In 1982, Lane made his Broadway debut in Noël Coward’s 1942 comedy about the charming but self-absorbed actor Garry Essendine (portrayed in the production by George C. Scott). Lane played aspiring playwright Roland Maule and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award.

Lane’s first musical role was as Prince Fergus in a fantasy extravaganza inspired the legends of King Arthur, based on a concept by illusionist Doug Henning, who played the title role. Chita Rivera played the wicked Queen and a teenage Christian Slater was Arthur and Young Merlin. The technically ambitious production became notorious for delaying press performances three times!

Following several Off-Broadway gigs in both new musicals and classical plays, Lane returned to Broadway in 1985 as the flamboyant Toad in a musical adaptation of the beloved British children’s book The Wind in the Willows. The show closed after only four performances, but it still collected two Tony Award nominations.

In the following years, Lane appeared in many more Off-Broadway productions, including Terence McNally’s The Lisbon Traviata (1989), for which he won his first Drama Desk Award. This play centred around gay opera fans and their hero worship of Maria Callas. Shortly after, Lane appeared in two more plays by McNally: Bad Habits (1990) and Lips Together, Teeth Apart (1991).

Why, it’s good old reliable Nathan! Born Joseph, Lane chose Nathan as his stage name after the Frank Loesser musical's gambler, since a Joe Lane was already registered with Actors’ Equity when he started working professionally.

In 1992, he came full-circle by playing the role in Jerry Zaks’s enormously popular production. It won the Tony for Best Revival, and Lane received his first Tony nomination.

Lane followed Guys and Dolls with Neil Simon’s play Laughter on the 23rd Floor before returning to musical theatre. He played wily slave Pseudolus in Sondheim’s musical farce based on the tropes of Roman comedy.

The performance earned Lane his first Tony Award, making him the third actor to win for that role (after Zero Mostel and Phil Silvers).

George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s classic comedy was revived on Broadway in 2000, with Lane leading the cast as acidic radio star Sheridan Whiteside. Lane suggested in interviews that his performance was influenced by the character's repressed sexual identity.

In 2001, Lane struck gold with the musical adaptation of Mel Brooks’s 1967 film of the same name as unscrupulous theatre producer Max Bialystock, who schemes to get rich by producing a flop, aided by timid accountant Leo Bloom. Lane and Matthew Broderick formed a much-loved double act, and both stars were nominated for the Tony for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical, with Lane victorious.

Lane and Broderick returned to the show for a limited engagement in 2003-04. In November 2004, Lane ended up opening the West End production after Richard Dreyfuss stepped away four days before the first performance, and he won an Olivier Award. Lane, Broderick, and many members of the original cast also immortalized their performances in the 2005 film adaptation.

In addition to Forum on Broadway, Lane has been involved in other Sondheim musicals, including readings of his Assassins (as Samuel Byck) and Square One (later titled Here We Are). He had long been fascinated by Sondheim’s musical The Frogs, loosely inspired by the ancient Greek play, and performed in a concert version at the Library of Congress in 2000.

For a 2004 Broadway production, Lane wrote a revised book featuring indirect references to current events like the Bush presidency and the war in Iraq. Lane played Dionysos opposite Roger Bart’s Xanthias, and Sondheim wrote seven new songs for the production.

Lane and Broderick reunited as the slobbish Oscar Madison and fastidious Felix Ungur in the 2005 Broadway revival of Neil Simon’s comedy. Expectations were high for this reunion, and both suited their roles perfectly.

When Lane played the title role in British playwright Simon Gray’s play Butley in 2006, New York Theatre Guide’s critic wrote: “Nathan Lane is a great dramatic actor. Did you need to reread what I wrote? Did I cause a moment of cognitive dissonance? This funny man, with puppy-dog eyes and droopy eyebrows, who can send an audience into gales of laughter with one double-take, is indeed a great dramatic actor.”

He went on to appear in two more consecutive dramas: David Mamet’s November and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, and he later led Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh in 2015.

Lane returned to musical comedy in 2009 as the flamboyantly gothic patriarch Gomez Addams opposite Bebe Neuwirth’s Morticia. Andrew Lippa’s musical marked the first stage production based on Charles Addams’s cartoons.

A “nance” was a comic stock character in vaudeville, and Douglas Carter Beane’s 2013 play takes place in the 1930s, when Mayor Fiorello La Guardia attempted to wipe out burlesque. Lane was nominated for a Tony for playing gay performer Chauncey Miles, and New York Theatre Guide’s reviewer commented that “Lane maintains a brilliant and delicate balance, moving back and forth among the many roles that Chauncey has assigned himself in order to survive.”

Lane starred opposite John Slattery and John Goodman in the 2016 revival of the classic newsroom comedy. New York Theatre Guide’s reviewer observed: “Nathan Lane — what's left to say? His Walter Johnson is manic and noisy, crude and infuriating. He plays Walter very broadly but nobody does broad better.”

In 2017, Lane crossed the pond to star in a revival of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America at London's National Theatre in the role of self-hating lawyer Roy Cohn. LondonTheatre.co.uk’s reviewer called the production “beyond unmissable [...] Lane tears up the stage with his trademark wit and brash physicality, but surprises in finding a quiet tenderness that brings heart to even the most dislikeable of characters.” Lane won his third Tony when the production transferred to Broadway.

Lane followed up his Angels tour de force with Taylor Mac’s black comedy set in the aftermath of Shakespeare’s blood-soaked Roman tragedy Titus Andronicus, in which two servants, anachronistically named Gary and Janice, clear up the carnage.

New York Theatre Guide’s reviewer observed that “Kristine Nielsen and Nathan Lane (the latter in full clown face) turn this unsavoury spectacle into comic gold. These are Broadway clowns at the top of their game.”

In 2023, Lane appeared in Sharr White’s memory play with Danny Burstein as his son, a photographer, and Zoë Wanamaker as his wife.

“Irv, a salesman-turned-executive unceremoniously pushed into retirement, emerges as a fascinating figure," New York Theatre Guide’s reviewer wrote. "Credit Lane’s depiction that toggles back and forth from funny to poignant in a flash.”

Lane returns to Broadway in one of the most iconic roles in 20th-century theatre: Willy Loman, who must confront the reality that after working for it all his life, the American dream will always be out of reach. The latest revival of Death of a Salesman is directed by Joe Mantello (Wicked), and Lane stars opposite Laurie Metcalf as Linda Loman.

This production has been percolating for over 30 years. Said Lane in a statement: “In 1995, while rehearsing a Terrence McNally play with Joe, he turned to me one afternoon out of the blue and quietly said, 'Someday you and I are going to do Death of a Salesman. True to his word, 30 years later, that day has come.'”

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