Sharp Shapiro: Could August Director Become the Fifth Woman to Win Top Tony?

The New York Sun sat down with Anna Shapiro, the director of Pulitzer Prize-winning play August: Osage County. She won the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for best direction of a play. But now she's up for best director at the Tony Awards.

Only four women have received that honor: Julie Taymor (The Lion King) and Garry Hynes (The Beauty Queen of Lenane) in 1998, Susan Stroman (The Producers) in 2001, and Mary Zimmerman (Metamorphoses) in 2002. Can this Windy City native and Broadway newborn (this is her first time!) make the cut? John Malkovich might not think so! "One time, very early on, John Malkovich took me out to dinner just to tell me how much he hated a play of mine," Ms. Shapiro told The Sun.