Theater names Audra McDonald and Harold Prince are among the inaugural class of inductees at Lincoln Center’s new performing arts-focused hall of fame, Legends at Lincoln Center. Jazz legend Louis Armstrong, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and opera singers Placido Domingo and Leontyne Price round out the list of 2016 inductees to the budding program.
The new honor, timed to a fundraising gala for the 11 arts organizations that make up Lincoln Center (including Lincoln Center Theater and the Metropolitan Opera), comes with a paving stone for each recipient in Lincoln Center’s plaza. The stones will have individual markers that will launch interactive digital content on a free app. Inductees also will receive a trophy designed by Heatherwick Studios, which was involved in the redesign of David Geffen Hall, one of the buildings on the Lincoln Center campus.
McDonald, the six-time Tony winner who’ll star in Broadway’s “Shuffle Along” this spring, trained at Lincoln Center’s Juilliard School, and her 1994 debut at Lincoln Center Theater in “Carousel” yielded the actress her first Tony. She’s since appeared in New York Philharmonic concerts and other LCT productions.
Prince, the producer-director who’s won more Tonys than any other single person, has directed original productions of shows including “Cabaret,” “Sweeney Todd” and “The Phantom of the Opera.” At Lincoln Center Theater, he co-conceived and directed “Parade” in 1998.
The induction ceremony gala is set for June 20 at Lincoln Center, with the six new additions to the list joining a list of 30 “founding legends” including George Balanchine, Leonard Bernstein and Wynton Marsalis.
