Roundabout Theatre Company has announced that the American Airlines Theatre will be renamed the Todd Haimes Theatre, in memory of the former artistic director and CEO of Roundabout Theatre Company. Haimes passed away on April 19, 2023 at age 66.
Haimes was memorialized on June 1 as all Broadway marquees were dimmed at 6:45 p.m. for exactly one minute.
Prior to becoming the American Airlines Theatre, the 104-year-old landmark located at 227 West 42nd Street was known as the Selwyn Theatre. In the 1990s, Haimes led the restoration of the Selwyn as it became the flagship venue of Roundabout.
The efforts to rename the theater were led by board members Lawrence Kaplen, Katheryn Patterson Kempner and Thomas E. Tuft through leadership gifts to the Todd Haimes Fund for Artistic Excellence.
The theater will be officially dedicated and renamed during Roundabout’s 2023-2024 season. Plans to rename the theater actually arose prior to Haimes’ death, as Roundabout’s current naming sponsorship agreement with American Airlines is set to end in early 2024.
Patterson Kempner said she was proud that Haimes knew the theater would bear his name, sharing that when she will walk by the Todd Haimes Theatre in the future, she’ll know that memories and emotions will flood her. “It’s a feeling about what a wonderful person he was and how important he was to the theater industry,” Patterson Kempner said.
“Last year, when the thought of naming the theater after Todd arose, our instinct was to honor a visionary producer who had led Roundabout from a basement under a supermarket in Chelsea to an indelible force in the American theater,” said Kaplen in a statement. “I am proud to be a member of a board of directors, which is united in their commitment to preserve Todd’s legacy with this distinct honor.”
