Oscar Hammerstein Award years. Past recipients include Stephen Sondheim, Angela Lansbury, Betty Comden & Adolph Green, Harold Prince, Cy Coleman, Charles Strouse, Arthur Laurents, Jerry Herman, Stephen Schwartz, Peter Stone, David Merrick, John Kander & Fred Ebb, Terrence McNally, Sir Cameron Mackintosh, Carol Channing, Tony Walton, Joseph Stein, Thomas Meehan, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, Barbara Cook, Paul Gemignani, Lynn Ahrens & Stephen Flaherty. In December 2016, the 25th Oscar Hammerstein Award was presented to Joel Grey in a star-studded tribute evening. Oscar Hammerstein Award The Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre is named in honor of American lyricist and
James Hammerstein Richard Rodgers. The first play he produced was "Blue Denim", by James Leo Herlihy and William Noble, and the first play he directed was the comedy "Absence of a Cello" in 1964. The "New York Times" wrote: "James Hammerstein has staged the piece with a great deal of verve." His other directing credits include "The Indian Wants the Bronx", "Wise Child" and "Butley". Hammerstein directed the New York City Opera production of "The Sound of Music" in 1990. He co-directed the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical "State Fair" in 1996. Among the other Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals he directed were