FROM VAUDEVILLE TO TODAY’S TOP
BROADWAY HITS,
THE 2011 THEATRE MUSEUM AWARDS GALA
HONORS A SPECTRUM OF PERFORMING ARTS
Running the gamut from vaudeville
and musical theatre classics, to
today’s top Broadway shows, with a
touch of “old blue eyes” thrown in
for good measure, the 2011 Theatre
Museum Awards pay tribute to a wide
range of the performing arts.
In an
evening directed by renown showman
Tony Walton, the only costumer/set
designer to have won an Oscar, Emmy
and Tony, the 2011 Theatre Museum
Awards for Excellence will be
presented on Monday,
May 16, 2011 at the New York Players
Club -- 16 Gramercy Park South. The
night kicks off with a reception at
6:00 p.m. with the awards ceremony
taking place immediately after.
“We’re very proud to honor such a
diverse embodiment of the theatre,”
says Theatre Museum president Helen
Marie Guditis. “The Theatre Museum
is dedicated to preserving and
celebrating all aspects of the
theatre arts. I don’t think we
could have picked better honorees to
reflect this than our 2011 awards’
recipients.”
Founded in 2003, The Theatre Museum
is New York’s first and only
chartered, non-profit museum
dedicated to the history of
theatre. It is a museum-at-large --
presenting exhibitions on a myriad
of subjects in collaboration with
other cultural institutions. The
Museum's community outreach includes
teaching children how to write,
direct and stage live theatre, as
well as the annual Theatre Museum
Awards for Excellence ceremony. Its
primary mission is to preserve,
protect and perpetuate the legacy of
theatre through innovative
programming.
Receiving The Theatre Museum’s
prestigious Career Achievement Award
is legendary Broadway lyricist
Sheldon Harnick. In collaboration
with composer Jerry Bock, Harnick
created the music for such memorable
shows as Fiddler on the Roof,
Fiorello!, She Loves Me,
The Apple Tree and The
Rothchilds. His numerous honors
include three Tony Awards and a
Pulitzer Prize.
Harnick began his career in the
1950s by penning songs both on and
off Broadway for such musical
reviews as The Boston Beguine
and Merry Little Minuet. He
teamed with Bock in 1956 for The
Body Beautiful and the duo never
looked back. Some of Harnick’s
other efforts include Rex
with Richard Rodgers, A Wonderful
Life with Joe Raposo, A
Christmas Carol with Michel
Legrand, The Phantom Tollbooth
with Arnold Black and co-librettist
Norton Juster, and the operas
Cyrano, Coyote Tales and
Captain Jinks of the Horse
Marines. In addition, he has
translated The Merry Widow
for Beverly Sills, Carmen, Ravel’s
The Enchanted Child, and
Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale.
Prolific producer Bonnie Comley will
be honored with The Theatre Museum’s
Service to the Theatre Award. Among
her current productions on Broadway
are The Merchant of Venice
with Al Pacino, Priscilla: Queen
of the Desert, and War Horse.
Other Broadway credits include
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,
Come Fly Away, Enron, Alfred
Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps,
Legally Blonde, Superior
Donuts, as well as the Broadway
revivals of American Buffalo,
Sunday in the Park with George,
Cyrano de Bergerac,
Fiddler on the Roof, and
Gypsy. In London’s West End,
Ms. Comley produced the Olivier
nominated Thoroughly Modern
Millie, Ragtime and
Lobby Hero. She won a
Tony Award for producing Jay
Johnson: The Two and Only.
Vice
President of Stellar Productions,
Int’l Inc., and wife of theatre
producer Stewart F. Lane, Comley has
been awarded the Paul Newman Award
from Arts Horizons, the Actors Fund
Medal of Honor, and the
Distinguished Producer Award from
The Drama League. Her film efforts
include producing Of Horse and
Man, narrated by Glenn Close,
Show Business: The Road to Broadway,
Brooklyn Rules, Cyrano de
Bergerac, starring Kevin Kline
and Jennifer Garner, Company,
and Sondheim: The Birthday
Concert for PBS’ Great
Performances.
His
lifelong love of vaudeville and his
dedication to keeping its memory
alive makes Frank Cullen the perfect
recipient for The Theatre Museum’s
Theatre History Preservation Award.
Along
with Donald McNeilly, Cullen founded
The American Vaudeville Museum in
1982. Here, he was able to display
the showbiz memorabilia he had
collected since the age of 10. In
2008, the collection was transferred
to the University of Arizona in
Tucson, where it is available to
view at Special Collections. Using
McNeilly’s website
www.vaudeville.org as a
springboard, the two men produced 40
issues of the AVM quarterly
"Vaudeville Times” from 1998-2008.
When
Routledge Press wanted to create an
authoritative book on the subject,
it seemed only natural that Cullen
and McNeilly would be involved. The
two large-format volumes,
Vaudeville, Old & New: an
Encyclopedia of Variety Performers
in America, were published in
2007. Cullen served as lead
researcher and writer.
Cullen and McNeilly also
collaborated on Murder at the
Tremont Theatre: The First Porridge
Sisters Mystery (2010) and
Murder at The Old Howard (due
2011), the first two of a projected
series of five historically accurate
showbiz whodunits set in Boston
during the vaudeville era.
The
Frank Sinatra School of the Arts
will receive The Theatre Museum’s
Theatre Arts Education Award.
Established in 2001 by world-famous
entertainer Tony Bennett
as a way to honor the memory of his
friend and colleague Frank Sinatra,
the Queens-based high school offers
a specialized program in the arts as
well as a full academic curriculum.
Currently 590 students -- selected
from among New York City’s 8th and
9th graders -- are undertaking the
school’s rigorous academic
curriculum and pre-conservatory
studio education. Selection is
determined through a competitive
audition and academic records
evaluation. Students pursue an arts
study program in instrumental music,
vocal music, fine arts, drama or
dance.
The
school is committed to community
service through the arts --
allowing students in both an
individual capacity and in groups to
complete arts-related projects in
facilities such as hospitals, day
care centers, senior citizen homes
and homeless shelters. Partnerships
have also been formed with such
groups as the Metropolitan Opera,
Battery Dance Company, Museum of
Modern Art, Queens Museum, American
Theatre Wing, and Times Square
Group, allowing students to
participate in internships,
apprenticeships, mentorships and
other programs and projects.
For
more information, please contact:
Press
(212) 464-4112