Lapine, James 1949-

PERSONAL

Full name, James Elliot Lapine; born January 10, 1949, in Mansfield, OH; son of David Sanford and Lillian (maiden name, Feld) Lapine; married Sarah Kernochan (a writer and director), February 24, 1985; children: Phoebe. Education: Franklin and Marshall College, B.A., history, California Institute of the Arts, M.F.A., design.

Addresses:

Agent—Creative Artists Agency, 162 Fifth Ave., 6th Floor, New York, NY 10010; 2000 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles, CA 90067.

Career:

Director and writer. Yale Repertory Theatre, graphic designer; Yale University School of Drama, instructor; also worked as a photographer, graphic designer, teacher, and architectural preservationist.

Awards, Honors:

Special Obie Award, c. 1977, for Twelve Dreams; New York Drama Critics Circle Award, best musical, Drama Desk Awards, outstanding director of a musical and outstanding book of a musical, Antoinette Perry Award nominations, best direction of a musical and best book of a musical, 1984, Pulitzer Prize for Drama (with Stephen Sondheim), 1985, Plays and Players London Theatre Critics Award, 1990, and Laurence Olivier Theatre Award, Society of West End Theatre, best musical, 1991, all for Sunday in the Park with George; Antoinette Perry Awards, best book of a musical and best direction of a musical, Drama Desk Award, outstanding book of a musical, Drama Desk Award nomination, outstanding director of a musical, New York Drama Critics Circle Award, best musical, 1988, London Critics Circle Award (with Sondheim), best new musical, and Plays and Players London Theatre Critics Award (with William Finn), 1990, all for Into the Woods; Lucille Lortel Award, outstanding musical, 1991, for Falsettoland; Antoinette Perry Award (with William Finn), best book of a musical, Antoinette Perry Award nomination, best direction of a musical, 1992, both for Falsettos; Antoinette Perry Award, best book of a musical, Antoinette Perry Award nomination, best direction of a musical, Drama Desk Award, outstanding book of a musical, Drama Desk Award nomination, outstanding director of a musical, 1994, Evening Standard Award (with Sondheim), best musical, 1996, all for Passion; Antoinette Perry Award nomination, best director, 2000, for Dirty Blonde; Antoinette Perry Award nomination, Drama Desk Award nomination, outstanding director of a musical, 2002, both for Into the Woods (revival); Drama Desk Award nomination, outstanding director of a musical, 2003, for Armour; Antoinette Perry Award nomination, best director, Lucille Lortel Award nomination, outstanding directing, Drama Desk Award, outstanding director of a musical, 2005, all for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; George Oppenheimer Playwrighting Award, for Table Settings.

CREDITS

Stage Director:

Photograph, 1977.

Twelve Dreams, c. 1977, then Public Theatre, New York Shakespeare Festival, New York City, 1982, revised edition staged at the Mitzi Newhouse Theatre, New York City, 1995.

Table Settings, Playwrights Horizons Theatre, New York City, 1979, 1980.

March of the Falsettos, Playwrights Horizons Theatre, 1981, then Westside Theatre (Upstairs), New York City, 1981-82.

A Midsummer Night's Dream, Delacorte Theatre, New York City, 1982.

Sunday in the Park with George, Playwrights Horizons Theatre, 1984-85.

Merrily We Roll Along, La Jolla Playhouse, La Jolla, CA, 1985.

Into the Woods, Martin Beck Theatre, New York City, 1987-89.

The Winter's Tale, Public Theatre, New York City, 1989.

Falsettoland, Lucille Lortel Theatre, New York City, 1990-91.

(With William Finn) Falsettos, John Golden Theatre, New York City, 1992-93.

Luck, Pluck & Virtue, La Jolla Playhouse, 1993, then Atlantic Theatre, New York City, 1995.

Passion, Plymouth Theatre, New York City, 1994-95.

Golden Child, Public Theatre, 1996-98, then Longacre Theatre, New York City, 1998.

The Diary of Anne Frank, Music Box Theatre, New York City, 1997-98.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (musical), 1999.

Dirty Blonde, New York Theatre Workshop, then Helen Hayes Theatre, New York City, 2000.

Into the Woods, Ahamanson Theatre, Los Angeles, then Broadhurst Theatre, New York City, 2002.

Amour, Music Box Theatre, New York City, 2002.

Modern Orthodox, New World Stages III, New York City, 2004-2005.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Circle in the Square Theatre, New York City, 2005.

Fran's Bed, Playwrights Horizons Theatre, 2005.

King Lear, Joseph Papp Public Theatre, New York City, 2007.

Film Director:

Impromptu, Hemdale, 1991.

Life with Mikey (also known as Give Me a Break), Buena Vista, 1993.

Television Director; Movies:

Earthly Possessions, HBO, 1999.

Television Director; Specials:

Into the Woods, 1990.

Passions, 1996.

Television Specials; Appearances:

A Tribute to Stephen Sondheim, Arts and Entertainment, 1995.

"Putting It Together: 1980-Present, Broadway: The American Musical, PBS, 2004.

The 59th Annual Tony Awards, CBS, 2005.

WRITINGS

Stage Plays:

Twelve Dreams, c. 1977, then Public Theatre, New York Shakespeare Festival, New York City, 1982, revised edition staged at the Mitzi Newhouse Theatre, New York City, 1995.

Table Settings, Playwrights Horizons Theatre, New York City, 1979, 1980.

Sunday in the Park with George, Playwrights Horizons Theatre, 1984-85.

Falsettoland, Lucille Lortel Theatre, New York City, 1990-91.

Passion, Plymouth Theatre, New York City, 1994-95.

(With William Finn) A New Brain (musical), Mitzi Newhouse Theatre, New York City, 1998.

The Moment When, Playwrights Horizons Theatre, 2000.

(With Claudia Shear) Dirty Blonde, New York Theatre Workshop, then Helen Hayes Theatre, New York City, 2000.

Muscle, Pegasus Players, Chicago, IL, 2001.

Into the Woods, Ahamanson Theatre, Los Angeles, then Broadhurst Theatre, New York City, 2002.

Fran's Bed, Playwrights Horizons Theatre, 2005.

Stage Plays (as Adaptor):

Photograph, 1977.

Into the Woods, Martin Beck Theatre, New York City, 1987-89.

(With William Finn) Falsettos, John Golden Theatre, New York City, 1992-93.

Luck, Pluck & Virtue (adapted from the Nathanael West novel A Cool Million), La Jolla Playhouse, La Jolla, CA, 1993.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (musical; adapted the work by Victor Hugo), 1999.

Lapine, James (b. 1949), playwright and director. A native of Mansfield, Ohio, he studied design at the California Institute of the Arts and apprenticed at the Yale School of Drama. But he turned to writing and directing, first calling attention to his abilities with his play Table Settings (1980), then earned wide acclaim for his staging of the Off‐Broadway musicals March of the Falsettos (1981) and Falsettoland (1990). Lapine is most known for the musicals with Stephen Sondheim that he wrote and directed: Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Into the Woods (1987), and Passion (1994). His other directing credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream (1982) and A Winter's Tale (1989) for the New York Shakespeare Festival, and on Broadway The Diary of Anne Frank (1997), Golden Child (1998), Dirty Blonde (2000), and Amour (2002).

Lapine, James [Elliot] (1949–), long a successful playwright and director, whose works in the former capacity, but in association with Stephen Sondheim, are Sunday in the Park with George (1984), awarded a Pulitzer Prize for drama, and Passion (1994).