The difference between Arthur Miller and the playwrights of today? For one thing, they’re not doing Marilyn Monroe. For another, Miller got decent coin for what he did in his day, as one of the few prominent guys who did. Now, playwrights have to fight for their cash where they can get it.
If by “ownership” you mean “a little more than half,” sure. And easy words for these guys to say, especially seeing as how — interestingly omitted from Healy’s piece on the matter — they’re paid quite handsomely.
Producer Ken Davenport once noted on his blog some of the (well documented, publicly available) extravagant salaries of theater execs around town. And then one blogger dug them up.
These are non-profits, for the record.
Eustis’s salary couldn’t be dug up then, but his executive director at the time, Mara Manus, made $276,074. Looks now like Eustis made at least $260,000 in 2008. Meanwhile, Todd Haimes clocked in at $672,228. So, yeah, one could reasonably say the playwright could use the money more than the Public — or the Public’s leadership, or the Roundabout’s leadership — does.