The Broadway community mourns the loss of two-time Tony Award^® - winning playwright Peter Shaffer, who passed away on June 6^th in County Cork, Ireland at age 90. The marquees of Broadway theatres in New York will be dimmed in his memory on Thursday, June 16, 2016, at exactly 6:45pm for one minute.

Shaffer’s play, Equus, won the 1975 Tony Award for Best Play. His screen adaptation of the play was nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar in 1977. Amadeus won the 1981 Tony Award for Best Play. His screenplay adaptation of the play won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar as well as the Golden Globe Best Screenplay in 1984.

“The acclaimed British dramatist Peter Shaffer who wrote Amadeus and Equus leaves behind a legacy of words through his notable body of critically and commercially successful works,” said Charlotte St. Martin, President of the Broadway League. “He will be missed, and our thoughts are with his family and friends.”

Shaffer wrote more than 18 plays, including Amadeus, Equus, Black Comedy/White Lies, Lettice and Lovage, The Royal Hunt of the Sun and Five Finger Exercise. His first show on Broadway, Five Finger Exercise opened in 1959. His last Broadway production was a revival Equus in 2008.

His plays Amadeus (1981) and Equus (1975) both won Tony Awards for Best Play. Lettice and Lovage (1990) and Black Comedy/White Lies (1967) were both nominated for Best Play. He won an Academy Award for writing the film version of Amadeus.

Several of Shaffer’s plays have been adapted to film, including Five Finger Exercise (1962), The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969), The Public Eye (1962), from which he adapted the 1972 film Follow Me!, Equus (1977), and Amadeus (1984), which won eight Academy Awards including Best Picture. Shaffer received two Academy Award nominations for adapting his plays Equus and Amadeus for the big screen. For writing the screenplay for Amadeus, Shaffer received both the 1984 Best Screenplay Golden Globe and the 1984 Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar.

Shaffer was awarded a British national honor, Commander of the British Empire, in 1987, and he was knighted in 2001.

He is survived by his brother Brian, Brian’s children, nephews Milo and Mark, and nieces Cressida and Claudia, whose father and Peter’s twin, the playwright and screenwriter Anthony Shaffer (“Sleuth”), died in 2001.

His full Broadway biography can be found on the Internet Broadway Database at

https://www.ibdb.com/Person/View/8127

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THE BROADWAY LEAGUE (Charlotte St. Martin, President), founded in 1930, is the national trade association for the Broadway industry. The League’s 700-plus members include theatre owners and operators, producers, presenters, and general managers who present in nearly 200 markets in North America. Each year, League members bring Broadway to nearly 30 million people in New York and on tour across the U.S. and Canada. The Broadway League has recently added a new category for International membership to collaborate with professionals from around the world who produce and present Broadway quality theatre.  The Broadway League annually co-presents the Antoinette Perry “Tony” Awards^®, one of the most coveted awards in the entertainment industry.

Key League programs and resources include: Kids’ Night on Broadway^®, The National High School Musical Theatre Awards (The Jimmys), Stars in the Alley^®, Internet Broadway Database^® (ibdb.com), Broadway.org, SpotlightonBroadway.com, Commercial Theater Institute (with Theatre Development Fund), as well as numerous conferences and forums for our members. TheatreAccessNYC (co-produced with TDF) is the one-stop website of accessible Broadway performances for theatregoers with disabilities. Broadway.org is the League’s official on-line headquarters for Broadway in NYC, on tour, and internationally. For more information visit BroadwayLeague.com, or follow The Broadway League on Twitter @TheBwayLeague and on Facebook at Facebook.com/BroadwayLeague. Download the free Broadway.org and IBDB mobile apps from the iTunes App Store or Google Play.

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