David Lindsay-Abaire News

Manhattan Theatre Club presented their annual Spring Gala last night, May 16, a special evening highlighting some of Broadway's most exciting shows, on Monday, May 16 at Gotham Hall. MTC's artistic director Lynne Meadow directed the evening, which was hosted by Tate Donovan (Good People) and Lily Rabe (The American Plan). The gala featured performances from the hit shows Baby It's You!, Catch Me If You Can, MTC's upcoming production of Master Class, Memphis, Rain, and Wicked. BroadwayWorld was on hand for the event and brings you photo coverage below.

Yesterday evening, May 16, The New York Drama Critics' Circle presented their 2011 Drama Critics Circle Awards at Angus McIndoe Restaurant in Times Square. The 2011 recipients are Best Play: Good People, by David Lindsay-Abaire; Best Foreign Play: Jerusalem, by Jez Butterworth; Best Musical: The Book of Mormon, by Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Robert Lopez; Special Citations: The Broadway revival of The Normal Heart; Mark Rylance for La Bête and Jerusalem; and the direction, design and puppetry of War Horse.

The Active Theater announced today that it will honor Academy Award ® winner and four-time Tony Award ® nominee Estelle Parsons with the inaugural Active Arts Award at its Spring Gala on Monday, May 23, 2011 at 7:30 pm at Trattoria Trecolori (254 West 47th Street, Manhattan), in the heart of New York's theater district.

Manhattan Theatre Club will present their annual Spring Gala, a special evening highlighting some of Broadway's most exciting shows, on Monday, May 16 at Gotham Hall (1356 Broadway).

DreamWorks Theatricals and Neal Street Productions, Ltd. are pleased to announce that SHREK THE MUSICAL with book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire and music by Jeanine Tesori, directed by Jason Moore and Rob Ashford, will play the Times Union Center's Moran Theater for one week only, May 10-15, 2011.

Theatre Jacksonville is a volunteer based community theatre whose mission is to enrich lives and broaden cultural understanding through community participation in theatre arts. This mission supports inclusion and the development of diversity in the Company's artistic, volunteer, audience and donor bases. This goal is achieved through presenting plays and programs of noted artistic excellence, supporting volunteers and students with exceptional training and educational opportunities, and allowing for the development of unique and/or original performance projects and events by Florida artists. The theatre opened in 1919 and is now entering its 91st season. Theatre Jacksonville is located at 2032 San Marco Boulevard, Jacksonville, Florida. Tickets can be purchased at http://www.theatrejax.com. Adult tickets will cost $25 for all shows.

The Araca Group announces the return of AracaWorks, a week-long series of play readings celebrating new work for the theatre.

Three Days of Rain, Richard Greenberg's Pulitzer Prize-nominated play about two generations of intertwined families, returns to its birthplace with a new production at South Coast Repertory May 13-June 12.

Theatre Talk congratulates all of the 2011 TONY Nominees, including 14 of this year's Theater Talk guests: David Lindsay-Abaire, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Jez Butterworth, Bobby Cannavale, Colman Domingo, John Kander, Robert Lopez, Trey Parker, Mark Rylance, Marc Shaiman & Scott Wittman, Matt Stone, Susan Stroman, and Alex Timbers.

The Kleban Foundation is pleased to announce that the 21st Annual Kleban Prize for the most promising musical theatre lyricist has gone to Adam Gwon and the award for the most promising musical theatre librettist has gone to Michelle Elliott. The 2011 awards will be presented on June 27, 2011, in a private ceremony (by invitation only) at ASCAP.

Moxie Street Picture Shows (Melody Freeman and Kimberly Yates, Producing Partners) will launch the Los Angeles Premiere of Elizabeth Meriwether's THE MISTAKES MADELINE MADE. Starring Troy Blendell, Armand DesHarnais, John Paul Karliak, Kiki Lambden, Kimberly Yates and directed by Tiger Reel, THE MISTAKES MADELINE MADE will begin preview performances on Wednesday, May 11 and will officially open on Thursday, May 19 at 8:00pm.

The first ballot for Best Play was radically fractured, with no single candidate garnering more than five of the 24 total votes. On the third (weighted) ballot, the race remained competitive, with Good People and Jerusalem winning 23 points and Other Desert Cities running just behind them with 22 points. Since no play reached the necessary threshold of 37 points, the Circle moves to a fourth ballot-newly approved in a bylaw change in January-that reduced the field to the third ballot's top four vote-getters (including The Motherf**ker with the Hat, which had received 11 points, narrowly edging out such contenders as Bengal Tiger in the Baghdad Zoo, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, War Horse and The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures). On this ballot, in which previous proxy voters did not participate, Good People won with 34 points, with Other Desert Cities in second place with 30 points.

Good People, written by David Lindsay-Abaire, today won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award (NYDCC) for Best Play of the 2010-2011 season. The award for Best Foreign Play play went to Jerusalem, written by Jez Butterworth. The Book of Mormon received the award for Best Musical. The selections were made at the 76th annual voting meeting of the organization today at the offices of Time Out New York in Manhattan.

The Araca Group announces the return of AracaWorks, a week-long series of play readings celebrating new work for the theatre.

DreamWorks Theatricals and Neal Street Productions, Ltd. are pleased to announce that SHREK THE MUSICAL with book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire and music by Jeanine Tesori, directed by Jason Moore and Rob Ashford, will play the Times Union Center's Moran Theater for one week only, May 10-15, 2011.

The Public Theater hostd the final Public Forum evening of the season, 'Tony Kushner and Oskar Eustis in Conversation,' last night, May 8. In his new play, The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, Kushner writes movingly about politics and family in America today-plus unions, real estate and love. Kushner and Eustis discussed these topics and more, with an introduction by special guest host Cynthia Nixon.

Tony Winner Sutton Foster is set for a May 9th ‘Live at Barnes & Noble' in-store performance and CD signing to celebrate Ghostlight Records' release of her 20-song tour de force ‘An Evening With Sutton Foster - Live at the Café Carlyle'.

As part of the run up to the 2011 Tony Awards, The American Theatre Wing (Theodore S. Chapin, Chairman, Board of Trustees; Howard Sherman, Executive Director) used the opportunity of the yearly Tony Nominees Press Reception - held just 24 hours after Tony nominations are announced - to solicit some key thoughts from newly minted nominees on their lives and careers so that emerging artists everywhere might benefit.

As part of the run up to the 2011 Tony Awards, The American Theatre Wing (Theodore S. Chapin, Chairman, Board of Trustees; Howard Sherman, Executive Director) used the opportunity of the yearly Tony Nominees Press Reception - held just 24 hours after Tony nominations are announced - to solicit some key thoughts from newly minted nominees on their lives and careers so that emerging artists everywhere might benefit. Over 35 nominees were interviewed, including Judith Light, John Larroquette, Victoria Clark, Forrest McClendon, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Mark Rylance, Casey Nicholaw, George C. Wolfe, and Rory O'Malley. The 'Cues' videos will be rolled out individually on the ATW website at http://americantheatrewing.org/springboardnyc/cues2011.php between now and awards night on June 12, 2011. These moments mirror the experience of the American Theatre Wing's SpringboardNYC program, where 36 selected students starting their careers hear directly from working artists. Past SpringboardNYC mentors have included Allison Janney, Neil Patrick Harris, Anika Noni Rose, Paul Rudd, and Kathleen Marshall. For more information on SpringboardNYC, visit http://americantheatrewing.org/springboardnyc/.

The 2011 Tony Award nominees were announced in New York City on Tuesday, May 3, 2011 and Broadway hasn't stopped buzzing since! On Wednesday, the proud nominees and a slew of press gathered at the Millenium Hotel in Times Square to celebrate and talk all things Tony. BroadwayWorld was on hand, of course, and as part of our special coverage, captured portrait shots of many of this year's nominees in the BroadwayWorld.com booth. Stay tuned for our special video series as well.