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
Oscar Hammerstein I (1896). While it was positively received by "The New York Times", Hammerstein's personal experience was less than peaceful, with the production being plagued by monetary issues with the cast and stage set. In the end, Hammerstein had profited only one-tenth of the costs that were put into the "Santa Maria" production. Nine years later, Longacre Square was renamed Times Square, and the area had become, through his efforts, a thriving theater district. Hammerstein built three more theaters there, the Victoria Theatre (1899), which turned to vaudeville presentation in 1904 and was managed by his son, Willie Hammerstein before closing in