Broadway Theater To Be Renamed For Icon Lena Horne In Historic First
09.06.2022 - 20:15
/ deadline.com
In a historic first, the Nederlander Organization will rename one of its Broadway theaters to honor the great performer and civil rights activist Lena Horne, the company announced today. The venue, currently the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, will be the first Broadway venue named for a Black woman.
The new name – The Lena Horne Theatre – will become official this fall. The venue currently houses the hit Broadway musical Six.
“We are proud to take this moment to rename one of our theaters in honor of the great civil rights activist, actress, and entertainer Lena Horne,” said James L. Nederlander of The Nederlander Organization in a statement. “I am so honored to have known Lena. She became a part of our family over the years. It means so much to me that my father was the producer of Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, and it is my privilege, honor, and duty to memorialize Lena for generations to come.”
The name change is the latest realization of a pledge made last year by the three major Broadway theater owners (in an agreement with Black Theater United) to name at least one of their theaters for a Black artist. In March, the Shubert Organization announced that it would rename the 110-year-old Cort Theater the James Earl Jones Theatre.
Jujamcyn Theaters had renamed its Virginia Theatre as the August Wilson Theatre in honor of the playwright in 2005.
Horne, who died in 2010, was one of the 20th Century’s most accomplished and influential singers, and had a groundbreaking and 70-year career spanning Hollywood films, television, nightclubs, concerts and Broadway.
In 1981, she opened the celebrated show Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music at the Nederlander Theater. She won a special Tony Award and two Grammy Awards for the show. James