Broadway Theaters to Dim Lights in Memory of Sheldon Harnick
(© Tricia Baron)
The Broadway community and the Committee of Theatre Owners will honor the memory of four-time Tony Award-winning lyricist Sheldon Harnick by dimming the lights of Broadway theaters on November 9 at 6:45pm for one minute. Harnick died on June 23 at the age of 99.
Harnick’s first song for a Broadway show was “Boston Beguine” for Leonard Sillman’s New Faces of 1952. He then contributed songs to the revues Two’s Company starring Bette Davis, John Murray Anderson’s Almanac, and The Littlest Revue. He is best known for his collaboration with composer Jerry Bock, which produced the Broadway classics Fiorello! (1959), She Loves Me (1963), and Fiddler on the Roof (1964), among others.
Harnick was nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning three for the productions of Fiorello! and Fiddler on the Roof. In 2016, he received a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, the Drama League Award for Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre, and a Special Lifetime Achievement Award from The Outer Critics Circle. In addition, he has won a Pulitzer Prize, two Grammy Awards, two New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, three gold records, and a platinum record.
