The Theater Hall of Fame

The Theater Hall of Fame, housed at the Gershwin (originally the Uris) Theatre on Broadway, was established in 1970 by Earl Blackwell (1909-95), founder of Celebrity Service; producer and theater-owner James M. Nederlander (1922-2016); real-estate developer and producer Gerard Oestreicher (1916-87); and L. Arnold Weissberger (1907-81), a theatrical lawyer, to honor Lifetime Achievement in the American theater. 

Nederlander and Oestreicher, who were the long-time lessees of the Uris Theatre at 222 West 51st Street in the Paramount Plaza building (renamed the Gershwin Theatre in 1983 and now part of the Nederlander Organization), donated the space for the Hall of Fame and the cost of maintaining it.  The rotunda of the Uris Theatre, still under construction when the first honorees were announced—it opened in November 1972—was designed and built by architect and set designer Ralph Alswang expressly to showcase the names and photographs of Broadway’s own Theater Hall of Fame.

The New York Times announced the formation of the Hall of Fame on 7 March 1972, reporting:

A theater Hall of Fame, honoring personalities who have made outstanding contributions to the American theater since its beginnings in the mid‐19th century, will be housed in the Uris Theater, now under construction on Broadway between 50th and 51st Streets.

The official announcement had been made the day before at the monthly lunch meeting of the Drama Desk, the organization of New York City drama critics and theater writers, at Sardi’s, the historic Times Square hangout for theater folk

The Hall of Fame’s mission is to preserve theater history, honor present theater professionals, and encourage emerging artists of the American Theater.  The only nationally recognized Hall of Fame honoring lifetime achievement in the American theater, it’s a non-profit organization and U.S. registered trademark.  (Interestingly, though the Hall of Fame’s beat is specifically American theater, many inductees are not only foreign born, but not U.S. citizens at all.  The governing criterion is significant contribution to theater in the United States.  National origin is irrelevant.)

Nominees are drawn from all theater disciplines including actors, playwrights, composers, lyricists, designers, directors, producers, and critics and theater journalists, among others, who’ve had careers in American theater for at least 25 years and at least five major production credits on Broadway.  In recent decades, the last criterion has been expanded to include theater professionals who are leading pioneers of Off-Broadway or regional theater.  Some requirements may be suspended in special circumstances. 

There are now 10 categories and over 50 nominees on the ballot each year.  Almost all Hall of Fame members have earned their fame on Broadway; however, especially in recent decades, Off-Broadway and regional theater pros have been elected as well.  Inductees are elected by drama critics, editors, theater historians, and educators and their names are embossed in gold lettering on the entry walls of the theater, flanking its grand staircase and escalator.  As of the induction of 2019, the total membership of the Theater Hall of Fame is 488.

The original voting body for membership in the Hall was the Drama Desk but is now the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA), a national group, plus members of the Hall of Fame.  Selections are made by some 300 voting members of the Theater Hall of Fame and ATCA.  Induction takes place at a ceremony at the Gershwin Theatre in New York City, where the plaques containing the names of the inductees are hung.  In the Hall of Fame’s early years, the induction was held in January—for inductees elected the year before—but since 2015, it’s been scheduled in November.

The annual ballot, which is mailed out in August, is voted upon by members of the Theater Hall of Fame and American drama critics.  (In the interest of full disclosure, let me acknowledge that I am an associate member of ATCA—I used to be a full member, but I no longer publish reviews except for the performance reports I post on Rick On Theater—and used to be a member of the Drama Desk.  I receive a ballot for the Theater Hall of Fame, but I don’t vote.)  Initially, the Hall of Fame enrolled large annual classes of honorees in order to catch up on theater history, but that has changed in recent seasons.  Now, only the final eight nominees receiving the most votes are ratified for the annual honor. 

Following the induction ceremony at the Gershwin, the Hall of Fame traditionally hosted a dinner at Sardi’s; later, the meal was moved to the Friars Club and then to The Palm in Midtown on the East Side.  Attendance at the Gershwin ceremony and the dinner afterwards is by invitation only and the event benefits the Theater Hall of Fame Fellowship Fund, which supports the Hall’s other activities and programs.

The first group of inductees to be elected, 23 in all, was announced in October 1972.  The field of nominees was 166 strong and the voters were drawn from a selection of prominent New York City drama critics, editors, theater historians, and theater educators. 

The first class of Hall of Fame members included actor Walter Huston; composer Rudolph Friml; producers and theater-owners Lee and J. J. Shubert; set designer Norman Bel Geddes; actor Jeanne Eagels; playwright Ferenc Molnar; playwright P. G. Wodehouse; playwright Clyde Fitch; actor and singer Lillian Russell; director and producer Arthur Hopkins; actor Marie Dressler; playwright, director, and producer George S. Kaufman; critic Brooks Atkinson, producer, director, and playwright George Abbott; playwright Thornton Wilder; actor and singer Ethel Merman; actor and vaudevillian Bert Lahr; playwright and director Moss Hart; playwright Robert E. Sherwood; actor, director, writer, and producer Orson Welles; playwright and lyricist Maxwell Anderson; and playwright and director Clifford Odets.

In order to honor the early history to American theater, the Hall of Fame’s advisory council and executive committee had already selected 95 people from the period of 1860 to 1930 for posthumous membership.  This practice continues today, even as the number of new inductees has been reduced; deceased members of the theater professions are accorded membership in the Hall to honor their memories and past contributions.

The theater pros thus honored included actor Maude Adams; actor Judith Anderson; brother-and-sister dancer-actor-singers Fred and Adele Astaire; actor Tallulah Bankhead; producer, impresario, director, and playwright David Belasco; composer and lyricist Irving Berlin; playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, and producer George M. Cohan; actor, writer, theater owner, and producer Katharine Cornell; comedian, actor, vaudevillian, and writer W. C. Fields; actor Lynn Fontanne; brothers composer George and lyricist Ira Gershwin; actor and playwright Ruth Gordon; actor Helen Hayes; lyricist Lorenz Hart (song-writing partner of Richard Rodgers); director and actor Alfred Lunt (husband and stage partner of Lynn Fontanne); lyricist, librettist, producer, and director Oscar Hammerstein II (song-writing partner of Richard Rodgers); composer Richard Rodgers (song-writing partner of Hammerstein and Hart); dramatist Eugene O'Neill; and impresario Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr.

The 49th annual Theater Hall of Fame for Lifetime Achievement in the American Theater induction was held on 18 November 2019 at the Gershwin, honoring actor André De Shields, actor-dancer Donna McKechnie, actor-choreographer Ann Reinking, Goodspeed Musicals founder Michael Price, director-playwright Emily Mann, lighting designer Natasha Katz, theatre critic Michael Feingold, and posthumously, playwright Thomas Meehan. 

The tradition is that each new Hall of Fame member is presented by a past honoree, giving rise to  a mix of humor, nostalgia, and sentiment.  (The evening has a host as well, a celebrity who’s not necessarily a member of a theatrical profession.)  The date for the 50th Annual Theater Hall of Fame ceremony has not been set—but it will be in November.  (A list of all members of the Theater Hall of Fame is on the Hall’s website: http://www.theaterhalloffame.org/members.html.)

The Theater Hall of Fame is entirely separate from ATCA, which only staffs the nominating committee and whose members are voters for the final honors, and is funded by individual contributions, private foundations, and event ticket and journal sales.  The Hall’s Executive Producer since 1989 is Terry Hodge Taylor (b. 1947), a theatrical and event producer. 

An annual Theater Hall of Fame Founders Award, established in 1993 in honor of the Hall’s three founders, recognizes an individual’s outstanding contribution to the theater.  The first award went to founder James M. Nederlander; the last award was given in 2009 to Shirley Herz, a Broadway production press representative.  

Since 2004, the Hall has held an annual Theater Hall of Fame Fellowship Luncheon to salute a member “who continues to work on Broadway and also presents grants to emerging theatre artists.”  The 16th annual luncheon will salute actor and singer Patti LuPone on 1 May 2020 at Sardi’s.  (The 2019 Theater Hall of Fame Fellowship Luncheon recognized Phil Smith, chairman of the Shubert Organization.)

The Hall of Fame also maintains several theater-oriented programs in support of the theater community.  The annual induction ceremony is videotaped and digitally reproduced, and copies are given to each inductee for their archives.  The Hall’s also established the Theater Hall of Fame Collection at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center where the last 15 years of ceremony tapes are on reposit.  (The recordings can only be viewed at the Library for the Performing Arts.  Prior arrangements for viewing can be made by contacting the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive [TOFT] by calling 212-870-1642 or e-mailing toft@nypl.org.)

The Dorothy Strelsin Theater Hall of Fame Collection of theater memorabilia, made possible by contributions from the Dorothy Strelsin Foundation/Enid Nemy and Dame Celia Lipton Farris, is displayed on the second-floor lobby of the Gershwin Theatre. Twenty-two exhibit cases contain items donated by 60 Hall of Fame inductees.  

The Theater Hall of Fame Fellowship Program for Emerging Theater Artists provides $1000 grants to emerging theater artists. The grants are presented every June to selected artists during a luncheon at the New York Friars Club.  Theater Hall of Fame members select the grant recipients and since 2005, $25,000 in grants have been awarded..

The Theater Hall of Fame is the only national organization that honors the professionals of the American theater, as I noted.  It’s also the only commemoration of theater that’s in the New York City Theatre District itself.  (Museums like the Museum of the City of New York and repositories like the New-York Historical Society and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts have large collections of theater memorabilia, which they periodically display, but they’re all located in areas of the city that are far from Times Square.) 

Few theatergoers probably even know that that the Theater Hall of Fame exists, much less that it’s at the Gershwin Theatre on Broadway.  Furthermore, the only would-be visitors who could even see the plaques of honor or the memorabilia exhibits the Hall of Fame mounts, even if they did know that they’re there, are ticket-holders for whatever show is playing at the Gershwin (Wicked since 2003).  The general public doesn’t have access to the Theater Hall of Fame.  It’s like a show without an audience!

[A brief note of clarification: the Theater Hall of Fame is sometimes called the American Theater Hall of Fame (the Wikipedia page uses that as its head word, for example), but the correct, official title is simply Theater Hall of Fame. 

[Also note that the organization spells its name with the American form of  theater, though you will find the name written with the British spelling (theatre) both in print and on the ‘Net; that’s actually incorrect, as shown by the Hall’s own website (http://www.theaterhalloffame.org). 

[(The name of the Gershwin Theatre—and before that, the Uris Theatre—is correctly spelled the British way, as are the names of most Broadway houses.  The same is so of the Theatre District itself as well as Theatre Row, the strip of Off-Broadway houses along 42nd Street west of 9th Avenue.)

[Readers might also note that there are other organizations with similar names, such as the Musical Theatre Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, but they aren’t related.  There are also local and regional halls of fame, and some theaters compile their own lists of honor (the Apollo Theater Hall of Fame, for instance); some colleges and even high schools have theater halls of fame that will come up on Internet searches because of the similarity in names.  There remains, however, only one official Theater Hall of Fame for Lifetime Achievement in the American theater.]