WATERFORD, CONN.: The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center has announced John Logan as the winner of the 19th Monte Cristo Award. Logan’s achievements will be celebrated during a gala at New York City’s Edison Ballroom on April 22. Given annually, the Monte Cristo Award is presented in memory of O’Neill to an individual whose work has furthered U.S. theatre.
“John Logan represents the finest in American storytelling,” said O’Neill executive director Preston Whiteway in a statement. “As a playwright and screenwriter, John creates singular and transformative stories that touch our common humanity. It is a particular delight to honor one of our artists this year, and one who has such broad impact on American culture.”
An alum of the O’Neill, Logan said in a statement, “I’m honored to accept the O’Neill’s Monte Cristo Award. Creating a new work of theatre is a treacherous, exciting, nerve-wracking experience. All dramatists need support and encouragement; and most of all they need a safe place to experiment, to fail grandly sometimes, and to occasionally take flight. The O’Neill was that safe space for me.”
Logan’s musical Superhero, which he developed during the O’Neill’s 2017 National Musical Theater Conference, will soon open Off-Broadway at Second Stage, and Moulin Rouge, for which Logan wrote the book, will reach Broadway this summer. Logan’s past theatre work includes Red (Tony, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama League awards), Peter and Alice, and I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat With Sue Mengers. Skyfall, Spectre, Hugo, The Aviator, and Gladiator are among Logan’s film credits.
Previous recipients of the Monte Cristo Award include actors Judith Light, Meryl Streep, Michael Douglas, Nathan Lane, Christopher Plummer, James Earl Jones, Jason Robards Jr., Zoe Caldwell, Brian Dennehy, and Karl Malden; playwrights August Wilson, Wendy Wasserstein, Edward Albee, and Neil Simon; directors Harold Prince and George C. Wolfe; and multi-hyphenates Lin-Manuel Miranda and Arthur and Barbara Gelb.
