West End Theatre Names Itself for Living Legend Before Illness Forecloses the Moment

London's Shaftesbury Theatre becomes the Judi Dench Theatre in February 2027, honouring the 91-year-old dame's seven-decade career. Dench disclosed that macular degeneration has impaired her vision, limiting her stage work. Naming a working West End theatre after a living practitioner is rare. The renaming allows institutional legacy-making while she can witness it—before circumstance makes such recognition impossible.