Broadway Dims Lights For Elizabeth Taylor
by Richard Sharp
At 8 p.m. last night in New York, Broadway theaters dimmed their lights for one minute to honor actress Elizabeth Taylor. 8 p.m. is typically curtain call time on Broadway.
Besides her big screen acting career, Taylor received a Tony Award for her acting in the Broadway play “The Little Foxes.” She also produced and starred in Noel Coward’s “Private Lives” alongside her then-husband Richard Burton.
"The Broadway community mourns the loss of Elizabeth Taylor, legendary stage and screen star," Paul Libin of The Broadway League said in a statement.
"With her remarkable talent and extraordinary beauty, Elizabeth Taylor lit up the Broadway stage the same way she lit up the silver screen," said Libin.
Taylor’s obit in Playbill describes her biggest Broadway moment working on “Little Foxes,” and how (per usual) it was fraught with drama.
“In the 1980s, she ventured into stage work. The announcement that she would make her Broadway debut in a 1981 revival of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes set off a wildfire of media attention and box-office sales. The production, produced by Zev Bufman, also starred stage veterans Tom Aldredge and Maureen Stapleton. The rehearsal process was rife with drama, with Bufman and director Austin Pendleton warring for control of Taylor's performance, and Pendleton and Hellman getting into arguments in the lobby of the Martin Beck. A pre-Broadway tryout at the Kennedy Center became a social event for the Washington elite, as then-husband Sen. John Warner showed off his famous wife. In the end, reviews were mostly kind, and the revival received Tony nominations both for the production and Ms. Taylor.”
As much as her contributions to Broadway and acting in general, Broadway honored Taylor for her charity work.
"Off stage, her tireless commitment to fighting AIDS as a co-founder of amfAR and founder of The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation added yet another meaningful role to the story of her life. Our thoughts go out to her friends, family, and fans," said Libin.
In a family statement after Taylor’s funeral, her family asked that instead of flowers, that contributions be made to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.