Broadway's American Airlines Theatre has officially become the Todd Haimes Theatre, named in memory of Roundabout Theatre Company's longtime artistic director who died in 2023. Mr. Haimes, known for his tireless work transforming Roundabout from a 150-seat Off-Broadway company into one of the largest not-for-profit theatres in the country, led Roundabout for the last 39 years.
Roundabout made the change official with an unveiling event January 31. The change comes just moments before the Haimes gets its first show, Roundabout's revival of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, which begins previews February 2.
See the theatre's new marquee above.
The new name becomes the venue's third, after opening in 1918 as the Selwyn. Under Mr. Haimes' leadership, Roundabout restored the theatre in the late 1990s after it had operated for decades as a movie theatre. The space would become the company's flagship home on Broadway, beginning with a 2000 revival of The Man Who Came to Dinner starring Nathan Lane. The theatre is now one of three within Roundabout's footprint on Broadway, alongside Studio 54 and the Stephen Sondheim Theatre.
The change is the latest in an unusual amount of theatre name changes hitting Broadway in recent months, mostly in an effort to add representation of Black theatre artists to the roster of the Main Stem's 41 houses. The Shuberts rechristened their Cort Theatre as the James Earl Jones beginning with last season's Ohio State Murders, while the Nederlanders renamed the Brooks Atkinson for screen and stage icon Lena Horne in November 2022. The latter is currently home to SIX: The Musical.
Additional support for the renaming was provided by Jeanne and Tom Hagerty, Sylvia Golden, The Kaplen Brothers Fund, The Kaplen Foundation, Stephanie and Ron Kramer, Mary C. Solomon, and the Mustang Foundation.
Beyond his work with Roundabout, Mr. Haimes was the former president of the Board of The Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York, and a member of the Tony Awards Administration Committee and The Broadway League Executive Committee. Marquees on Broadway dimmed their lights June 1, 2023, in his memory, one of the American theatre's highest honors. Read Mr. Haimes' complete Playbill obituary here.
