Broadway Theaters to Dim Lights in Memory of Tony-Winning Hairspray Producer Margo Lion

The Broadway League has announced that the marquee lights of many Broadway venues will be dimmed for one minute on February 29 at 7:45pm in memory of stage pioneer Margo Lion. The Tony-winning producer passed away on January 24.

The committee of theater owners will dim the lights of the Jujamcyn Theatres (Al Hirschfeld, August Wilson, Eugene O'Neill, St. James and Walter Kerr), where Lion often collaborated and worked, as well as the American Airlines, Bernard Jacobs, Helen Hayes, Neil Simon, New Amsterdam, Vivian Beaumont, Lyric and Samuel J. Friedman Theatres.

"Margo was a remarkable producer but an even more remarkable friend, both personally and professionally. Her success on Broadway speaks for itself, but perhaps less known was her passionate political activism which resulted in historic benefit events for both Presidents Clinton and Obama at the New Amsterdam Theatre. She was a big thinker with an even bigger heart. She will be missed," said Thomas Schumacher, chairman of the Broadway League.

"Margo was a pioneer on Broadway and an inspiration to so many young women who dreamed of being producers. Her legacy can be witnessed with the many outstanding Tony Award-nominated and -winning women currently working in the industry today not only in New York but around the country. She was a great collaborator, an outstanding leader and forged a path her own way," said Charlotte St. Martin, president of the Broadway League.

Lion won Tony Awards as producer of Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika as well as Elaine Stritch at Liberty and the musical adaptation of the film Hairspray, the latter of which stemmed from her initial idea. In addition her work as a theater producer, Lion was an adjunct professor at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and, during the 2008 presidential election, served as co-chair to President Barack Obama's Arts Policy Committee.