Meryl Streep Actress, National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress and National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress for her collective work in her three film releases of 1979. Both "The Deer Hunter" and "Kramer vs. Kramer" were major commercial successes and were consecutive winners of the Academy Award for Best Picture. In 1979, Streep began workshopping "Alice in Concert", a musical version of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", with writer and composer Elizabeth Swados and director Joseph Papp; the show was put on at New York's Public Theater from December 1980. Frank Rich of "The New York
Meryl Streep Times" referred to Streep as the production's "one wonder", but questioned why she devoted so much energy to it. By 1980, Streep had progressed to leading roles in films. She was featured on the cover of "Newsweek" magazine with the headline "A Star for the 80s"; Jack Kroll commented, Streep denounced her fervent media coverage at the time as "excessive hype". The story within a story drama "The French Lieutenant's Woman" (1981) was Streep's first leading role. The film paired Streep with Jeremy Irons as contemporary actors, telling their modern story, as well as the Victorian era drama they were