President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama celebrated the 2008 U.S. presidential election win with a July 2009 "date night" at Broadway's Joe Turner's Come and Gone.
Angela Lansbury earned her fifth Tony Award for her turn in Blithe Spirit (as Madame Arcati, left) then landed another Broadway gig in the revival of A Little Night Music (as Madame Armfeldt, opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones).
Lynn Nottage earned a Pulitzer Prize for Ruined which played an extended run Off-Broadway for Manhattan Theatre Club.
(Pictured L-R: Condola Rashad, Cherise Booth & Quincy Tyler Bernstine; Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Saidah Arrika & Chiké Johnson)
(Pictured L-R: Condola Rashad, Cherise Booth & Quincy Tyler Bernstine; Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Saidah Arrika & Chiké Johnson)
Hollywood hunks Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig (pictured L-R at top) lent their box office appeal to Broadway for the new Keith Huff two-character police drama A Steady Rain.
Cate Blanchett tore into Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire as the Sydney Theatre Company revival came stateside to The Kennedy Center and Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Lisa Tomasetti
British tabloid favorites Sienna Miller and Jude Law both tested the mettle of New York City's paparazzi; Miller made her Broadway debut in After Miss Julie and Law took on Hamlet.
Alice Ripley (pictured with co-stars Aaron Tveit and J. Robert Spencer) took home her first Tony Award for her dramatic turn in the new Tom Kitt-Brian Yorkey musical Next to Normal.
Yasmina Reza's parents-meet-the-parents comedy God of Carnage saw Marcia Gay Harden, Hope Davis, Jeff Daniels and James Gandolfini spewing (literally and figuratively) on Broadway to earn the entire foursome Tony Award noms (Harden and Reza won).
Hair or hair bands? Rock music was present on the Broadway stage as the musical Hair (at top) returned (and won the Tony Award for Best Musical Revival) while Rock of Ages (bottom) scored a Tony nom for Best Musical.
In threes: Alan Ayckbourn's trilogy The Norman Conquests (top) played Broadway (Best Revival Tony Award). Off-Broadway's trios: Tarell Alvin McCraney's The Brother/Sister Plays (bottom) & Horton Foote's The Orphans' Home Cycle (middle
The stage suffered a number of losses this year; among them were actresses Bea Arthur and Natasha Richardson and playwright Horton Foote.
Kiril Kulish, Trent Kowalik and David Alvarez (pictured L-R at top) shared the Broadway spotlight as the title character in the Tony Award-winning musical Billy Elliott then shared the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
Avenue Q closed on Broadway Sept. 13 but producer Kevin McCollum surprised the cast, former cast members and the audience by announcing onstage at the final curtain that the Tony Award-winning musical would transfer to Off-Broadway.
Cromer's Corner: Director David Cromer (as Stage Manager at top left) enjoyed a busy year staging Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs (top right) on Broadway (though short-lived) and an acclaimed Off-Broadway revival of Our Town (below).
New York's "Green Light for Manhattan" experiment transformed Times Square (Broadway from 42-47 St.) into a pedestrian mall by diverting automobile traffic. Lawn chairs (top) were a temporary fixture then replaced with chairs, umbrellas and café tables.
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