The Dark at the Top of the Stairs

The Dark at the Top of the Stairs at the OBIEs:

Stage and screen legend Angela Lansbury presented the first award of the evening to Donna Lynne Champlin for her remarkable performance in The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.

Said Ms. Lansbury in introducing Donna Lynne Champlin:

'What's a wife to do, faced with an emotionally frail teen-aged daughter, an over-dependent son, nouveau riche in-laws she can't keep up with, and a neglectful husband obsessed with a job that technology is about to render obsolete.  The woman's got only one choice - to play her role to the hilt, registering every nuance with passion, precision and grace.  For making that choice come to memorable life, the judges have voted an OBIE for her performance in The Dark at the Top of the Stairs to Donna Lynne Champlin.'

Bookending the night, the final award of the evening was in the form of a special grant presented to Transport Group by ceremony co-host, Cynthia Nixon.

Said Ms. Nixon of the company:

'Rejuvenating the past and challenging the future, this company is nothing if not ambitious, equally unfazed by the challenges of giving a forgotten play startling new life or creating a new musical with a cast as large as the audience... For the excitement of what they've done and what's to come, the judges have voted an OBIE grant of $2,500 to Transport Group.'

TG Artistic Director and Dark Director, Jack Cummings III was featured in Time Out New York's "This is why they're hot" article on theatre professionals 'you need to know about.'

What the critics said:

"The scene in which this aged creature (in a magnificent performance from Irma St. Paule) briefly holds the boy and then silently weeps when he is taken away from her is hardly the defining moment of Mosel's drama.  But in the stunning staging of their encounter, it is the most moving one." - Variety

"Donna Lynne Champlin hits all the right notes.  Patrick Boll is excellent." - The New York Times

"Attention must be paid to the Transport Group's staging of William Inge's The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.  Acting of this caliber doesn't come along very often, and it shouldn't be missed when it does." - TheaterMania.com

"Transport Group has earned a rep for ambitious productions." - Time Out New York

"[Cummings] trusts silence and stillness, and his stage pictures are careful, almost painterly." - Time Out New York

"Director Cummings understands the richness of Dark." - American Theatre Web

"Michele Pawk nearly takes home the show as Lottie." - BackStage