Broadway’s long-standing custom of dimming marquee lights to memorialize the deaths of theater greats is getting a revamp following current backlash.
The newly shaped Broadway In Memoriam Committee introduced Friday that departed theater members will now be honored quarterly as a gaggle, whereas solo dimmings will proceed for choose people.
The brand new directive comes on the heels of the Broadway League stepping away from its involvement in asserting the dimming of marquees forward of a delegated present time. It’s the New York theater district’s equal of flying a flag at half-staff.
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The Broadway League obtained backlash for the way in which it dealt with marquee dimmings for (L to R) Joan Rivers, Hinton Battle, Gavin Creel and Adrian Bailey. (Getty)
Final October, controversy erupted with a public outcry surrounding the selective and supposedly secretive course of of selecting which theater members will obtain the glory. The Broadway League got here beneath hearth when it introduced that just some theaters would dim their lights for Tony Award winners Hinton Battle, Gavin Creel and stage veteran Adrian Bailey.
A public petition compelled the League to reverse that call.
An identical firestorm broke out on social media in 2014, main the group to alter its earlier choice to not dim Broadway’s lights in honor of comedienne Joan Rivers.
With the brand new mission to be extra inclusive, the primary quarterly dimming can be held in any respect 41 Broadway theatres on June 10, two days after this 12 months’s Tony Awards. Going ahead, it should occur on the second Tuesday of each September, December, March and June.
The web site BroadwayMarqueeInMemoriam.org has been launched for customers to submit an trade member for inclusion within the group ceremonies.
Nevertheless, citing the deaths of such legends as Stephen Sondheim and Chita Rivera, the committee mentioned it should nonetheless select to honor single people with their very own ceremony ought to they be deemed to have had “a profoundly significant and lasting impact on Broadway.”
