The Nederlander Organization made history in November when it re-christened the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on Broadway as the Lena Horne Theatre. The venue, which is currently home to SIX, is the first Broadway theater named for a Black woman.
Horne was a Tony-nominated singer and actor, as well as a civil rights activist, who became one of Hollywood’s first African-American female stars. She passed away in 2010 at the age of 92.
About Lena Horne
Horne was born in 1917 in Brooklyn, N.Y. Her mother was an actress who traveled with theater troupes and her father was a banker. Horne dropped out of school at age 16 and began performing at the Cotton Club in Harlem. She debuted on Broadway in 1934 in a production of Dance With Your Gods as Helena Horne and then appeared in the musical revue Lew Leslie’s Blackbirds of 1939.
In 1943, she was featured in Life magazine and became the highest-paid Black entertainer at the time. Throughout her acting career, the appeared in films like Swings Cheer, Broadway Rhythm, Cabin in the Sky, and Stormy Weather. Her final performance was 1978’s The Wiz which was directed by her then-son-in-law Sidney Lumet.
Horne was also a noted civil rights activist suing restaurants and theaters for discrimination and serving as a member of the Progressive Citizens of America. She performed at rallies around the country on behalf of the NAACP and the National Council for Negro Women and participated in the March on Washington.
The Lena Horne Theatre
The Lena Horne Theatre is located at 256 W. 47th Street in New York, N.Y. It was built in 1926 and originally named the Mansfield Theatre, then later renamed Brooks Atkinson Theatre in honor of the New York Times critic. It was renamed Lena Horne Theatre on Nov. 1, 2022.
The Lena Horne Theatre seats 1,069 patrons and is currently home to SIX The Musical. One of the defining features of this historic building is the original chandelier, which was rehung in 2000. It is one of The Nederlander Organization’s nine theaters on Broadway.
SIX on Broadway
SIX The Musical, also styled as SIX, transforms Tudor Queens (Henry VIII’s six wives to be exact) into pop icons in this engaging piece of historical fiction. Since making its Broadway debut in 2021, SIX won more than 20 awards including the Tony Award for Best Original Score and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical. It is also touring the U.S. hitting cities like Dallas, Nashville and San Francisco.
SIX was written by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss and was first performed by the Cambridge University Musical Theatre Society at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017. After six sold-out performances at the Arts Theatre in London that winter, the production began to travel across the UK. The SIX studio album was released in 2018 and the show made its North American debut at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre in May 2019.
Lena Horne Theatre Tickets
Catch a show at this historic venue with Lena Horne Theatre tickets from TicketSmarter. Performances for SIX are currently scheduled through early September 2023.
