Hugh Southern, NEA Chair During The Culture Wars And Co-Creator Of The TKTS Booth, Has Died At 87

Before running the NEA and, briefly, the Metropolitan Opera, Southern was the first executive director of the Theatre Development Fund. Though Broadway producers resisted the discount TKTS booth at first, they came to see its value later: “In the fiscal year that ended June 30, in which a record 14.7 million people saw Broadway shows, the TKTS booth at all three locations sold more than 1.1 million same-day discounted tickets, about 8 percent of all tickets sold.” – The New York Times