Elaine May, Iconic Star of The Waverly Gallery, Wins First Tony Award

Elaine May, the 87-year-old stage-and-screen legend, just received her first Tony Award for her moving performance as Gladys in the Broadway premiere of Kenneth Lonergan's The Waverly Gallery. May was bestowed with the honor at the Tonys ceremony on June 9 at Radio City Music Hall. May beat out fellow Best Leading Actress in a Play nominees Annette Bening for All My Sons, Laura Donnelly for The Ferryman, Janet McTeer for Bernhardt/Hamlet, Laurie Metcalf for Hillary and Clinton and Heidi Schreck for What the Constitution Means to Me.

"I never won a nomination for acting before, so, I want to tell you how I did it," May said in her acceptance speech. "I got in a play written by Kenneth Lonergan."

The Waverly Gallery marks May's first Tony nomination and win; the play, which concluded its limited run in January, marked her return to the Great White Way after more than five decades. She previously appeared on Broadway in The Office and An Evening With Mike Nichols and Elaine May. As a writer, her Broadway credits include Taller Than a Dwarf, After the Night and the Music and Relatively Speaking. May is a two-time Oscar nominee for screenwriting Heaven Can Wait and Primary Colors.

The Waverly Gallery centers on the final years of a generous, chatty and feisty grandmother's battle against Alzheimer's disease. Gladys (May) is an old-school lefty and social activist and longtime owner of a small art gallery in Greenwich Village. The play explores her fight to retain her independence and the subsequent effect of her decline on her family, especially her grandson (played by Lucas Hedges).

Learn all about The Waverly Gallery from playwright Lonergan and director Lila Neugebauer below.