BMI Honored with Tony Honor for Excellence in Theatre

BMI's Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop was presented with a 2006 Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre at a gala luncheon held at New York's Tavern on the Green on October 24th.

Established in 1990, the Tony Honors are awarded annually by the Tony Administration Committee to institutions, individuals, and/or organizations that have demonstrated extraordinary achievement in theatre, but are not eligible in any of the established Tony categories.

Accepting the award on behalf of BMI were lyricist Richard Engquist and Tony Award-winning BMI composer/lyricist Maury Yeston, who both serve on the Workshop faculty.  Other honorees at the Tony Honors ceremony were Forbidden Broadway and its creator (and BMI Workshop alumnus) Gerard Alessandrini, Samuel "Biff" Liff, Senior Vice President of the William Morris Agency, and Ellen Stewart, Founder/Director of La MaMa E.T.C.
  
Deemed "the Harvard of musical theatre" by The New York Times, the Workshop was founded in 1961 by BMI, the performing rights organization, and the late Lehman Engel, to create a setting where new writers could learn their craft. It is the birthplace of such classic musicals as A Chorus Line, Nine, Little Shop of Horrors, and current Broadway favorite Avenue Q. 
 
Visit www.bmi.com for more information.
 
Photo by Steve and Anita Shevett