'Fun Home,' 'All the Way' win at Critics' Circle

New York (AP) — The New York Drama Critics' Circle has voted "Fun Home" the season's best new musical and "The Night Alive" and "All the Way" as best new plays.

Conor McPherson's "The Night Alive," led by Jim Norton and which played at the Atlantic Theater Company, won best new play, while Broadway's "All the Way," with Bryan Cranston about the tense first year of Lyndon Johnson's presidency, won best new American play.

The circle on Monday also handed out special citations to The Shakespeare's Globe productions of "Twelfth Night" and "Richard III," seen on Broadway earlier this season. It also cited playwright-director Richard Nelson and the company of The Apple Family Plays, which were presented at the Public Theater last fall.

"Fun Home," with a book and lyrics by Lisa Kron and music by Jeanine Tesori, played at the off-Broadway Public Theater. It's been adapted from Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir about growing up in a funeral home with a gay dad.

The Circle is composed of two dozen drama critics from daily newspapers, magazines, wire services and websites based in the New York metropolitan area. The Associated Press is a member. Awards have been handed out since 1936, making them the nation's second-oldest theater awards, after the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

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by Mark Kennedy, AP Drama Writer

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The Gayly – May 6, 2014 @ 8:40am