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Just when you thought there was a brief pause in the theater award nomination season, another organization announces candidates for its honors. After the Outer Critics Circle and the Drama League announced their nominees on April 23 and 24 respectively, the Off Broadway Alliance -- a group of Off-Broadway producers, theaters, general managers, press agents, and marketing firms -- released their short list for citations on Wednesday, April 25.In addition to six competitive categories, the group will present six Legend of Off-Broadway honors. The recipients are playwright Edward Albee; Gerard Alessandrini, who created the "Forbidden Broadway" series of revues; actor Kathleen Chalfant; actor Catherine Russell, who just celebrated 25 years playing the same role in "Perfect Crime," the longest-running show in Off-Broadway history; and actor Mary Louise Wilson. Two 2012 Off Broadway Alliance Hall of Fame Awards are being posthumously presented to theater critic Howard Kissel and producer Theodore Mann....

Beginning Saturday, March 3 2012, Theater Talk pays tribute to the late critic Howard Kissel with a rebroadcast of its award-winning 2009 program, A Walk Through The Players Club 301. On this show Kissel, who was a writer, actor and frequent contributor to the series, guided viewers through this landmark of the American theater and shared stories about the people and events connected with it.

 

Howard Kissel, the respected chief theater critic for the New York Daily News, has died from complications with a liver transplant at age 69. Kissel did not have the acerbic personality of some other legendary theater critics such as Frank Rich and John Simon but his influence carried considerable weight. He reviewed the Broadway scene for the Daily News for two decades. He also served as Chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle. His books included a scathing biography of the legendary show producer David Merrick, witty titled by Kissel as 'The Abominable Showman'. Kissel also appeared as Woody Allen's manager in the 1980 film Stardust Memories. Click here for more...

New York – In the age of the blogosphere, in which everyone’s a critic and in which informed, impartial analysis often takes a backseat to gleeful off-the-cuff savagery or unrestrained gush, the death of Howard Kissel is an especially significant loss. A theater critic for nearly four decades – most notably for 20 of those years at the New York Daily News – Kissel died at his Manhattan home on Friday of complications from a liver transplant he had undergone in April 2010. He was 69. The only person to have served as chairman of both the New

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Howard Kissel, the beloved theater critic who blogs as "the Cultural Tourist," passed away last night from complications from a liver transplant, the Daily News reports. Kissel was the chief theater critic of the New York Daily News for two decades, and was the former chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle and the New York Drama Critics Circle, as well as the author of books such as "The Abominable Showman," a biography of David Merrick, "The Art of Acting," and more recently, "New York Theater Walks."

Kissel also had a role in the 1980 film "Stardust Memories," playing Woody Allen's manager. After an encounter locking lips with Patti Lupone, Kissel wrote, "I feel no compunctions about declaring that kissing critics should be encouraged."

He will be missed. His sister, Anne Elliot, told the Daily News, "He loved everything about New York."

Kissel was a prolific blogger for The Huffington Post; his last essay,...