Playwright Pam Gems became the first woman ever to win the London Evening Standard Award for Best Play Nov. 29, when her drama Stanley took that top prize.

New Yorkers will get a chance to see Gems' award-winning drama when it comes to Circle In The Square in February 1997.

Gems' best-known play to date is Piaf, which brought actress Jane Lapotaire a Tony Award.

In its New York premiere, Stanley will offer a cast of 14, directed by John Caird (Les Miserables, Jane Eyre) and headed by Anthony Sher and Deborah Findlay. Sher, a major English actor (Richard III at the Royal Shakespeare Company), will be making his American debut.

Winning the Evening Standard prize for Best Musical was Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Passion, which closed on Broadway Jan. 7, 1995.
Other awards went to:

Paul Scofield, John Gabriel Borkman

Diana Rigg, Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? & Mother Courage And Her Children.

Yasmina Reza, Best Comedy, Art

Martin McDonagh, Most Promising Playwright, The Beauty Queen Of Leenane, Royal Court & Druid Theatre.

Katie Mitchell, director, The Phoenician Women, RSC.