Oscar Hammerstein Award Oscar Hammerstein Award The Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre is named in honor of American lyricist and librettist Oscar Hammerstein, who helped shape American theater music through his collaborations with a number of different composers and writers. The award was created in 1988 by Janet Hayes Walker, the Founding Artistic Director of The York Theatre Company, and is presented with the endorsement of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization and the Hammerstein family. The Oscar Hammerstein Award Gala is the major annual fundraising event of The York, a mainstay of the Off-Broadway scene for more than 45
Willie Hammerstein Street and 7th Avenue, advertising "refined glamour" and featuring the biggest stars of vaudeville. Acts became harder to book, since performers did not want to be connected with a rival of the powerful Keith's circuit. Performers enjoyed playing the Victoria. Buster Keaton thought it was the greatest of the vaudeville houses. Hammerstein asked performers back many times if he liked them, as with the British comedian Harry Tate. In June 1905 Willie Hammerstein signed up Will Rogers to perform in the Victoria for afternoon matinees and in the Paradise Roof Garden in the evenings. The young Mae West played eleven