Trinity Rep's Eugene Lee to be inducted into Hall of Fame

Trinity Rep Resident Designer Eugene Lee will be inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame at the Gershwin Theatre on January 29th, 2007.

This year's ceremony honors three time Tony award-winning designer Lee alongside actors Patti LuPone, George Hearn and Elizabeth Wilson, playwright Brian Friel and costume designer Willa Kim, as well as late playwrights August Wilson and Wendy Wasserstein.

Lee most recently designed sets for the Broadway-bound The Pirate Queen. He has won Tony Awards for Wicked, Sweeney Todd and Candide, and was also nominated for Ragtime. Other credits include Seussical, A Moon for the Misbegotten and Show Boat.

Patti LuPone recently received a Tony nomination for her work in Sweeney Todd. A Tony Award-winner for Evita, her other Broadway credits include Noises Off, Master Class, Anything Goes and Working.

George Hearn is a two-time Tony Award-winner for Sunset Boulevard and La Cage aux Folles. He received Tony nominations for Putting It Together, A Doll's Life and Watch on the Rhine. He recently appeared on Broadway in Wicked.

Elizabeth Wilson is a Tony Award-winner for Sticks and Bones. Other Broadway credits include Waiting in the Wings, A Delicate Balance, Ah! Wilderness and Morning's at Seven, which earned her a Drama Desk award.

Brian Friel's Translations will open, as a revival, at the Biltmore Theatre in January of 2007. Dancing at Lughnasa won a Tony Award for Best Play, while other works include Faith Healer, Philadelphia, Here I Come!, and Lovers.

Willa Kim has won two Tony Awards for her work on The Will Rogers Follies and Sophisticated Ladies, and earned Tony nominations for Legs Diamond, Song & Dance, Dancin' and Goodtime Charley.

The late August Wilson earned a Pulitzer Prize for his play Fences. That play, as well as Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II and Radio Golf chronicled the African-American experience in the 20th century.

Wendy Wasserstein, who died on January 30th, 2006, won a Pulitzer Prize for her The Heidi Chronicles. Her other plays, include The Sisters Rosensweig, An American Daughter and Uncommen Women and Others.

The inductees were voted upon by the American Theater Critics Association and the members of the Theater Hall of Fame. All have had or had at least five major credits and 25 years of working in Broadway theatre.

The ceremony will take place at Broadway's Gershwin Theatre, where the names of the eight honorees will be added to the more than 400 already in gold on the upper lobby walls. The Theater Hall of Fame was founded in 1971. Past inductees include Jerry Herman, Oscar Hammerstein, Carol Channing, Liza Minnelli and Ethel Merman, among other Broadway legends.

The Gershwin is a significant theater for Mr. Lee as both Sweeney Todd and Showboat played there and it is where Wicked is continuing its Broadway run.

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