She made their clothing sparkle while he dressed their hair in elaborate coiffures. Three-time Tony Award winner Theoni V. Aldredge and wig and hair designer Paul Huntley will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award and Artisan Award, respectively, at the 2002 TDF Irene Sharaff Awards March 22 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel.
Aldredge won Tonys for Annie, Barnum and La Cage Aux Folles, one of her thirteen nominations (she didn't win for A Chorus Line, Dreamgirls, the original 42nd Street or The Secret Garden) and her more than 200 Broadway show designs.
With 50 less shows than Aldredge, Huntley has spent the last 25 years designing hair for Broadway. He is currently represented by Mamma Mia!, The Producers and Contact - as well as the upcoming The Elephant Man and Morning's at Seven (he also created wigs for the two plays' original productions in 1979 and 1980).
Gregory Gale and Jonathan Bixby will receive the Young Master Award, while Cecil Beaton will be awarded the Posthumous Award. Gale and Bixby (who passed away in the spring 2001) designed Urinetown as well as several productions for the Drama Dept. Gale also designed The Dazzle. The legendary costume and set designer Beaton received four Tonys in career for Quadrille, My Fair Lady, Saratoga and Coco.
Since 1993, the Irene Sharaff Awards have honored the greatest theatrical costume designers and the up-and-comers seeing the first fruits of their work. The newest awards, added in 1999, are the Artisan Award, given to the individual or company that best supports the costume industry, and the Posthumous Award, given to remember those designers who have come before. Previous Lifetime Achievement Awards have been awarded to Desmond Heeley, Miles White, Alvin Colt, Patricia Zipprodt, Jane Greenwood, Willa Kim, Ann Roth and Freddy Wittop.
The Irene Sharaff winners are decided by a committee of designers including Barnes, Suzy Benzinger, Lana Fritz, Rodney Gordon, Constance Hoffman, Kim, Gary Jones, Kitty Leach, Carol Luiken, Sally Ann Parsons, Martin Pakledinaz, Robert Perdziola, Gregory Poplyk, Carrie Robbins, Roth, Woody Shelp, Scott Traugott and Patrick Wiley.
— By Christine Ehren
