Tom Stoppard’s “The Coast of Utopia” was named today winner of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for best play of the 2006-07 season. The best musical award went to “Spring Awakening.”
The award for best American play went to “Radio Golf” by August Wilson. A special citation was awarded to the current Broadway revival of “Journey’s End,” written by R. C. Sherriff and directed by David Grindley.
The NYDCC was founded in 1935 by such legendary critics as Brooks Atkinson, Walter Winchell and Robert Benchley.
The Coast of Utopia, 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 atLincoln Center Theater as follows: Part 1, “Voyage,” opened Nov. 27, 2006; Part 2, “Shipwreck,” opened Dec. 21, 2006; part 3, Salvage, opened Feb. 18, 2007. This award marks 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 on June 15, 2006, and its Broadway premiere at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Dec. 10, 2006.
“Radio Golf,” directed by Kenny Leon, had its world premiere at Yale Repertory Theatre in April 2005. Its Broadway premierewill beMay 8 at the Cort Theatre. This is Wilson’s eighth NYDCC award, making him 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,” opened at the Belasco Theatre on Feb. 22, 2007. The play had its world premiere in London in 1928 and its American premiere on Broadway in 1929. Its cast includes John Behlmann, a 2006 graduate from the Denver Center Theatre Company’s National Theatre Conservatory.
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).
