Monte Cristo Award Honoring Tom Viertel

Monday, November 18, 2024
6pm - VIP Cocktail Reception
7pm- Dinner & Performance

Day of transportation will be provided from Waterford, CT - if interested, indicate on your reservation or email [email protected].   

ABOUT THE AWARD

The Monte Cristo Award is presented to a prominent theater artist each year in recognition of a distinguished career exemplifying Eugene O'Neill's "pioneering spirit, unceasing artistic commitment, and excellence." Past recipients include Lin-Manuel Miranda, John Logan, Judith Light, Meryl Streep, Michael Douglas, James Earl Jones, Nathan Lane, Harold Prince, George C. Wolfe, and, most recently, Lynn Nottage. The gala event supports the Center's commitment to developing new work and new artists for the stage.

ABOUT TOM

Tom has been a driving force at the O'Neill since he first joined the board in 1994 and later became only the second Board Chair in the O'Neill's history, succeeding founder George C. White in 1999. Since then, the O'Neill has advanced by leaps and bounds, including completing a multi-million dollar capital campaign that doubled the size of the O'Neill's campus, the receipt of a second Tony Award, and earning the National Medal of the Arts, presented by President Obama.

In his professional career as a Broadway producer, he and his partners, Richard Frankel, Marc Routh and Steve Baruch have produced and general managed plays and musicals for the past 39 years, including the original Broadway productions of The Producers; Hairspray; Young Frankenstein; Smokey Joe's Cafe; Angels in America; Penn & Teller; Love Letters; Swing!; The Weir; The Encounter and The Parisian Woman. Their revivals on Broadway include Gypsy starring Patti LuPone and Laura Benanti; The Norman Conquests; A Little Night Music starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury and later Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch; Sweeney Todd starring Michael Cerveris and Patti LuPone; Company starring Raul Esparza; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum starring Nathan Lane and later Whoopi Goldberg, and the first-ever Broadway revivals of The Sound of Music and Little Shop of Horrors.

Notable Off-Broadway premieres include Driving Miss Daisy; Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune; The Cocktail Hour; Oleanna; Jeffrey; Marvin's Room; Stomp; and Song of Singapore, which eventually served as the template for the acclaimed Broadway-themed nightclub/cabaret 54 Below.  They've mounted tours and productions in London, Australia, Canada, Europe and throughout Asia.

Their awards include two Pulitzer Prizes, three Olivier Awards for Best Musical and four Grammy's.  Their nine Tony Awards include all four Best categories: Play, Musical, Revival of a Play and Revival of a Musical. Additionally, 54 Below received the 2022 Tony Award Honor for Excellence in the Theatre. They are currently the Executive Producers of Back to The Future: The Musical on Broadway.

Tom previously served on the Board of Governors and the Executive Committee of the Broadway League and as Chair of its Government Relations Committee.  He formerly held the title of Executive Director of the Commercial Theater Institute, a joint venture of The Broadway League and TDF. He is a graduate of Harvard University.

ABOUT THE O'NEILL

Founded in 1964 by George C. White and named in honor of Eugene O'Neill, four-time Pulitzer Prize-winner and America's only playwright to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, the O'Neill has launched some of the most important voices and works in American theater and has revolutionized the way new work is developed.

O'Neill programs include the National Playwrights Conference, National Music Theater Conference, National Critics Institute, National Puppetry Conference, Cabaret & Performance Conference, National Theater Institute - which offers six credit-earning undergraduate training programs - and more.

From its campus in Waterford, Connecticut, the O'Neill has been home to more than 1,000 new works for the stage and thousands more emerging artists. Writers, directors, puppeteers, singers, students, and audiences alike take their first steps in exploring, revising, and understanding their work and the potential of the theater they help create. All focus remains on the writer and script: Performers work with simply rendered sets and costumes, script in hand, revealing for the first time the magic of a new play or musical, puppetry piece, or cabaret act.

The O'Neill also manages and operates the Monte Cristo Cottage, O'Neill's childhood home located in neighboring New London. It is also the recipient of two Tony Awards and in 2015 received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama.