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Musicals nab NY stage awards
13/05/2008 11:40 - (SA)
Michelle Nichols
New York - Pulitzer Prize-winning
play August: Osage County and musicals Young Frankenstein
and Xanadu nabbed the top Outer Critics Circle awards on
Monday ahead of US theatre's top honours, the Tonys.
Anna D Shapiro, who directed August: Osage County,
picked up the award for outstanding director of a play and the
production's Deanna Dunagan won outstanding actress in a play.
The play, which won author Tracy Lett the 2008 Pulitzer
Prize for drama, tells the story of the Westons, a large
extended clan that comes together at their Oklahoma homestead
when the alcoholic patriarch disappears. It opened on Broadway
on April 29 after a hit run in Chicago.
Xanadu, based on the 1980 movie flop of the same name
starring Olivia Newton John, and Mel Brooks's Young
Frankenstein tied for the outstanding new musical award,
beating A Catered Affair and Cry-Baby The Musical.
The Outer Critics Circle is made up of journalists covering
New York theatre for US and foreign media.
They voted for 23
awards, to be presented on May 22, which are sometimes an early
indication of how the Tonys will go on June 15.
Tony nominations are due to be announced on Tuesday.
Outstanding musical
Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific picked up four
Outer Critics Circle awards - outstanding revival of a
musical, outstanding director of a musical for Bartlett Sher,
outstanding actor in a musical for Paulo Szot and outstanding
featured actor in a musical for Danny Burstein.
The outstanding actress in a musical award was won by Patti
LuPone for Gypsy and the outstanding revival of a play award
went to The Homecoming.
Among the Hollywood stars awarded for their stage work in
New York were Oscar winner Kevin Kline, who picked up the award
for outstanding actor in a play for his leading role in Cyrano
de Bergerac opposite Jennifer Garner.
Academy Award-nominated James Earl Jones won outstanding
featured actor in a play for his performance in Cat on a Hot
Tin Roof, Emmy-winning actress Laurie Metcalf won outstanding
featured actress in a play for November, and Oscar-nominated
Laurence Fishburne picked up outstanding solo performance prize
for Thurgood.
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