This information courtesy of Phil Haas, Marketing Manager for the York Theatre Company…
The York Theatre Company is happy to announce the winner of a new award celebrating musical theatre talent: Douglas J. Cohen. He is the winner of the Noël Coward Prize for The Gig, based on a screenplay by Frank D. Gilroy.
In honor of the talents of Sir No√´l Coward, who often served as the writer/composer/lyricist for his musicals, the York Theatre Company – with the endorsement of the No√´l Coward Foundation – administers the prize to a promising librettist/composer/lyricist whose work best exemplifies the “triple threat” standards set by Coward. The winning artist receives an honorarium and a special one-night-only staged concert of the musical submitted to the contest produced by The York Theatre Company.
An esteemed panel of industry professionals selected the winning entry. The panel included Nancy Ford, John Kander, Richard Maltby, Mel Marvin, Brian Murray, Susan H. Schulman and Tony Walton.
Cohen will receive the award at a concert celebrating Coward on his birthday, Dec. 16, 2009, at 7:30PM. The concert will feature Coward songs (which Walton and Barry Day have used in their new musical adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Hypocrite). A reception follows. A reading of The Gig is planned for after Jan. 1.
