All 41 Broadway theatres set September marquee tribute for 13 honorees

All 41 Broadway theatres are scheduled to dim their marquees together at 6.45 pm Eastern Time on Tuesday, 8 September 2026, for a district-wide memorial to 13 late artists and industry professionals. The Broadway In Memoriam event places internationally recognised figures including Dolly Parton and Tim Curry within a broader cohort spanning performance, music, design, production, management and producing.

BroadwayWorld reported the committee’s current cohort as Tim Curry, Clive Davis, Gina Ferrall, Josh Grisetti, Jeff Hamlin, Glen Hansard, Louise Lasser, Anna Louizos, Seth Marquette, Dolly Parton, Anne Russell, James Walsh and Harold Wheeler. Its report also carries the 8 September date, 6.45 pm start time and participation by all 41 theatres.

The range of the list is central to the memorial’s purpose. Broadway In Memoriam recognises creative professionals and career professionals dedicated to the industry, rather than performers alone. The September cohort represents work across performance, music, design, production, management and producing. By grouping those disciplines, the ceremony frames Broadway memory around the people who make and sustain productions, including careers conducted largely beyond public view.

The official committee website describes Broadway In Memoriam as a group of theatre owners working in consultation with industry service organisations. Its quarterly format calls for every Broadway theatre to participate together. For the September ceremony, that means a coordinated dimming at the marquees of all 41 theatres, not a programme confined to a single venue.

The accessible Broadway In Memoriam website had not yet been refreshed with the September cohort when the current announcement appeared. Its standing information confirms how the programme operates, while the current names, date and time come from BroadwayWorld’s report of the committee’s announcement.

The programme was established in 2025 and is held on the second Tuesday of March, June, September and December. That cadence turns the group observance into a standing calendar rather than requiring a new district-wide arrangement for each set of honorees. The committee nevertheless retains the option to arrange a separate memorial for an individual considered to have made a profoundly significant and lasting Broadway impact. No such separate tribute has been announced for anyone in the September cohort.

Recent AussieTheatre coverage has separately examined the deaths and theatrical legacies of Dolly Parton, Tim Curry and Anna Louizos. AussieTheatre’s sourced reports place the deaths of both Parton and Curry on 25 August 2026. The materially new development is their inclusion in a 13-person, Broadway-wide ceremony that also includes professionals whose careers have received less international attention.

Parton‘s direct Broadway legacy includes writing the music and lyrics for the 2009 Broadway musical 9 TO 5. Her life and career are also the subject of DOLLY: A TRUE ORIGINAL MUSICAL, scheduled to begin previews at the St. James Theatre on 7 December 2026 and open on 19 January 2027. The September memorial will precede the posthumous Broadway arrival of her autobiographical musical.

Curry made his Broadway debut as Frank-N-Furter in THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW in 1975. He later appeared on Broadway in THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE, AMADEUS, MY FAVORITE YEAR and SPAMALOT, receiving three Tony Award nominations during his Broadway career. Frank-N-Furter has also returned to wider view through the 2026 ROCKY HORROR revival, renewing attention on the role with which Curry began his Broadway story.

Those familiar careers provide entry points, but the structure resists treating public fame as the measure of contribution. The less internationally familiar honorees share the same Broadway-wide observance, bringing backstage craft and long-term organisational work into the public record. Audiences may know productions without knowing every practitioner responsible for making and sustaining them; the quarterly model makes that labour part of Broadway’s formal memory.

The model followed a contested period in which marquee tributes were handled case by case. As AussieTheatre previously reported, the Broadway League stepped back from administering memorial light dimmings in 2024. Broadway In Memoriam was announced the following year, moving the regular observance to a committee-led quarterly calendar. The September announcement identifies the Broadway In Memoriam Committee, not the Broadway League, as the body behind the event.

For New York, the confirmed starting point is 6.45 pm on Tuesday, 8 September. In eastern Australia, the dimming will fall on the morning of Wednesday, 9 September, because of the time difference. The current announcement does not state how long the marquees will remain dimmed, and it identifies no speeches, gathering point, livestream or production-specific performance. No linked ceremony or local event has been announced in Australia. The confirmed event is the coordinated marquee dimming itself.

The next application deadline is 17 November 2026. The year’s final scheduled Broadway In Memoriam dimming will follow on 8 December. No honorees or additional public programme have yet been announced for that cycle.

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