The Theatre Museum Awards Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, Held 5/10

America's eminent composer/lyricist duo, Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, will receive the prestigious Career Achievement Award at The Theatre Museum's 2010 Awards Gala.

In an evening hosted by popular stage, television and film performer Richard Kind and directed by the multi-talented Tony Walton, The 2010 Theatre Museum Awards for Excellence will take place on Monday May 10, 2010 from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm at the New York Players Club. Presenters
include Disney Theatrical Group president Tom Schumacher, Tappan Wilder, executor of Thornton Wilder's literary and dramatic properties, and actor George Morfogen.

Recognizing individuals and/or organizations that have made significant contributions to the life of the theatre, The Theatre Museum will present the Theatre Arts Education Award to Samuel
French, Inc., which is celebrating its 180th anniversary as the premier publisher of and resource for stage plays and drama instruction books.

Specializing in producing worthwhile but neglected stage works from the past, the Mint Theater Company will be honored with the Museum's Theatre History Preservation Award.

"In selecting this year's honorees, we are recognizing those individuals and organizations whose efforts have set a trend and made a significant impact on the theatre," says Theatre Museum Board of Trustees president Helen Marie Guditis. "We are thrilled to have the opportunity to properly acknowledge these honorees that have, in their own unique way, given so much to the art and industry."

There are few musical teams whose body of work has delighted so many as The Sherman Brothers. In a career spanning five decades, Richard M. and Robert B. have received just about every conceivable musical honor, including nine Oscar nominations, three Grammys, twenty-four
Gold and Platinum albums, and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005, the brothers won two Academy Awards in 1965 -- Best Musical Score for Mary Poppins and Best Music, Original Song for Chim Chim Cher-ee. They are also the creators of one the world's most recognizable songs, It's a Small World (After All).

The team first found success as pop music composers, penning such top- ten hits as You're Sixteen, Let's Get Together, and Tall Paul. In 1960, they joined forces with Walt Disney, and over the next ten years composed over 200 tunes for the studio's various enterprises. Their music can be heard in 36 Disney features, including Jungle Book, The Parent Trap, The Aristocats, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Happiest Millionaire, The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band, The Sword in the Stone, and The Winnie the Pooh series.

Addition musical score credits include Snoopy Come Home, Charlotte's Web, the Broadway musical hit Over Here!, and the fantasmagorical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The brothers also wrote both the screenplays and song scores for such features as Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, The Magic of Lassie, and The Slipper and the Rose, which was chosen as the 1976 Royal Command film. Recent musical efforts include songs for the Disney animated feature The Tigger Movie, Beverly Hills Cop 3, and the stage musical Busker Alley.

The Sherman Brothers currently have two hit shows on the boards. After an almost four year record-breaking run in London, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is presently on an English national tour. Mary Poppins is enjoying its fourth year as one of Broadway's biggest hits with touring productions around the world.

In November of 2008, the Shermans were awarded the ‘National Medal of Arts' by President Bush in a ceremony at the White House.

Celebrating its 180th anniversary of continuous service to the theatrical community, Samuel French, Inc. represents thousands of playwrights, translators, lyricists, and composers throughout the world. From high school and college stagings, to countless community and professional theatrical productions, Samuel French facilitates the licensing of material that keeps performing arts humming. If you've ever been involved in a theatre production, chances are the script was purchased from Samuel French. Led by president and ceo Leon Embry and headquartered in NYC, the company also includes bustling performing arts bookstores in London, England, Hollywood and
Studio City, California. Boasting the most comprehensive catalog of theatrical works in the world, Samuel French is also the leader in its field for theatre-related, film and television publications,
offering just about any imaginable volume on these subjects.

Under the leadership of Jonathan Bank, The Mint Theater Company has become a leader in producing worthwhile plays from the past that have been lost or forgotten and, in the process, has brought a new vitality to these works.

Securing its unique place in the crowded theatrical landscape of New York, The Mint has given theatre scholars the priceless opportunity to come into contact with historically significant work that they've studied on the page but never experienced on the stage. Theatregoers have the opportunity to see plays that would otherwise be unavailable to them. Important plays with valuable lessons to teach -- plays that have been discarded or ignored -- are now read, studied,
performed, discussed, written about, and enjoyed. Recent productions include Jules Romains' 1923 comedy Doctor Knock or the Triumph of Medicine and A. A. Milne's whimsical 1921 comedy Mr. Pim Passes. Harley Granville-Baker's The Voysey Inheritance finally enjoyed its New York debut 95 years after it was written thanks to The Mint. For its efforts, the company has received Special Obie and Drama Desk Awards, recognizing the importance of its mission and success in fulfilling it.

In addition to producing lost plays, The Mint also publishes its work and distribute its books, free of charge to libraries, theaters and universities. The catalog of books now includes an anthology of seven plays entitled Worthy but Neglected: Plays of the Mint Theater plus three volumes in the "Reclaimed" series, each featuring the work of a single author: Harley Granville Barker, St. John Hankin, and Arthur Schnitzler.

Founded in 2003, The Theatre Museum is New York State's first and only chartered, non-profit museum dedicated to the history of theatre. It is a museum-at-large -- presenting exhibitions in
collaboration with other cultural institutions. The Museum's programs include community outreach, such as teaching children how to write, direct and stage live theatre, and the annual Theatre Museum Awards for Excellence Ceremony. Its primary mission is to preserve, protect
and perpetuate the legacy of theatre through innovative programming.

For more information, please contact:

The Theatre Museum Press Desk at (212) 464-4112,
http://www.thetheatremuseum.org