The Signature Theatre has created the Stephen Sondheim award, which will benefit Signature Theatre’s artistic, education, and community outreach programs. The award will be presented annually to an individual for his or her career contributions to interpreting, supporting, and collaborating on Stephen Sondheim’s music works. The first recipient of the award is Angela Lansbury, who was of course named as the ultimate Sondheim diva by yours truly in this blog ages ago.

Playbill offers the following reactions from Sondheim himself:

Angela Lansbury’s first appearance on the musical stage was in a show called Anyone Can Whistle, for which I wrote the score. That appearance was a gift to the musical theatre, although perhaps not such a gift to her, since the show only ran for nine performances. I am thrilled that Signature Theatre is helping me make it up to her by giving her the first Stephen Sondheim Award.

As well as from Signature Theatre’s Artistic Director Eric Schaeffer:

I’m thrilled that Angela will be the first recipient of the Stephen Sondheim Award, having appeared aurally on our stage as The Giant in Into the Woods. She is a major force in the American musical theatre and we look forward to saluting her endless talents.

This is wonderful. Lansbury is exactly the right person with whom to inaugurate this award.