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Dateline: 03/01/2000 5:10:24 PM
Updated: 05/22/2000 1:54:28 PM

Angela Lansbury Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from New Dramatists, May 16
By Randy Gener
Theatre.com

NEW YORK - Angela Lansbury, the legendary stage and screen star who is planning to make a Broadway comeback in John Kander and Fred Ebb's The Visit next season, received the 2000 Lifetime Achievement Award from the New Dramatists Tuesday, May 16 at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel.

"It's a great honor to receive this lifetime achievement award", Lansbury told Theatre.com.
"I am especially proud to receive it from New Dramatists. What this group does is that nurtures and supports, in various ways, the young writer. It gives writers an opportunity to be heard in readings, to work with professional actors, and to be directed by directors. In other words, they get an outing for their work that otherwise could never be heard. If it's heard by just the right person, that writer will often be discovered and given a job to develop new work".

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT ME?: This award ceremony is also a benefit for New Dramatists, a nonprofit workshop to the development of new playwrights.

A cavalcade of celebrities turned out the New Dramatists Luncheon. Divas like Kathie Lee Gifford, Marin Mazzie, Bea Arthur, Diahann Carroll, Lauren Bacall and Cherry Jones were on hand, and so were such male celebrities like Walter Cronkite, Hap Prince, Terrence McNally, Philip Bosco and Brian Stokes Mitchell.

Founded in 1949 by Michael O'Harra and Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Moss Hart, Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, New Dramatists has spawned such playwrights as Paula Vogel, August Wilson, William Inge, John Guare, Emily Mann and John Patrick Shanley. Todd London is the artistic director.

On Broadway, Lansbury made her Broadway mark by starring and winning Tony Awards in the original Mame, Sweeney Todd, Dear World and the 1974 revival of Gypsy. She played Joan Plowright's mother in A Taste of Honey, appeared in Stephen Sondheim's short-lived cult musical Anyone Can Whistle. She made her Broadway debut in 1957 in the French farce Hotel Paradiso, starring opposite Bert Lahr. She was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1982.

Lansbury joins past New Dramatists honorees as Julie Andrews, Glenn Close, John Kander and Fred Ebb, Neil Simon, Jerry Herman, Stephen Sondheim, Gwen Verdon and Terrence McNally.

This year's luncheon (2000) will be held at the Broadway Ballroom of the New York Marquis, 1535 Broadway, between West 45th and West 46th Streets. A champagne reception begins at 11:15 AM. The event ends at 2:30 PM.

Scott Mauro, a board member of New Dramatists, will be the luncheon chairman.

Photos by Theatre.com's Randy Gener.

Angela Lansbury at New Dramatists Luncheon © 2000 Randy Gener

Angela Lansbury

By Randy Gener
Theatre.com
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Used with permission.