Three-time Tony Award winner Mark Rylance (for Boeing-Boeing, Jerusalem and Twelfth Night) is to be knighted and Tony winner Patricia Routledge (for the 1968 musical Darling of the Day) is to be made a dame in Queen Elizabeth II’s New Year’s Honors list.
Also to be honored in London is Sir Richard Eyre, who already has a knighthood and will now be inducted into the list of Companions of Honor, of which there are only ever 65 people. Other current holders include Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Judi Dench. Eyre, a two-time Tony nominee for his direction of Skylight in 1997 and The Crucible in 2002, was formerly artistic director of the National Theatre. Fellow directors Rupert Goold, Indhu Rubasingham and Jatinder Verma, currently artistic directors of London's Almeida, Tricycle Theatres and Tara Arts respectively, are to receive a CBE (Goold) and MBE (Rubasingham and Verma).
Also being knighted are opera singer Bryn Terfel (who played the title role in Sweeney Todd at Lincoln Center and the London Coliseum) and composer/performer Ray Davies, whose repertoire was recently celebrated in the West End jukebox musical Sunny Afternoon.
Further honors are to be bestowed on actors Helen McCrory and Tony nominee Tim PIgott-Smith (both to be awarded an OBE) and Sharon D Clarke and Clive Rowe (both to be awarded an MBE).
