Lena Horne was a trailblazing Black performer. Now a Broadway theatre has adopted her name

Story Transcript

The first Broadway theatre named after a Black woman will honour legendary performer and civil rights activist Lena Horne. 

The Nederlander Organization, which operates nine theatres on Broadway in New York City, announced it would change the name of its Brooks Atkinson Theatre to the Lena Horne Theatre.

The announcement came as a surprise to her family, according to granddaughter Jenny Lumet.

"I didn't expect it in a million years," Lumet, also a showrunner and producer, told As It Happens guest host Catherine Cullen.

"I think [Horne] would say. 'Oh, stop with that' … and she would think it was extraordinary and wonderful, but she wouldn't tell anybody that she thinks it's extraordinary and wonderful."

Last year, three Broadway landlords reached an agreement with Black Theatre United, each pledging to name at least one of their theatres after a Black artist. The name change will bring the Nederlander Organization into compliance with the agreement.

'Every moment in her life was political'

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Horne's performance career began at New York's historic Cotton Club in 1933, where she was a member of the chorus line. She went on to have a successful career as a singer, dancer and actress. She died in 2010 at the age of 92.

Horne had roles in several films, including Panama Hattie, Stormy Weather and Cabin in the Sky. But she was consistently denied major roles for the screen; at the time Horne was performing, film companies still edited Black actors out of movies when they aired in U.S. cities that didn't allow films with Black performers.

Consistently facing racism in show business, Horne stood up for what she believed in. She refused to perform for segregated audiences, and stormed out of a performance for U.S. troops when she realized Black servicemen had been seated behind German prisoners of war. She also worked with former U.S. first lady Eleanor Roosevelt in campaigning for anti-lynching legislation in the United States, and attended the March on Washington.

Though these moments have stood out as part of Horne's legacy, Lumet said being true to herself as an artist was Horne's most political act.

"I think that to be a Black artist every single, solitary day is a dangerous and revolutionary thing," Lumet said. "And so, of course, there are big political moments. But I always feel like every moment of her life was political because she was constantly challenging — just walking down the street, I mean, she was constantly challenging what the perception of Black womanhood, Black people, were. And she was insisting that there was a full spectrum as opposed to a monolith."

A history with the Nederlander Organization

The Nederlander Organization has been tied to Horne and her work for decades. 

In 1981, Horne's one-woman show Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music ran for more than a year at the Nederlander Theatre. Horne won a special Tony Award and two Grammy Awards for her performance in the show and its soundtrack.

Lumet says that show allowed Horne to fully express herself.

"I think that something that's been denied women of colour since the beginning of time, and that is still denied women of colour, is the simple space to tell their own stories in their own voices," Lumet said. 

"Grandma had never been allowed that in all her very storied, very celebrated career. She always had to walk a very particular tightrope. Lady and Her Music was her fullest expression of 'This is who I am and this is my voice and my life and my story.'"

Nederlander Organization president James L. Nederlander said he was "proud" to take this step to recognize Horne's legacy.

"I am so honoured to have known Lena. She became a part of our family over the years," he said in a press release. "It means so much to me that my father was the producer of Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, and it is my privilege, honour, and duty to memorialize Lena for generations to come."

Lumet has had her own success in the entertainment industry. She's worked as a successful screenwriter, producer, and showrunner.

Thanks to people like Horne, Lumet said Broadway and Hollywood are slowly becoming more inclusive. 

Still, she'd like to see representation across all aspects of the business.

"Maybe we're doing a little bit better in front of the camera. But I'm more interested in the voices behind the camera," she said.

"I'm interested in the grips, in the set dressers and the choreographers. Everybody below the line. Those jobs, I think, are the jobs that I feel need a huge dose of inclusively."

Lumet says she hopes that the renaming of this theatre will help with that change  — and send a message. 

"We are not erased," she said. "There are millions of Black and Brown voices that simply had no space. I think to see a theatre named in honour of a Black woman is a reminder that there are more Black women out there."

Written by Leslie Amminson. Interview produced by Morgan Passi.