The Stephen Sondheim Theatre -The Perfect Gift

The new Henry Miller Theatre in New York is to renamed.
In August this year at a special renaming ceremony the theatre will be renamed- 'The Stephen Sondheim Theatre'.
The announcement was made at the gala opening performance of 'Sondheim On Sondheim', the new Broadway musical celebration of Sondheim's work.



The theatre opened on April 1, 1918 with the play 'The Fountain Of Youth'.
It was the first air-conditioned theater in Manhattan.
The theatre had its first hit show with Noel Coward's 'The Vortex' in 1926. Henry Miller died that same year.
From the 1930s through the late 1960s, the theatre enjoyed its golden years, with performances by Helen Hayes, Leslie Howard, Lillian Gish & Douglas Fairbanks gracing its stage.
In the late 60s it became a porn theatre called Avon-At-The-Hudson.
In 1978, it was converted into the discotheque, Xenon.
Twenty years later, it returned to legitimate use for the Tony Award winning revival of 'Cabaret'.
It was rechristened the Henry Miller again when the musical 'Urinetown' opened in 2001.
The theatre was closed in 2004, the interior demolished and subsequently rebuilt to make way for the 57-story Bank of America Tower.
Its facade, landmarked by the city, remains, and the new theatre now seats 1,055.
With bank facilities located above, architects were forced to design and build the new theatre underground. This makes Henry Miller's Theatre one of only two subterranean houses on Broadway.
The new theater opened in September 2009 with the Roundabout Theatre Company production of a revival of 'Bye Bye Birdie'.

Its current show is 'All About Me' starring Dame Edna and this will be its final show before the renaming.

Updated On: 3/22/10 at 10:27 PM

It's a shame certain promises about a Sondheim Theatre in London haven't been kept...

Rather like the promises to rename a venue as the Delfont Theatre...

This is fantastic (: happy days for Sondheim; I hope he had a fantastic day yesterday and wish I could've been at one of the concerts last night, I'm sure they were all fantastic.

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Lady Delfont states that part of the deal between the Delfonts and Cam Mac was conditional to the Prince of Wales being renamed. Whether you agree with that move or not, (and I don't particularly), a promise is a promise.

With any luck they'll re-name the Jacobs and the Schonfield asap- such untheatrical names for theatres.

Apart from the Globe to Geilgud, when was the last time a West End theatre was re-named? (I don't really count Whitehall to Trafalgar since it was such a change of set-up).

Despite having been refurbished only last year Henry Miller's Theatre is not exactly luxurious. It may have air conditioning but it's got narrow, uncomfortable seats with bare wood armrests and a horrible concrete floor. I hope Mr Sondheim doesn't have to wait for his 100th birthday for the gift of some carpeting.

Oh yeah- derr! The thing is, they are still the Strand and the Albery to me!

I thought they were going to re-name the Cringle Street Waste Depot as the Lloyd Webber: after all, it's famed for its recycling of old rubbish.

Have you seen the photos of SJS hearing the announcement- he looks truly overwhelmed. He is often quite inscrutable, but those photos show one delighted man. How lovely!

Strangely enough, I didn't mind when they renamed The Albery as The Noel Coward Theatre and The Strand as The Novello Theatre. The renaming of theatres I dislike are ones named after chairmans like The Bernard B Jacobs Theatre, The Gerald Scholenfeld, The Samuel J Friedman etc and corporate companies like The Hilton and The American Airlines Theatre, I believe the Winter Garden Theatre was briefly renamed the Cadillac Winter Garden Theatre.

Some theatre names suit their theatres and other don't, The Apollo Victoria was originally call the New Victoria but was renamed when Apollo Leisure bought it, Apollo Leisure no longer exist but the name has stuck.