A new Tony Award -- for philanthropy

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Listen up, theater buffs! We know you’ve fantasized about standing on stage at Radio City Music Hall and accepting one of those shiny Tony Awards medallions. We also know you’re probably not a Redgrave, a Streisand or a Brando. Even so, your chances of living the dream just got a tiny bit better. You don’t need to be able to sing, act, direct, write, compose, design theatrical stuff or even produce shows to win the newly created Isabelle Stevenson Award. You just gotta have heart, as the underdog Washington Senators sang in ‘Damn Yankees,’ miles and miles and miles of heart. That and membership in good standing in ‘the theater community.’

The Stevenson award, named for the elegant longtime leader of the American Theatre Wing, the support organization that launched the Tonys, will recognize a member of said community ‘who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of... humanitarian, social service or charitable organizations, regardless of whether such organizations relate to the theatre.’

The award is noncompetitive and will be decided by the Tony Award Administration Committee about a month before the annual June Tony telecast. The Isabelle, whose namesake died in 2003 at age 90, won’t necessarily be conferred every year, but only when a theater insider is deemed to have put in enough mileage with a giving heart.

-- Mike Boehm