Jack O’Brien and George C. Wolfe to Receive Lifetime Achievement Tony Awards

The Tony Awards Administration Committee announced that Jack O’Brien and George C. Wolfe will each receive the 2024 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.

Director Jack O’Brien has won three Tony Awards for his direction of Hairspray, Henry IV, and The Coast of Utopia and was most recently nominated for a Tony Award for his direction of the new musical Shucked. O’Brien was the artistic director of the Old Globe Theatre from 1981 to 2007, and directed six programs for PBS’s American Playhouse. He is the author of two memoirs, Jack Be Nimble and Jack in the Box, or How to Goddam Direct.

Writer, director, and producer George C. Wolfe’s expansive career has earned him 23 Tony nominations, winning five, including Best Direction of a Play for Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Best Direction of a Musical for Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk. Wolfe was the producer of The Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival from 1993-2005. Wolfe is the chief creative officer of the Center for Civil and Human Rights, and from 2009-2017 served on The President’s Committee for the Arts and The Humanities. Additional awards include the PEN Mike Nichols Writing Performance Award, Actors Equity Paul Robeson Award, Society of Directors and Choreographers Mr. Abbott and Callaway Awards, The Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award, The New Dramatists Outstanding Career Achievement Award, The NAACP Lifetime Achievement Award, The Lambda Liberty Award, The Spirit of the City Award, The Brendan Gil Prize, The Distinguished Alumni Award from NYU, a Princess Grace Award, The Monte Cristo Award, and was inducted in the Theatre Hall of Fame.

The 77th Annual Tony Awards, hosted by Ariana DeBose, will air live from the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City on Sunday, June 16.