Broadway theater to be named for Wilson

NEW YORK, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- A Broadway theater will soon bear the name of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson, it was reported Saturday.

Jujamcyn Theaters President Rocco Landesman announced Friday the company is changing the name of the Virginia Theater to the August Wilson Theater, the New York Times reported.

The new marquee -- a giant neon reproduction of Wilson's signature -- will be unveiled Oct. 17.

Wilson, 60, who revealed last month he dying of liver cancer, becomes the first African-American to have a Broadway theater named in his honor, the Times said.

"The marquee is going to survive August," Landesman said. "And it is going to survive me."