Isn't It Bliss? Henry Miller's Theatre on Broadway to be Renamed for Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim got a very special 80th birthday gift on March 22: a Broadway theater with his name on it. During the curtain call after Roundabout Theatre Company’s gala performance of Sondheim on Sondheim at Studio 54, longtime collaborators James Lapine and John Weidman announced the renaming of Henry Miller’s Theatre to the Stephen Sondheim Theatre. The newly renovated 1,046-seat house, programmed by Roundabout for the Durst Organization, is currently home to All About Me. The name change will take effect after the show closes, according to a Roundabout press spokesperson.

A small group of Sondheim devotees initiated a generous contribution to renaming the theater in support of Roundabout’s Musical Production Fund. Established in 2003, the fund is designed to insure that Roundabout continues to produce musical revivals as well as develop new musicals. The amount of the contribution will not be disclosed, according to a press announcement. In addition to Sondheim on Sondheim, Roundabout has produced revivals of Company, Follies, Assassins, Pacific Overtures, Sunday in the Park with George and a concert performance of A Little Night Music.

Calling Sondheim “an artistic genius,” Roundabout artistic director Todd Haimes noted that the theater renaming puts the composer in the company of Ethel Barrymore, David Belasco, Edwin Booth, George Broadhurst, George Gershwin, Alfred Lunt & Lynn Fontanne, Richard Rodgers, Helen Hayes, Eugene O’Neill, Neil Simon and August Wilson. “In so many ways, Steve’s work has already made him a part of their illustrious tradition, so it is only fitting that we can now pay proper tribute to a composer and lyricist of extraordinary stature, Stephen Sondheim.”

Weidman, Sondheim’s collaborator on Pacific Overtures, Assassins and Road Show, said in a statement, “Steve Sondheim has been, without question, the pre-eminent artist working in the musical theatre for the last fifty years. The appropriateness of naming a theatre after him is self-evident. The hope in naming a theatre after him is that it will become a home for artists whose work aspires to the heady level of daring, honesty and rigor which has always characterized Steve’s. It’s been my experience that billing has never mattered much to Steve, but it’s nice to know there is now one Broadway house where his name will always appear above the title.”