Theaters in New York City and around the country dimmed their marquee lights last night in honor of Hugh Hardy, the architect who passed away this month at age 84.
Hardy helped restore many of New York’s best-known theaters, including Radio City Music Hall, the New Amsterdam, the New Victory, and the Majestic Theater.
He died, ironically, after suffering a fall on March 15 while on the way to see a dance performance at one of the theaters he worked on, the Joyce. He died two days later and, according to his office, there was no funeral service.
The tribute was organized by the Joyce Theater Foundation, operator of the Joyce Theater at 175 Eighth Avenue.
“We at The Joyce, one of the many theaters that Hugh designed, are working to organize a tribute to Hugh, who gave so much to the arts, culture, and architecture communities here in New York and beyond,” executive director Linda Shelton wrote to theater operators nationwide.
“Hugh loved the marquee of the Joyce and we think it would be a fitting tribute to simultaneously dim the lights of the marquees of all the theaters that Hugh designed,” Shelton continued. “We will dim the lights of the Joyce marquee on Wednesday evening, March 22, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time for one full minute. We hope that Hugh’s other theaters will dim their marquee lights at the same time.”
According to Caroline Shadle, programmatic assistant at the Joyce, 19 theaters agreed to participate in some way, out of about 30 U. S. theaters that were contacted. “Some of the theaters don’t have marquees, but they said they will dim their lobby lights or participate in some other way,” she said.
In Baltimore, the Hippodrome didn’t have a performance on Wednesday, so the operators turned the marquee lights on for a minute, not off.
The participating theaters, which show the scope of Hardy’s work, included:
- The Joyce Theater (New York, NY)
- Brooklyn Academy of Music (New York, NY)
- Lincoln Center Theater (New York, NY)
- Theatre Row (New York, NY)
- New Amsterdam Theatre (New York, NY)
- National Dance Institute (New York, NY)
- Theatre for a New Audience (New York, NY)
- Dance Theatre of Harlem (New York, NY)
- Radio City Music Hall (New York, NY)
- The New Victory Theater (New York, NY)
- Signature Theatre (New York, NY)
- Performing Arts Center at Purchase College (Purchase, NY)
- Royden B. Davis Performing Arts Center, Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.)
- The Glimmerglass Festival (Cooperstown, NY)
- Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center (Great Barrington, MA)
- Hippodrome Theatre at the France
- Merrick Performing Arts Center (Baltimore, MD)
- Wilma Theater (Philadelphia, PA)
- Two River Theater (Red Bank, NJ)
- Orchestra Hall (Minneapolis, MN)
