
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 16, 1990                   TAG: 9005160240
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short

CRITICS HONOR `PIANO LESSON'

"The Piano Lesson," by August Wilson, was selected as best new play of the 1989-90 season by the New York Drama Critics Circle. "City of Angels" was named best new musical.

The critics also voted an award to Peter Nichols for "Privates on Parade" as best new foreign play.

The Circle's annual award meeting was held Monday at the Algonquin Hotel.

This is the fourth Critics Circle award to Wilson, who won for all his previous Broadway plays, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," "Fences" and "Joe Turner's Come and Gone."

This ties the record for plays, set by Tennessee Williams. Stephen Sondheim won six for musicals.

"The Piano Lesson," which deals with the family legacy of a finely carved piano, is at the Walter Kerr Theater, in a production directed by Lloyd Richards.

The play was first presented at the Yale Repertory Theater and, earlier this year, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

by CNB