Playwright-librettist Terrence McNally will be celebrated by friends and colleagues June 4 when he is given the 12th Annual Oscar Hammerstein Award, given by the York Theatre Company at Laura Belle Supper Club in Manhattan.
The annual lifetime achievement award is a fundraising effort for the nonprofit York, which is devoted to staging new musicals in an intimate setting. Expected at the gala event, which includes a concert of musical highlights from musicals McNally has penned, are Marin Mazzie, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, Audra McDonald, John Kander, Joe Mantello, Lynne Meadow, Wendy Wasserstein, Nathan Lane, Zoe Caldwell and many others.
McNally penned the book to the Broadway hit, The Full Monty, and wrote the book for Kander and Ebb's upcoming musical, The Visit, to be staged in the fall at The Goodman Theatre in Chicago. With Ahrens and Flaherty, his Ragtime collaborators, he is working on A Man of No Importance, a new musical based on the film of the same name. He won the Best Book Tony for Ragtime. McNally's credits also include Love! Valour! Compassion! (Tony Award), Master Class (Tony Award), A Perfect Ganesh, Lips Together, Teeth Apart, The Lisbon Traviata, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Kiss of the Spider Woman (libretto, Tony Award), The Rink (libretto) and more.
The Hammerstein event includes cocktails, dinner, an auction, concert and award ceremony. For information and reservations, call (212) 935-5824 ext. 26.
— By Kenneth Jones