Alan Menken, Rosie O’Donnell, Diane Paulus to Be Honored at Drama League Awards Ceremony

Composer Alan Menken, stage and screen star Rosie O’Donnell and director Diane Paulus will be honored at the 78th Annual Drama League Awards ceremony, to be held on May 18 at the Marriott Marquis Times Square.

Menken will receive the the Drama League’s Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre Award. He is currently represented on Broadway with Newsies, Sister Act and Leap of Faith. Among his many other credits are the Little Shop of Horrors and his Academy Award-winning scores for Pochantas, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and The Little Mermaid.

O’Donnell, who will receive the Unique Contributions to Theatre Award, has starred in Fiddler on the Roof, Seussical and Grease on Broadway. Among her film credits are A League of Their Own, Twilight of the Golds, and Sleepless in Seattle.

Paulus, who will receive The Founders Award for Excellence in Directing, earned a Tony Award nomination for Hair and is currently represented on Broadway with The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. As previously reported, she will be directing Amaluna, a new Cirque du Soleil show and is artistic director of American Repertory Theatre.

The Drama League Awards pay tribute to the season’s best performers by including the nominees of The Distinguished Performance Award on a dais. The ceremony will feature more than 50 stars from the 2011-2012 Broadway and Off-Broadway season.

In addition to The Distinguished Performance Award, The Drama League’s 3,000 members vote on four other annual competitive awards: Distinguished Production of a Play, Distinguished Production of a Musical, Distinguished Revival of a Play and Distinguished Revival of a Musical. Nominations for these five awards will be announced on Monday, April 24.

In related news, the organization’s Eligibility Committee has recently determined that productions transferring from Off-Broadway to Broadway, or vice versa, in successive years are now eligible for consideration in both seasons.

All proceeds from the luncheon ceremony support The Drama League Directors Project, the nation’s premier training program for theater directors.

Click here for more information and tickets to the Drama League event.