BILLY ELLIOT, RUINED & More Win at Drama Critics' Circle Awards

Ruined, by Lynn Nottage, today won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award (NYDCC) for Best Play of the 2008-2009 season. The Best Musical award was given to Billy Elliot, music by Elton John, and book and lyrics by Lee Hall. The award for Best Foreign Play was given to Black Watch by Gregory Burke. The selections were made at the 74th annual voting meeting of the organization today at the offices of Time Out New York in Manhattan.

Special citations were awarded to Angela Lansbury for her contribution to the American theatre;
Matthew Warchus and The Cast of The Norman Conquests; and Gerard Alessandrini for Forbidden Broadway.

For more information on the New York Drama Critics' Circle and details of this year's voting, visit www.dramacritics.org.

The awards will be presented at a cocktail reception to be held on Monday, May 11, at the Algonquin Hotel, where the NYDCC was founded in 1935 by such legendary critics as Brooks Atkinson, Walter Winchell, and Robert Benchley.

The award for best play carries with it a cash prize of $2,500; the award for best foreign play carries a cash prize of $1,000. The awards are made possible by a grant from the Lucille Lortel Foundation.

Ruined, written by Lynn Nottage and directed by Kate Whoriskey, is a co-production between Manhattan Theatre Club and Chicago's Goodman Theatre. It had its world premiere November 18, 2008 at the Goodman Theatre, and its New York premiere February 10, 2009 at Manhattan Theatre Club, where it is currently playing.

Billy Elliot, directed by Stephen Daldry, with music by Elton John, and book and lyrics by Lee Hall, had its world premiere in London May 11, 2005. It had its New York premiere at the Imperial Theatre on October 1, 2008 and opened November 13, 2008.

Black Watch, written by Gregory Burke and directed by John Tiffany, had its world premiere at the Edinburgh Festival in 2006. A production of the National Theatre of Scotland, the play had its New York premiere at St. Ann's Warehouse in the fall of 2007 and played a return engagement there October 9, 2008 through December 21, 2008.

Angela Lansbury has won four Tony Awards and has been nominated five times. She has a career in the New York theatre has spanned more than 50 years. Ms. Lansbury can currently be seen in the revival of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit, which plays the Shubert Theatre.

The revival of The Norman Conquests, written by Alan Ayckbourn and directed by Matthew Warchus, premiered October 6, 2008 at The Old Vic, and opened at Circle in the Square on April 23, 2009. The cast is Amelia Bullmore, Jessica Hynes, Stephen Mangan, Ben Miles, Paul Ritter, and Amanda Root.

Forbidden Broadway was first seen at Palsson's Supper Club on New York's Upper West Side in January 1982. Updated regularly, Forbidden Broadway has had several editions, countless revisions, three New York City performance spaces, several national and international tours, and thousands of special performances.

The New York Drama Critics' Circle comprises 20 drama critics from daily newspapers, magazines, and wire services based in the New York metropolitan area. The New York Drama Critics' Circle Award is the nation's second-oldest theatre award, after the Pulitzer Prize for drama; it has been awarded every year since 1936 to the best new play of the season (with additional awards for musicals and foreign or American plays as well as citations for special achievement).

Adam Feldman, theatre critic for Time Out New York, has served as president of the NYDCC since 2005. Eric Grode serves as vice president; Joe Dziemianowicz of the Daily News is treasurer.

In addition to Messrs. Feldman, Grode, and Dziemianowicz, the members of the New York Drama Critics' Circle are: Hilton Als of The New Yorker; Melissa Rose Bernardo of Entertainment Weekly; David Cote of Time Out New York; Michael Feingold of the Village Voice; Robert Feldberg of The Record (Bergen); Elysa Gardner of USA Today; John Heilpern of The New York Observer; Michael Kuchwara of the Associated Press; David Rooney of Variety; Frank Scheck of the New York Post; David Sheward of Back Stage; John Simon of Bloomberg News; Alexis Soloski of the Village Voice; Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal; Elisabeth Vincentelli of the New York Post; Linda Winer of Newsday; and Richard Zoglin of Time.