On Day 14 of 30 Days of Tony, we celebrate another Best Direction of A Play nominee, legendary artist George C. Wolfe, who is nominated this year for his work on The Iceman Cometh.
Wolfe burst onto the national scene in 1986 with his play, The Colored Museum, staged at the Public Theater. In 1992, he made his Broadway writing and directing debut with Jelly's Last Jam, a musical tribute to famed jazz pianist-composer Jelly Roll Morton. The production received 11 Tony nominations and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical. In 1993, Wolfe received a Tony Award for his direction of Tony Kushner's landmark Angels in America: Millennium Approaches. Wolfe was also Tony-nominated for his direction of Angels In America: Perestroika, which opened in 1994.
He created the 1996 Tony Award-winning Bring in da' Noise, Bring in da' Funk, starring and choreographed by Savion Glover, for which he won a Tony Award for direction. He directed the 2002 Tony Award-winning production of Elaine Stritch At Liberty, and the Tony Award-winning 2011 Broadway production of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart.
His credits also include the Tony-nominated stage productions of The Wild Party with composer, librettist and lyricist Michael John LaChiusa; Kushner and Janine Tesori's Caroline, or Change; Suzan-Lori Parks' Pulitzer Prize-winning play Topdog/Underdog and Nora Ephron's Lucky Guy, starring Tom Hanks. He directed Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park, starring O'Neill Center veterans Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline. Wolfe also wrote and directed important works Spunk, and Paradise. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2013.
He wrote the book and directed Shuffle Along on Broadway this spring, starring Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Billy Porter, Brandon Victor Dixon and Joshua Henry, and choreographed by Mr. Glover. The production premieres at The Music Box on April 28.
On screen, Wolfe has directed, produced, and acted in numerous films including HBO's Lackawanna Blues (director, 2006), Nights in Rodanthe (director, 2013), Garden State (actor, 2008), and The Devil Wears Prada (actor, 2008).
Celebrate this theatrical legend with a performance from his star-studded cast of Shuffle Along on Broadway!
Videos