Cherry Jones, Ellen Burstyn, Cameron Mackintosh & More Top List of 2013 Theater Hall of Fame Inductees

The legendary Theater Hall of Fame is welcoming eight very talented new members into its ranks: Tony Award winner Cherry Jones, Tony and Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn, producer Cameron Mackintosh, directors George C. Wolfe, Jerry Zaks and Lynne Meadow, designer David Hays and the late playwright Lorraine Hansberry. The 43rd annual induction ceremony will take place January 27, 2014 at the Gershwin Theatre.

In case you were hoping to be included on the list next year, the nomination eligibility rules are pretty tough—theater professionals are required to have at least a 25-year career with five major production credits on Broadway. The ballot is voted upon annually by over 350 members of the Theater Hall of Fame and the American Theater Critics Association, featuring 10 categories of over 50 nominees. The eight nominees receiving the most votes are inducted. The Hall of Fame was founded in 1971 by Earl Blackwell, James M. Nederlander, Gerard Oestreicher and L. Arnold Weissberger.

Jones currently plays Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie and received Tony Awards for her roles in The Heiress and Doubt. Her additional Broadway credits include A Moon for the Misbegotten, Macbeth, Angels in America, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Faith Healer, Imaginary Friends, Major Barbara and more.

Burstyn won a Tony Award for Same Time, Next Year, and her other Broadway appearances include Sacrilege, Shimada, Shirley Valentine, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All and Picnic. Just a few of her on-screen credits are her Oscar-winning turn in Requiem for a Dream, Resurrection and the movie of Same Time, Next Year.

As a director, Zaks earned Tony Awards for Guys and Dolls, Lend Me a Tenor, The House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation. His additional Broadway credits include La Cage aux Folles, A Bronx Tale, Sister Act and Little Shop of Horrors.

Meadow, the artistic director of the Manhattan Theatre Club, has directed Broadway productions of The Assembled Parties, Wit, A Small Family Business and Collected Stories. Her Tony-winning mountings include Proof, Love! Valor! Compassion! and Doubt.

Wolfe, the former artistic director of the Public Theater, is the Tony-winning director of Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and The Normal Heart. He has also helmed Lucky Guy, Caroline or Change, A Free Man of Color, On the Town, Golden Child and Angels in America: Perestroika, to name but a few.

Mackintosh’s work as a producer includes the Tony-winning productions of The Phantom of the Opera, Cats and Les Miserables. His many additional producing credits include Putting It Together, Mary Poppins, Swan Lake, Carousel, Five Guys Named Mo and Miss Saigon.

Hays earned Tony nominations for his scenic design work on All the Way Home, Marco Millions, Drat! The Cat! and The Tenth Man.

Lorraine Hansberry’s plays include A Raisin in the Sun, Les Blancs and The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window.