Broadway will pay respect to the late Joan Rivers tonight (09.09.14).
The marquee lights of all 40 theatres in New York City will be dimmed for one minute in honour of the Tony Award nominee – who died last Thursday (04.09.14) after being taken off life support after suffering a cardiac arrest during a routine operation on her vocal chords – following a U-turn decision by The Broadway League.
The organisation announced the news on Twitter, saying: "All Broadway Theatres will #Dim4Joan tonight at 6:45pm."
In a statement, the league’s Executive Director, Charlotte St. Martin also said: "Joan Rivers loved Broadway and we loved her. Due to the outpouring of love and respect for Joan Rivers from our community and from her friends and fans worldwide, the marquees of Broadway theatres in New York will be dimmed in her memory tonight, at exactly 6:45pm for one minute."
The decision comes after fans started a petition and vented their frustration on Twitter after the league previously claimed that, unlike other recent honourees Robin Williams and Lauren Bacall, the ‘Fashion Police’ host, who starred in ‘Sally Marr…and Her Escorts’ in 1994, did not qualify for the posthumous tribute, a long-standing tradition in the theatre community.
Charlotte previously said: "Under our criteria people need to have been very active recently in the theater, or else be synonymous with Broadway — people who made their careers here, or kept it up. We love Joan — she was very supportive of Broadway and came to a lot of show openings — but she hasn’t acted on Broadway in 20 years."
Prior to the league’s reversal, seven theatres announced they planned to independently dim the lights in honour of the late comedienne, 81.
A number of Broadway stars attended Joan’s funeral on Sunday (07.09.14), including Audra McDonald, Hugh Jackman, Bernadette Peters, Alan Cumming and Tommy Tune.
Broadway to dim lights for Joan Rivers
