According to a Broadway League news release, to commemorate her life and work, the Committee of Theatre Owners will dim the lights of Broadway theaters in New York for one minute on Wednesday, January 16, 2019 at exactly 7:45pm.

The Broadway League said: “On Broadway Ms. Channing appeared in: Hello, Dolly! (1995 Revival), Hello, Dolly! (1978 Revival), Lorelei (1974), Four on a Garden (1971), Hello, Dolly! (1964), Show Girl (1961), The Vamp (1955), Wonderful Town (1953), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949), Lend an Ear (1948), Proof Thro’ the Night (1942), and Let’s Face It! (1941).  She was in the original tour of Hello, Dolly! (1965) and played the role of Dolly Gallagher Levi over 4,500 times in her career. She also appeared in major touring productions including: Hello, Dolly! (1994 Revival), Legends! (1986), Jerry’s Girls (1984), Hello, Dolly! (1983 Revival), Sugar Babies (1980), Hello, Dolly! (1977 Revival), Wonderful Town (1954), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1951).”

Carol Channing in ‘Lorelei’ (1974) as depicted by Al Hirschfeld. Image: © The Al Hirschfeld Foundation. All rights reserved. www.AlHirschfeldFoundation.org.

“Carol Channing personified everything we love about American musical comedy: big, funny and joyous. To see her hold an audience in her thrall was a master class in star power,” said Thomas Schumacher, Chairman of The Broadway League.  “Hello, Dolly! opened 55 years ago tomorrow.  She always was famous for her timing.”

A Channing/Hirschfeld anecdote:

Channing claimed that Al had made her a star when she appeared in a musical revue, Lend An Ear in 1949. In June, 1949, he did a composite of “Supporting Players Whose Number Stop Their Musical Shows” that included Channing in a cloche hat as “The Gladiola Girl”. Channing was shocked, “That’s my father,” she said when she first saw it, yet she also realized that he had captured exactly what had been in her mind’s eye when she performed. “[Al] knew just what I was thinking,” She claimed that the producers and creative team for an upcoming musical adaptation by Jule Styne of the classic, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes saw the drawing and Anita Loos said “There’s my Lorelei Lee.”

“Al Hirschfeld did that for me. All of the sudden everybody came to see it. Well who’s that? We better go see it if Al Hirschfeld thinks that much of it.” Six months later she opened as the lead in the musical and played it for 740 performances. Al would draw her next two Broadway productions which were not hits, but it was Hello, Dolly! that would become her career defining role. As Al would later say about her last Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!, when Channing first came down the stairs, “You know you are in safe hands.” His drawing of Channing as Dolly Levi, with her Victorian-styled dress, plunging neckline, big eyes, two dots for a nose, open mouth, her big hair, and even larger headdress literally became the logo for the show, used on programs, posters, and advertisements of all sizes as the show took its Broadway success on the road and it subsequent revivals.

Al Hirschfeld’s tribute to Carol Channing for a 1995 revival of ‘Hello, Dolly!’ Image: © The Al Hirschfeld Foundation. All rights reserved. www.AlHirschfeldFoundation.org.

Another famous depiction of Carol Channing in ‘Hello, Dolly!’ Image: © The Al Hirschfeld Foundation. All rights reserved. www.AlHirschfeldFoundation.org.

Visit www.AlHirschfeldFoundation.org for more information.

‘Carol with Diamonds’ taken by Michael Davis, courtesy of the Carol Channing Archives

Carol Channing’s full Broadway biography can be found on the Internet Broadway Database.

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OF DAME GILLIAN LYNNE

MONDAY 2 JULY 2018

LONDON–Theatres across London’s West End will be dimming their lights at 19:00 tonight (2 July) in memory of the British choreographer Dame Gillian Lynne, who died on Sunday evening aged 92.

Before this evening’s performances begin, lights will be dimmed for one minute as a tribute by the theatre industry and audience members to the legendary choreographer, who began her career as a ballet dancer and went on to work on more than 60 shows across the West End and Broadway, including Andrew Lloyd Webber’s long-running musicals Cats and The Phantom of the Opera.

Dame Gillian received a Special Olivier Award in 2013 for her contribution to theatre. Last month, the New London Theatre (current home of Lloyd Webber’s School Of Rock The Musical) was renamed the Gillian Lynne Theatre – making her the first non-royal woman to receive this honour.

The tradition of dimming theatre lights has long been performed in the West End to pay respects to theatre’s most renowned contributors.

Julian Bird, Chief Executive of Society of London Theatre, said:

‘Dame Gillian Lynne’s contribution to theatre was inestimable. Her career, which spanned over seven decades, encompassed performance, choreography and directing. She worked across so many of the West End and Broadway’s top venues and productions, and won numerous awards and accolades. We are proud to celebrate her extraordinary legacy tonight in the West End.’

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published July 2, 2018

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