Drama critics name ‘Ruined’ best play

updated 7:33 p.m. ET May 4, 2009

NEW YORK - “Ruined,” Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama set against the backdrop of an African civil war, has been named best play of the season by the New York Drama Critics’ Circle.

“Billy Elliot,” the story of a British coal miner’s son and his dreams of becoming a dancer, was picked as best musical. Gregory Burke’s “Black Watch,” a look at the war in Iraq through the eyes of Scottish soldiers, was chosen best foreign play.

Special citations were awarded to Angela Lansbury, director Matthew Warchus and the cast of “The Norman Conquests” and Gerard Alessandrini, creator of the revue “Forbidden Broadway.”

Founded in 1935, the Circle is composed of 20 drama critics from daily newspapers, magazines and wire services based in the New York metropolitan area.

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