Posted: 10/5/24 at 1:45pm
I decided to do some digging, and my conclusion is that there is no logic, Broadway light-dimmings are a popularity contest that generally favor the people with the loudest friends, and the decision-making behind it needs to be entirely rethought to at least give a slight impression of equitability. (and for the sake of publicity, the Broadway League should probably remove itself from that conversation)
To be very clear, none of this is a knock to the people who ARE getting a dimming. Their contributions were major and I don't care if it's full or partial. I'm merely writing to show the disparity between who gets dimmed and who doesn't.
You may add to this list, but for the sake of simplicity, let's focus on people who died within the past 10 years, let's exclude those who've passed within the last couple of months (dimmings may still be in the works), and let's focus on people who contributed to numerous shows over the span of a decade+.
- How is a decision made to dim for Gavin Creel but not for his costar, Michael McGrath, who appeared in 15 Broadway shows and won a Tony Award. Like Creel, he received an outpouring of love from the community and his death came as a shock to his own family. Gary Beach, a similarly lauded and beloved man who died suddenly, was honored by just the New Amsterdam.
- How is a decision made to dim for Adrian Bailey but not for people like Sheila Smith, Linda Balgord, Pamela Blair, Merwin Foard, and Walter Charles?
- How is a decision made to dim for Martin Pakledinaz but not for Eugene Lee, Franne Lee, and Willa Kim?
- Where would the theatrical artform be without the work of Richard M. Sherman, Chris Durang, Leslie Bricusse, and Tom Jones & Harvey Schmidt?
- How is a decision made to dim for Peter Hall and Nicky Martin but not for other directors like Peter Brook, Michael Blakemore, and Frank Galati, and multi-hyphenates like Bob LuPone, Tony Mordente, Maurice Hines, and Alan Arkin?
- Beloved actors like Frances Sternhagen, Charles Kimbrough, Paxton Whitehead, Janis Paige, Glenda Jackson, Treat Williams, Glynis Johns, Inga Swenson, and Carole Cook. None for Broadway's original "Kate" in Kiss Me Kate, Patricia Morison, who lived to 103?
- Offstage figures like Joanna Merlin, Edgar Lansbury, Bill Kenwright, Darren DeVerna, and Ira Bernstein. Music personnel like Bill Brohn, Don Sebesky, Red Press, Elliot Lawrence, and Gordon Lowry Harrell helped refine the Broadway sound. (Harrell didn't even get obits by most of the theatre publications.) These people lived and breathed Broadway.
- All those we lost in 2020 and 2021. Ann Reinking, Bernie Gersten, Christopher Plummer, Zoe Caldwell, Brian Dennehy, Diana Rigg, Nick Cordero, Hal Holbrook, Cicely Tyson, Olympia Dukakis, Orson Bean, Bob Avian, Margo Lion, Gerry Freedman, Patti Karr, Sam E. Wright, Brent Carver, Marge Champion, Paul Huntley, Howell Binkley, Pat Collins, Ming Cho Lee, Anthony Powell, Arthur Kopit. You could argue that "well, they died when Broadway shows weren't running." But the League still went out of their way to dim for Phil Smith and Terrence McNally when Broadway eventually resumed.
I could go on and on, but I think this is enough to make a point. Overhaul the system and be transparent, or end the tradition.
