Mary Zimmerman, who won the 2002 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play, said that, since the success of Metamorphoses on Broadway, several nonprofits in New York have shown interest in her earlier theatrical projects. But the one work she'd most like to reach Manhattan is her adaptation of Arabian Night.

"They did Arabian Nights at Manhattan Theatre Club a few years ago, but I'd love to bring that back," she said in the Tony press room. "There is something valuable right now about doing something beautiful from that part of the world. It's deeply beautiful and deeply Islam."

As for detractors who have derided Metamorphoses as a "college production," Zimmerman had strong words: "You know, when I first started talking to people about the show, I made the mistake of telling them that Metamorphoses began as a college show at Northwestern University. I thought they'd be charmed by that story. I was charmed by that story. But some people actually took me literally.

"Listen, if you want to say something bad about a show, you can find a way to do it. But my show is not a college production. My play is a professional and quite worldly production."

– By Robert Simonson