Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Gala Co Chairs
Ida Cole
Joseph Haj
LaTanya Richardson Jackson
Sir Howard Panter
Marc Platt
Jeffrey Richards
Present
The 2026 “Mr. Abbott” Awards
Celebrating
BARTLETT SHER
Monday, March 23, 2026 | Gotham Hall at 7pm
1356 Broadway at 36th Street, New York, NY 10018
HOSTED BY
DANNY BURSTEIN & RUTHIE ANN MILES
AWARD PRESENTED BY
STEPHEN DALDRY
TRIBUTE SPEAKERS AND PERFORMERS WILL INCLUDE
ADAM GUETTEL
CELIA KEENAN-BOLGER
AND
STEVEN PASQUALE
Directed by
Miranda Haymon
Produced by
Leigh Silverman
Written by
J.T. Rogers
Table Packages including VIP reception, Bespoke Gifts, and more available
Click here for full press release announcement.
Need special accommodations? Email mrabbott@sdcfoundation.org
About Bartlett Sher
Bartlett Sher is a Tony Award winner who has been described by The New York Times as one of America’s “most original and exciting directors.” His work on Broadway and in the West End includes Pictures from Home, My Fair Lady, the 2017 Tony-winning Best Play Oslo, Fiddler on the Roof, The King and I, The Bridges of Madison County, Golden Boy, Women on the Verge…, August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, South Pacific, Awake and Sing!, and The Light in the Piazza. He was the Resident Director at Lincoln Center Theater from 2008-2024, where he directed Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot, Corruption, and McNeal. Bart has also directed several operas, including Rigoletto (Berlin, Metropolitan Opera); Roméo et Juliette (Metropolitan Opera, Salzburg, Milan, Chicago); Faust (Baden Baden); Two Boys (ENO, Metropolitan Opera); Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Baden Baden, Metropolitan Opera); Otello, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Le Comte Ory, L’Elisir d’Amore (Metropolitan Opera); and Mourning Becomes Electra (Seattle Opera, City Opera). He directed the world premiere of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay for the Met in their 2025-2026 season. His film of Oslo (HBO, 2021) was nominated for two Emmy Awards and won a Critics Choice Award. He recently mounted a revival of Kiss Me, Kate at London’s Barbican Centre, the original musical Millions, and this summer, opened the brand-new Dolly: A True Original Musical in Nashville. His upcoming work includes a stage adaptation of the movie musical La La Land. Bart was recently named the Executive Producer of Lincoln Center Theater.
Click here for the full press release!
About the “Mr. Abbott” Award
The “Mr. Abbott” Award, bestowed through SDCF by a committee of Directors and Choreographers to one of their peers, is named in honor of renowned director George Abbott and is presented to a director or choreographer in recognition of lifetime achievement.
To learn more about Mr. Abbott, please check out this video.
Eligibility
Directors and choreographers who have had impact over the course of career will be considered for this award for a body of work that has had influence on the field artistically. It is unlikely but not impossible for a non-SDC member to be selected.
Past Recipients
| 2025 | Christopher Ashley |
| 2020 | Joe Mantello |
| 2019 | The 60th Anniversary of SDC, Agnes de Mille and Victoria Traube |
| 2018 | Julie Taymor |
| 2017 | Kenny Leon |
| 2015 | James Lapine |
| 2013 | Jerry Mitchell |
| 2011 | George C. Wolfe |
| 2009 | Donald Saddler |
| 2007 | Daniel Sullivan |
| 2005 | Kathleen & Rob Marshall |
| 2003 | Lynne Meadow |
| 2002 | Jack O’Brien |
| 2001 | Susan Stroman |
| 2000 | Celebrate Cy! (Cy Feuer’s 90th Birthday) |
| 1999 | Twenty-One for the 21st: Vinnette Carroll, Zelda Fichandler, Peter Gennaro, Gillian Lynne, Marshall W. Mason, Andrei Serban |
| 1998 | Graciela Daniele |
| 1997 | Garson Kanin |
| 1996 | Lloyd Richards |
| 1995 | Gordon Davidson |
| 1994 | Jerry Zaks |
| 1993 | Trevor Nunn |
| 1992 | Arvin Brown |
| 1991 | Tommy Tune |
| 1990 | Gene Saks |
| 1989 | Michael Bennet |
| 1988 | Agnes de Mille |
| 1987 | Mike Nichols |
| 1986 | Bob Fosse |
| 1985 | Harold Prince |
About George Abbott
George Abbott, 1953
One of the most important and admired men in the entire history of Broadway – indeed, some have said that he WAS the history of Broadway –, George Abbott (b. Forestville, NY, 25 June 1887; d. Miami Beach, FL, 31 January 1995) was a theater director and producer, playwright, screenwriter, and film director and producer whose career spanned more than nine decades. He had a hand, one way or another, in the most historically and artistically significant New York productions of the twentieth century: Broadway (1926), Three Men on a Horse (1935), Brother Rat (1936), On Your Toes (1936), Room Service (1937), The Boys from Syracuse (1938), Too Many Girls (1939), Pal Joey (1940), On the Town (1944), High Button Shoes (1947), Where’s Charley? (1948), Call Me Madam (1950), Wonderful Town (1953), The Pajama Game (1954), Damn Yankees (1955), Once Upon a Mattress (1959), Fiorello! (1959), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1961), Flora the Red Menace (1965), and 103 other shows, giving a boost to the early careers of (among others) Sylvia Field, Helen Hayes, Shirley Booth, Garson Kanin, Rodgers and Hart, Ray Bolger, Eddie Albert, Jose Ferrer, Eddie Bracken, Gene Kelly, Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Nancy Walker, Jerome Robbins, Allyn Ann McLerie, Harold Prince, Carol Haney, Bob Fosse, Carol Burnett, Jack Gilford, and Liza Minnelli. Abbott had 40 films to his credit as screenwriter, director, or producer, among them All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), The Fall Guy (1930), and the film adaptations of his Broadway hits; his featured screen actors included Jean Arthur, Lew Ayres, and Gene Tierney.