The Stage

Stoppard play honoured by New York Drama Critics’ Circle

Published Thursday 10 May 2007 at 16:10 by Judd Hollander

Tom Stoppard’s three-part epic The Coast of Utopia has been honoured by the New York Drama Critics’ Circle for best play of the 2006-2007 season.

The decision was announced by the group at its annual voting meeting on May 7.

Utopia, actually three individual works, looks at a group of literary intellectuals and activists in pre-tsarist Russia and had its world premiere at the National Theatre in the summer of 2002.

Selected as Best Musical was the Broadway tuner Spring Awakening, while the late August Wilson’s drama Radio Golf was named Best American Play. This marks Wilson’s eighth NYDCC award, making him the most honoured playwright in the organisation’s history.

The award for best play comes with a cash prize of $2,500, while the prize for best American or foreign play has a monetary award for $1,000.

Additionally, a special citation was given to the Broadway revival of R C Sherriff’s World War I drama Journey’s End. The play had its world premiere in London in 1928 and opened on Broadway the following year.

Founded in 1935, The New York Drama Critics’ Circle consists of 21 drama critics from daily newspapers, magazines, and wire services based in the New York metropolitan area. The New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award is the nation’s second-oldest theatre award, after the Pulitzer Prize for drama and it has been awarded every year since 1936.

The awards will be presented at a cocktail reception to be held on May 14 at New York’s Algonquin Hotel.