2009 Tony Award Honorees For Non-Competitive Categories

 

Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre
Recipient: Jerry Herman

Mr. Herman composed the scores for such Broadway musicals as Hello, Dolly!, Mame and La Cage aux Folles. He is a five-time Tony Award nominee and two time Tony Award winner, for La Cage aux Folles and Hello, Dolly!

There is never an evening when, somewhere in the world, the music and lyrics of Jerry Herman are not being sung by a lady in a red headdress, or a lady with a bugle, or a middle-aged man in a wig and a boa. Hello, Dolly!, Mame, and La Cage aux Folles are home to some of the most popular, most-often performed and most successful musical heroines of all time, and have given Jerry the distinction of being the only composer-lyricist in history to have had three musicals that ran more than 1,500 consecutive performances on Broadway. When Dear World opened in 1969, Jerry became the only composer-lyricist in history to have three productions running on Broadway simultaneously. His first Broadway show was Milk and Honey (1961), followed by Hello, Dolly! (1964) Mame (1966) Dear World (1969), Mack & Mabel (1974) The Grand Tour (1979), La Cage aux Folles (1983), Jerry's Girls (1985) and "Mrs. Santa Claus" (1966), a CBS TV special starring Angela Lansbury. Showtune, a revue of his life's work, is performing in regional theatres around the country and around the world. His string of awards and honors includes multiple Tonys, Grammys, Drama Desk Awards, the Johnny Mercer Award, the Richard Rodgers Award, the Oscar Hammerstein Award, the Frederick Lowe Award, the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Theatre Hall of Fame. Two of his classic songs are the emotional highlights of the hit Disney-Pixar film Wall-E. A revival of La Cage aux Folles is currently playing in London's West End, and recently won the Olivier Award for Best Revival, as well as the London Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Musical. Jerry Herman was the subject of the 2008 PBS documentary "Words and Music by Jerry Herman."

 

Regional Theatre Tony Award
Recipient: Signature Theatre of Arlington, Virginia

Each year, the Tony Awards present a Tony Award to a regional theatre on the recommendation of the American Theatre Critics Association. The Award is accompanied by a gift of $25,000 from VISA, USA, a proud sponsor of the Tony Awards for the past decade. For 20 years, Signature Theatre has broadened and brightened the region's cultural landscape with its bold productions of challenging new and established works.

In 20 seasons, Signature Theater (Eric Schaeffer, artistic director; Maggie Boland, managing director) has established a national reputation for giving some of the nation's most talented artists a place to do their best work before appreciative, knowledgeable audiences.

Administering the million dollar American Musical Voices Project of the Shen Family Foundation, they've given grants and commissions to the likes of Ricky Ian Gordon, Michael John LaChiusa, Bruce Coughlin, Adam Guettel, Audra McDonald and Ted Sperling. John Kander said that he and Fred Ebb, who premiered "Over & Over" at Signature, loved to work here because it is a place "where you can work with a free heart."

Signature has developed new non-musicals (9 nominations for Washington's Outstanding New Play) but its national reputation is based on musicals including fourteen of Stephen Sondheim's, four of which earned Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Musical. Work here has received 69 Helen Hayes awards. Signature is where Stephen Schwartz re-worked "Working," Matt Conner premiered "Nevermore," Sklar and Beguelin revealed "The Rhythm Club," Blaemire and Gardiner reveled in their "Glory Days" before its very brief stop on Broadway, Lazar and Oberacker introduced "The Gospel According to Fishman," and Joe DiPietro tried out his new book for Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Allegro." Dempsey and Rowe's "The Fix" and "The Witches of Eastwick" had their American premieres here.

In 2008 Signature staged a Kander and Ebb festival, the highlight of which was the only outside-of-New-York production in Time Magazine's Top 10 Plays and Musicals list for 2008: Chita Rivera and George Hearn in "The Visit." For more information, visit signature-theatre.org.

 

Isabelle Stevenson Award
Recipient: Phyllis Newman

The recipient of the newly created Isabelle Stevenson Award is Tony Award winning actress Phyllis Newman. The Isabelle Stevenson Award recognizes an individual from the theatre community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of one or more humanitarian, social service or charitable organizations, regardless of whether such organizations relate to the theatre. In 1995, Ms. Newman founded The Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative of The Actor's Fund of America. For the last 12 years she has raised more than $3.5 million dollars that has helped to serve 2,500 women in the entertainment industry.

The Isabelle Stevenson Award was named in memory of the long-time leader of the American Theatre Wing, who served as President and later Chairman of the not-for-profit organization on a completely volunteer basis for nearly four decades. Ms. Stevenson was Co-Chairman of the New York City Board of Education's All-Day Neighborhood Schools, served on the Board of Directors of The Museum of the City of New York and the board of New Dramatists, Inc. Isabelle Stevenson was honored at the New Yorker for New York Awards, receiving The Elizabeth Chapin Award for Volunteers in the Arts for the Citizens Committee for New York City. She was also honored by the Encore Community Services (St. Malachy's, The Actors' Chapel) with their Heart to Heart Award. In 1999 she was the recipient of a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement; in 2001 she was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame and, also that year, received the Tree of Life Award from the Jewish National Fund.

Ms. Stevenson was a celebrated dancer and performed internationally in such shows as Earl Carroll's Vanities, Florenz Ziegfeld's Follies and George White's Scandals.

Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre
Recipient: Shirley Herz

For more than 50 years, Shirley Herz has been a press agent to both on and Off-Broadway working behind-the-scenes to publicize more than 200 shows and help make both the shows and their stars house-hold names. Established in 1990, The Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre are awarded annually to institutions, individuals and/or organizations that have demonstrated extraordinary achievement in theatre, but are not eligible in any of the established Tony Award categories.

Veteran Broadway publicist Shirley Herz got her first big break when she was hired to work on a long road tour with Rosalind Russell followed by a Broadway run with Wonderful Town as Ms. Russell's personal press representative. Since that time her work has taken her all over the world in a career that has spanned more than five decades. She has publicized plays by such writers as Edward Albee, Brian Friel, Frank McGuinness, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and Sam Shepard, among many others. She has worked on dozens of musicals including House of Flowers, Do Re Me, 3 Penny Opera, Jerry's Girls, Legs Diamond, La Cage aux Folles, Gypsy, Peter Pan, Singing in the Rain, Fiddler on the Roof and many more, as well as numerous Off Broadway productions. She has also represented many theatrical organizations and dance companies.