Off-Broadway’s Signature Theatre Gets First Tony Award Of The 2013-2014 Season
The 2014 Tony Award for outstanding regional theater will be presented to off-Broadway’s game-changing Signature Theatre Company, which recently moved into a new three-stage complex on West 42nd Street. The group is best known for presenting full seasons of work by selected playwrights-in-residence such as Edward Albee and Horton Foote, and for its $25 across-the-board ticket price. The award was announced this morning by the Tony Awards Administration Committee, which takes its cue on the prize from the American Theatre Critics Association. The nominees in the competitive awards will be announced tomorrow morning.
The honorary Regional Theater Tony was created in part to recognize non-profit theaters around the U.S., which have increasingly served as launching pads for Broadway-bound plays and musicals. The Tony Awards themselves are restricted to shows running in the Broadway Theater District.
Signature was founded in 1991 by James Houghton, who splits his time between running the company and directing the theater program at The Juilliard School. The company’s Pershing Square Signature Center, designed by Frank Gehry, has quickly become one of the city’s most attractive cultural destinations, with its courtyard café, live jazz, bookstore and affordable, first-class productions.
Hugh Jackman will host the 68th Tonys on June 8 live on CBS.