'Utopia,' 'Awakening,' 'Golf', 'Journey's End' Win NYDCC Awards

The Coast of Utopia, by Tom Stoppard, today won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award (NYDCC) for Best Play of the 2006-2007 season.  The Best Musical award was given to Spring Awakening (book and lyrics by Steven Sater, music by Duncan Sheik).  The award for Best American Play went to Radio Golf by August Wilson.  The selections were made at the 72nd annual voting meeting of the organization today at the offices of Time Out New York in Manhattan.

A special citation was awarded by the NYDCC to the current Broadway revival of Journey's End, written by R. C. Sherriff and directed by David Grindley.

The awards will be presented at a cocktail reception to be held on Monday, May 14, at the Algonquin Hotel, where the NYDCC was founded in 1935 by such legendary critics as Brooks Atkinson, Walter Winchell and Robert Benchley.

The award for best play carries with it a cash prize of $2,500.  Also, a cash award of $1,000 will go to the playwright who receives the award for best American or foreign play.  The awards are made possible by a grant from the Lucille Lortel Foundation.

The Coast of Utopia, written by Tom Stoppard and directed by Jack O'Brien, had its world premiere at London's Royal National Theatre in summer 2002.  Its three parts had their Broadway premieres at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center Theater as follows: part one, Voyage, opened November 27, 2006; part two, Shipwreck, opened December 21, 2006; part three, Salvage, opened February 18, 2007.  This award marks Mr. Stoppard's sixth NYDCC award for Best Play.

Spring Awakening, music by Duncan Sheik, book and lyrics by Steven Sater, direction by Michael Mayer had its world premiere at the Atlantic Theater Company June 15, 2006 and its Broadway premiere at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre December 10, 2006.

Radio Golf, written by August Wilson and directed by Kenny Leon, had its world premiere at Yale Repertory Theatre in April 2005.  Its Broadway premiere will be May 8 at the Cort Theatre.  This is August Wilson's eighth award from the NYDCC, becoming the most-awarded playwright in the award's history.  It is the organization's first posthumous award since its 1996 Best Musical Award to Jonathan Larson for Rent.

Journey's End, written by R. C. Sherriff and directed by David Grindley, opened at the Belasco Theatre February 22, 2007.  The play had its world premiere in London in 1928 and its American premiere on Broadway in 1929.

The New York Drama Critics' Circle comprises 21 drama critics from daily newspapers, magazines, and wire services based in the New York metropolitan area.  The New York Drama Critics' Circle Award is the nation's second-oldest theatre award, after the Pulitzer Prize for drama; it has been awarded every year since 1936 to the best new play of the season (with additional awards for musicals and foreign or American plays as well as citations for special achievement).

The new NYDCC website, dramacritics.org—which features a year-by-year history of the group's awards and membership, along with a history of the organization, biographies of current members and other information—will go live today in conjunction with the announcement.

Adam Feldman, theatre critic for Time Out New York, has served as president of the NYDCC since 2005.  Frank Scheck of the New York Post serves as vice president; Michael Kuchwara of the Associated Press is treasurer.

In addition to Messrs. Feldman, Scheck, and Kuchwara, the members of the New York Drama Critics' Circle are: Clive Barnes of the New York Post; Melissa Rose Bernardo of Entertainment Weekly; David Cote of Time Out New York; Joe Dziemianowicz of the Daily News; Michael Feingold of the Village Voice; Robert Feldberg of the Bergen Record; Elysa Gardner of USA Today; Eric Grode of the New York Sun; John Heilpern of The New York Observer; Jacques le Sourd of Gannett Newspapers; Jeremy McCarter of New York; David Rooney of Variety; David Sheward of Back Stage; John Simon of Bloomberg News; Michael Sommers of The Star-Ledger/Newhouse Newspapers; Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal; Linda Winer of Newsday; and Richard Zoglin of Time.