goodman and Josh Fiedler, will also be departing to work on current and future productions under their company, Aged in Wood.
Fraser said he already has a few irons in the fire, but he plans on spending the majority of his days sun-soaked on a beach in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and tanning like the “raisins” that walk the beaches of Palm Springs.
The departure, Fraser said, is easier knowing there’s an incoming leader with experience and ideas that mirror his own.
On June 22, theater veteran BT McNicholl will step in as the Bucks County Playhouse’s producing artistic director.
“I’m at home here,” said McNicholl, who grew up in Connecticut and led Los Angeles’ La Mirada Theatre for a decade.
Like Fraser, McNicholl has worked on several Broadway plays and musicals , including Billy Elliot, Cabaret, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. As director, his work spans productions across Europe, Asia, and Australia, and his regional directing credits include productions at Goodspeed Musicals, the Walnut Street Theatre, and other places.
He said he’s excited to be at the helm of the nonprofit theater and embrace its audience, one that’s seen tremendous growth under Fraser’s leadership.
Fraser came to the Playhouse in 2014 from New York, where he produced on and off-Broadway productions for decades. It had only been three years since the historic theater’s $3 million facelift, thanks to Doylestown couple Kevin and Sherri Daugherty.
The theater, founded in 1939, was in dire straits after longtime owner Ralph Miller fell into debt in 2010. The theater lost its status with the Actors’ Equity union and Miller’s mortgage holder seized the venue.
The Daughertys purchased the Playhouse in 2011, and reopened the theater after a year of renovations and repairs. Jed Bernstein, then producing director, set the revamp in motion and went on to become the president of New York’s Lincoln Center. That’s when Fraser stepped in to expand the theater’s revitalization. He recruited Goodman and Fiedler to the Playhouse.
The goal was to reinvigorate the Playhouse and New Hope’s theater community within two years. “It was naive on my part,” Fraser said.
He said people talked about the theater’s heyday, but the majority of people who came to New Hope were “bikers” and not interested in local theater.
“I didn’t realize how depressed [New Hope] was, and frankly, it was a challenge for me and my two producing partners to motivate this community and make this work,” he said.
Around 2019, Fraser said he finally felt things had turned around.
The trio went on to bring in productions like Steel Magnolias, Anastasia, Bridges of Madison County, Other Desert Cities, and Candace Bushnell’s one-woman show, True Tales of Sex, Success, and Sex and the City.
The productions drew theatergoers, both from in and outside of the borough.
During Fraser, Goodman, and Fiedler’s tenure, the organization’s annual attendance doubled, growing from just under 40,000 in 2014 to more than 85,000 in 2025, according to Playhouse officials. Subscriptions also increased, from 1,479 in 2015 to 3,303 in 2026.
The Playhouse then transitioned from a seasonal producing theater to a year-round producing organization.
Nicole Hackmann, executive director at the Playhouse, said Fraser was on the front lines, ensuring there was enough funding to bring in top-end productions, and Goodman and Fiedler used their resources and connections to fill in the gaps.
The Playhouse’s revival didn’t just enliven the region’s theater community. It sparked an economic boom in the borough. As new restaurants, shops, and other businesses populated the town, New Hope Mayor Frank DeLuca said the Playhouse’s resurrection helped drive up support.
“The Playhouse is far more than a theater. It’s one of the cornerstones of New Hope, and a vital part of our community’s identity,” DeLuca said in a written statement to The Inquirer. “It enriches the lives of residents, attracts visitors from throughout the region, and helps support our local businesses by bringing people into town year-round.”
While leadership changes are difficult to navigate, Hackmann said, McNicholl is coming into a theater and arts community with “strong bones.”
“The brick work has been done so well, and [McNicholl] can come in and take off like a shot,” she said. “He’s inheriting an organization with an incredible staff that’s dedicated, determined, and has built something, which means he can fly.”
With the “magic set in place,” McNicholl said he’s ready to accept the baton Fraser, Fiedler, and Goodman are handing off to him.
“We’re part of the relay race,” he said. “I’m taking the next step on the trajectory that they’ve set in motion.”
McNicholl intends to strengthen the “symbiotic relationship” between the New Hope theater and Broadway, not only by bringing New York artists to Bucks County, but also by nurturing in-house productions that end up on Broadway.
At the top of his priority list, however, is to listen to the community that Fraser helped rebuild and the longtime theatergoers who grew up attending the regional gem.
“My job as a steward is to continue that growth and expand upon it,” he said.
Fraser is confident McNicholl will make those strides.
“I learned early on to leave while on top,” Fraser said. “I’m really happy this all worked out. The theater is doing great and there’s a great person coming in after me.”
As for his last speech on Saturday, Fraser doesn’t have notes prepared. He’s usually an “easy crier,” he said, so a friend convinced him to place a rubber band on his wrist, and then snap it whenever he felt the tears coming.There’s no telling how many times he will flick the rubber band against his wrist.
He looks forward to the journey that lies ahead but doesn’t think about his legacy.
“It sounds pompous to me.”
