The luminaries of stage and screen paid tribute to the magnificent Meryl Streep, recipient of the 2004 Career Achievement Award at the New Dramatists 55th Annual Benefit Luncheon. On the dais: Board Prez Isobel Robins Konecky, Scott Mauro, HBO Films Prez Colin Callender, and Tony Kushner.
Each year, New Dramatists—the country’s oldest nonprofit workshop dedicated to the development of new playwrights—salutes an industry leader who has made outstanding artistic contributions to American theater. Streep, who has received two Oscars, four Golden Globes, an Emmy, a Tony nomination, and countless other industry honors, and who received her 13th Oscar nomination (surpassing Katharine Hepburn) for the 2002 film The Hours, is certainly one of the most prolific and prestigious artists of the century.
Kevin Kline, Streep’s co-star in the 1982 film Sophie’s Choice and in the 2002 Broadway production of Chekov’s The Seagull, presented the gifted actress with her honor. Tony Kushner, author of Angels in America (for which Streep won her most recent Golden Globe), paid tribute to Streep. The luncheon also included a performance by Sarah Jones of excerpts from Bridge and Tunnel, her one-woman, critically acclaimed Off-Broadway show that marked Streep’s producing debut.
The actress first appeared in the premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s The Frogs at The Yale Repertory Company (in the pool!) and in Joseph Papp’s Trelawney of the Wells at Lincoln Center. She also appeared in the New York Shakespeare productions of Henry V and Measure for Measure, and in works on Broadway by Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. Her films include: Kramer vs. Kramer, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Silkwood, Out of Africa, Ironweed, A Cry in the Dark, Postcards from the Edge, Defending Your Life, The Bridges of Madison County, One True Thing, Manhattan, Adaptation, and The Hours. Next up for Streep is Jonathan Demme’s 2004 summer thriller, The Manchurian Candidate.
The Sopranos’ Edie Falco, sporting a stylish new cropped bob, told us: “I feel more like myself than ever; it’s so freeing! I don’t know why I didn’t do this before! It brings out the tomboy in me, and I was a tomboy as a kid.”
Also in the mix: Tonya Pinkins, Jill Clayburgh, Kathie Lee Gifford, Anne Heche, Donna Murphy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jefferson Mays, Al Pacino, Mike Nichols, Charles Grodin, Mary-Louise Parker, Dominick Dunne, Dina Merrill, Anna Quindlan, Steve Ross, Ann Reinking, Christopher Walken, Wendy Wasserstein, Sigourney Weaver, Daryl Roth, Marian Seldes, Patrick Wilson, and George C. Wolfe. It was a dazzling array of talent on hand to honor the very best of the Great White Way!
