The American Theatre Wing's 2006 Tony Awards® season officially got underway on April 17 with the installation of a treasury of Broadway memorabilia at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in Lincoln Center. A new exhibition at the library celebrates the 60th year of the Tony Awards by featuring original show posters, known as "window cards," from each one of the Tony Award-winning Best Plays and Best Musicals of the past six decades.

The Best Plays begin with All My Sons, which earned the award then called "Best Author" for Arthur Miller in 1947, and include last year's Doubt by John Patrick Shanley. Musicals represented encompass every winner from Kiss Me, Kate, which received the very first Best Musical award in the year it was inaugurated (1949), to the 2005 winner, Monty Python's Spamalot.

According to exhibition curator John Johnson, eighty percent of the posters came from the Library's collection and Triton Gallery, the well-known emporium of Broadway memorabilia in midtown Manhattan. "The hardest one to find were All My Sons and J.B.," said Johnson, referring to the 1959 Best Play by Archibald MacLeish. "Luckily, Michael Schwab, a poster collector, was able to come up with J.B. Max Woodward at the Kennedy Center put us in touch with Paul Newman--not that Paul Newman, but a collector with the same name--who had All My Sons." Other posters came from Merle Debuskey, Nederlander Theatres, Serino Coyne, Faber & Faber and SpotCo.

The posters are arranged chronologically on two floors of the library. "My favorite? That's a tough question," said Johnson. "Other than The Goat or Who Is Sylvia? and Copenhagen, which I worked on, I would probably have to say Equus [by Peter Shaffer, 1975], because it's a such a bold, striking image."

Presented by the League of American Theatres and Producers, the Wing, and the Library, "60 Years of Tony Award Excellence" is open to the public through June 10th. The exhibition is on display on the first and second floors of the Library's Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza.

Exhibition hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 12:00 to 6:00 p.m., and Thursday from 12:00 to 8:00 p.m. The Library is closed on Sundays, Mondays, and holidays. Admission is free. For exhibition information, telephone (212) 870-1630 or visit the Library's website at www.nypl.org.

The 60th Annual Tony Awards will be broadcast live on CBS from Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 11, 2006. Check back here at TonyAwards.com frequently this spring for updated information on Tony events.

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The Tony Awards are presented by Tony Award Productions, a joint venture of the League of American Theatres and Producers and the American Theatre Wing.