Shirley Jones to Receive Pittsburgh CLO’s Richard Rodgers Award

Oscar winner Shirley Jones will receive the Pittsburgh CLO’s annual Richard Rodgers Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre on June 2, 2007. The presentation, which will be made by Rodgers’ daughter, Mary Rodgers Guettel, will be part of the CLO’s Pink Frolic Ball at the Hilton Hotel.

Previous winners of the award, which is presented in conjunction with the families of Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein and the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, include Mary Martin, Julie Andrews, Harold Prince, Sir Cameron Mackintosh, Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, Gwen Verdon, and Bernadette Peters.

Jones made her Broadway debut in South Pacific and later starred on the Great White Way in Maggie Flynn and the revival of 42nd Street. She appeared in the CLO’s 1953 production of Lady in the Dark and co-hosted the company’s 50th Anniversary Gala in 1996.

In addition, Jones starred in the film version of three great Broadway musicals, Oklahoma!, Carousel and The Music Man. She won the Academy Award for her turn as a prostitute in Elmer Gantry. She is best known to television audiences for her role in the long-running sitcom The Partridge Family.