Tony and Pulitzer Prize winner Lin-Manuel Miranda will receive the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s 18th annual Monte Cristo Award, presented each year to artists who embody the “pioneering spirit” of the namesake playwright.
The Hamilton and In the Heights creator will be presented with the award and take part in a conversation at a gala dinner at New York’s Edison Ballroom April 30.
The O’Neill Theater Center was home to Miranda’s first professional production: a presentation of In the Heights at the National Music Theater Conference in 2005. The musical, which Miranda co-wrote with Quiara Alegría Hudes, went on to play off-Broadway’s 37 Arts Theater before transferring to Broadway’s Richard Rodgers Theatre (now home to Hamilton). Miranda, who also starred, won his first Tony Award for his score.
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“Not since Eugene O’Neill has there been someone who so firmly plants American theatre in the cultural landscape of this nation, and worldwide,” said O’Neill Executive Director Preston Whiteway in a statement.
Past recipients of the award include Judith Light, Meryl Streep, Nathan Lane, James Earl Jones, August Wilson, Neil Simon, Harold Prince, and George C. Wolfe.
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Miranda will star in the upcoming Mary Poppins Returns opposite Emily Blunt; the Disney film will be released Christmas Day. He is also collaborating with Alan Menken on new music for Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid.