JBroadway is very kind, and I'm glad he considers me knowledgeable, but I have to own that I did NOT know this, and so my post was a giant gaffe. I haven't been to NYC since the mid-80's, and most of my Broadway knowledge comes from reading books and plays, librettos when I can get them and listening to scores/watching tv programs about theater, catching shows or parts of shows on YouTube. I am embarrassed to say that somehow I'd forgotten--I did know it--- that August Wilson was dead. Very embarrassing, but true.
As for the argument that it would be unseemly for a theater to be named after Hal Prince when the percentage of POC with theaters named after them is so abysmally low, I cannot really get behind that, not because I'm unaware of the history of racism in this country it represents, nor because I am in any way okay with that history. But because I'm a realist. How many theaters are there even named after white playwrights? I can think of the Eugene O'Neil and the Neal Simon (that one perplexes me, to be honest). As for actors, how many actors who were given the chance to become famous contributors to the theater are yet dead? And how many POC have, prior to the current theater scene, had produced memorable, major Broadway shows, or had long-term Broadway songwriting careers? The situation of our past, even our recent past, is frustrating, but it is reality.
And it WILL change. With the far greater number of Broadway playwrights who are honored by critics and have big successes, with the greater proliferation of POC in the performing world in lead roles, I can somewhat imagine a James Earl Jones theater (though he hasn't been considered a theater actor in so long, that might be dubious). I can much more easily imagine an Audra McDonald theater, a Jeremy O'Harris. Depending on whether he continue to create memorable Broadway shows, there could easily be a Manuel Miranda, although nobody is going to get a theater after them for one hit show, no matter how big a hit. If it ever happened before, history is not likely to repeat itself (and I don't think it has happened). Yes, Sondheim already has a theater named after him, but that's related to the unique cult of Sondheim. There might (though I'm not in any way sure there will) be an Andrew Lloyd Webber theater. And this may come before many other POC get theaters named after them. Because the past is the past. We can't change it to fit what we want our present world to be.
I know everyone hates to read "wait," and in many ways they hate it for good reasons. When people say it after yet another unarmed POC is gunned down by the police, or we see the continual refusal to provide the same education for POC in low-income neighborhoods as we see for other, more predominately white areas, it's a sickening term. There is no more time for waiting in these areas. (And the BLM protests are some of the best, most effective protest actions this country has ever seen.)
But when it comes to the world of theater, there is literally nothing else to do. Living Black playwrights and actors are is very strong numbers celebrated by what we call "the Establishment" now. They win lots of important awards and are building up/have built up careers of prestige. I'm sure Black choreographers and designers will be, too, if they haven't already. And those people will be in line for theaters named after them. Theatergoers will want theaters named after them. It quite possibly won't happen anytime soon because, happily, they are in the midst of their careers right now and the grave isn't calling for them anytime soon, which is when nine times out of ten a theater gets named for someone (unless someone buys a theater and names it for themselves or someone they feel like naming it after--few people have that sort of money at their disposal).
I don't think any of this should stop us from naming/re-naming a theater the Hal Prince because we're frustrated by history. Hal Prince was a major presence, and it's interesting to see that he's so respected that people talk of naming a theater after what is, in all honesty, the most quickly forgotten aspect of a show: the director. But he was that unique and groundbreaking a director. Most shows, whatever the credits read, aren't thought of as "a (fill in director's name) show." But Hal Prince's shows sure were.
So, yes, name a theater after him. Don't be caught up in "it has to go to a POC first because of underrepresentation." In the theater world Prince was part of for most of his career, as much as we hate it, POC just weren't allowed to make the same impact, so unsurprisingly, there's no one of that era who has recently died who is a candidate more worthy than Prince. But Prince himself is worthy. And the theaters named after POC will come. In so many areas of life, I am not sure that progress is being made. But in theater and among the true theater-loving crowd? Oh, most definitely.
