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'Passing Strange,' 'August: Osage County' win critics' prize

BY LINDA WINER | linda.winer@newsday.com

7:47 PM EDT, May 12, 2008

"August: Osage County," Tracy Letts' massive Pulitzer Prize winning serious comedy, won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best play. "Passing Strange," a rock musical by and starring a singer/songwriter named Stew, was named best musical.

"August," a transfer from Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, is a three-hour, 25-minute exploration of a dysfunctional family in the Midwest.

"Passing Strange" is an unconventional concert and musical about a middle-class black artist from Los Angeles who searches for his identity in Amsterdam and Berlin. The autobiographical show, co-written with Heidi Rodewald, had its world premiere at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and had its New York premiere last summer at the Public Theater. No award was given for foreign play, an option when an American play gets the top award. There are also no special citations, which frequently are awarded to revivals or individual performances.

The New York Drama Critics' Circle, founded in 1935, is composed of 22 drama critics from daily newspapers, magazines and wire services in the tri-state area. The awards will be presented May 19 at a ceremony at the Algonquin Hotel.