Memorial Celebrating Tony-Winning Book Writer Thomas Meehan to Be Held at the St. James Theatre

The Broadway community will celebrate the life of Tony-winning librettist Thomas Meehan in a memorial service to be held at the St. James Theatre on November 5, 2018 at 2:00pm. Meehan died on August 22, 2017 at age 88.

Meehan was among the most prolific and successful book writers in Broadway musical history. He holds the distinction of being the only librettist to have written three Broadway shows that ran more than 2,000 performances each—Annie (1977), The Producers (2001) and Hairspray (2002)—each of which won Meehan a Tony Award.

Meehan's other shows include Chaplin, Elf, Young Frankenstein, I Remember Mama, Annie 2: Miss Hannigan's Revenge, Annie Warbucks, Rocky and Death Takes a Holiday.

The November 5 memorial celebration will be open to the public. It will be hosted by Martin Charnin, creator, lyricist and director of Annie and collaborator with Meehan on television projects preceding their work on that show.

The program is currently scheduled to include appearances by Charles Strouse, Andrea McArdle, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, Andy Karl and Margo Seibert, Maury Yeston, Jack O’Brien, Marc Shaiman, Alton White, Mara Davi, Jill Paice, Alexandra Socha, Susan Stroman and Mel Brooks, with whom Meehan co-wrote the books for The Producers and Young Frankenstein as well as the screenplay for the film Spaceballs and other projects.

Additional speakers, performers and information will be announced in the coming weeks.