The American Theatre Wing’s Tony Awards® celebration of excellence in the theatre includes recognition of winners and nominees in the 27 competitive categories. But that’s not all: Special Tony Awards and honors give the Broadway community an opportunity to salute individuals and institutions who contribute to the theatre in a variety of unique and different ways. Their work on stage and off has enriched the theatre and the lives of those affected by their work.

On Monday, May 5, the Tony Administration Committee revealed the names of a quartet of honorees who are to be recognized in the four non-competitive Tony categories. Composer/lyricist Jerry Herman, Virginia’s Signature Theatre, and longtime press agent Shirley Herz will be honored at the 63rd annual Tony Awards ceremony on June 7. Actress/writer Phyllis Newman will receive the newest Tony Award for her volunteer work as an advocate for women’s health.

A Lifetime of Song

Master songsmith Jerry Herman was named as the recipient of the 2009 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. Mr. Herman composed the scores and wrote the lyrics for three Tony Award-winning Best Musicals: Mame, La Cage aux Folles, and Hello, Dolly! He was nominated five times in the Best Score category, winning for La Cage Aux Folles and Hello, Dolly!

Mr. Herman is the only composer-lyricist in history to have written three musicals that each played more than 1,500 consecutive performances on Broadway. And when his Dear World opened in 1969, he became the only composer-lyricist in history to have three productions running on Broadway simultaneously. His first Broadway show was Milk and Honey (1961), followed by Hello, Dolly! (1964), Mame (1966), Dear World (1969), Mack & Mabel (1974), The Grand Tour (1979), La Cage aux Folles (1983), and Jerry’s Girls (1985). He also wrote the 1996 CBS TV special “Mrs. Santa Claus” starring Angela Lansbury. Showtune, a revue of his life’s work, is performed frequently in regional theatres around the country and around the world. He was the subject of the 2008 PBS documentary “Words and Music by Jerry Herman.” Listen to an audio Tony Memory from Jerry Herman (2001)

Advocating for Women’s Health

The Tony Award-winning actress and writer Phyllis Newman will receive the first-ever Isabelle Stevenson Award, which recognizes an individual from the theatre community for their humanitarian work. In 1995, Ms. Newman founded The Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative of The Actor’s Fund of America, and for the last 12 years she has raised more than $3.5 million dollars, helping to serve 2,500 women in the entertainment industry.

Ms. Newman made her Broadway debut in Wish You Were Here in 1952. She was Judy Holliday’s standby in Bells Are Ringing (1956), and then went on to headline in many shows including The Apple Tree, On the Town, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Awake and Sing!, and Broadway Bound. She starred in the one-woman show The Madwoman of Central Park West, which she co-wrote with Arthur Laurents. In 1962 she won a Tony Award for her performance in the musical Subways Are for Sleeping. She is a breast cancer survivor, as narrated in her 1984 memoir, Just in Time: Notes from My Life. For more than 40 years she was married to another Tony-winner, the late lyricist/librettist Adolph Green. Watch a Tony Memory from Phyllis Newman (2003)

A Signature Award

On the recommendation of the American Theatre Critics Association, the Tony Awards has selected the Signature Theatre of Arlington, Virginia as the recipient of the 2009 Regional Theatre Tony Award. The Award is accompanied by a gift of $25,000 from Visa, USA.

In 20 seasons, Signature Theatre (under the leaderhip of artistic director Eric Schaeffer and managing director Maggie Boland) has established a national reputation for giving some of the nation's most talented artists a place to do their best work before appreciative, knowledgeable audiences.

Administering the million dollar American Musical Voices Project of the Shen Family Foundation, the company has given grants and commissions to the likes of Ricky Ian Gordon, Michael John LaChiusa, Bruce Coughlin, Adam Guettel, Audra McDonald and Ted Sperling. John Kander said that he and Fred Ebb, who premiered Over & Over at Signature, loved to work there because it is a place "where you can work with a free heart."

Signature has developed new non-musicals, but its national reputation is based on musicals--particularly 12 by Stephen Sondheim. Signature is where Stephen Schwartz re-worked Working, Matt Conner premiered Nevermore, Sklar and Beguelin revealed The Rhythm Club, Blaemire and Gardiner reveled in their Glory Days before its very brief stop on Broadway, Lazar and Oberacker introduced The Gospel According to Fishman, and Joe DiPietro tried out his new book for Rodgers and Hammerstein's Allegro. Dempsey and Rowe's The Fix and The Witches of Eastwick had their American premieres there. In 2008 Signature staged a Kander and Ebb festival, the highlight of which was Chita Rivera and George Hearn in The Visit. For more information, visit www.sig-online.org.

Tony Honors for a Longtime Press Rep

Veteran Broadway publicist Shirley Herz got her first big break when she was hired to work on a long road tour with Rosalind Russell followed by a Broadway run with Wonderful Town as Ms. Russell’s personal press representative. Since that time her work has taken her all over the world in a career that has spanned more than five decades. She has publicized plays by such writers as Edward Albee, Brian Friel, Frank McGuinness, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and Sam Shepard, among many others. She has worked on dozens of musicals including House of Flowers, Do Re Me, 3 Penny Opera, Jerry’s Girls, Legs Diamond, La Cage aux Folles, Gypsy, Peter Pan, Singing in the Rain, Fiddler on the Roof and many more, as well as numerous Off Broadway productions. She has also represented many theatrical organizations and dance companies.

On June 7, Herz will receive a Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre. This honor is awarded annually to institutions, individuals and/or organizations that have demonstrated extraordinary achievement in theatre, but are not eligible in any of the established Tony Award categories.

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The Tony Awards will be broadcast in a live three-hour ceremony from Radio City Music Hall® on the CBS television network on Sunday, June 7, 2009.