There will be a strong Irish flavour to this year's Tony Awards with Gabriel Byrne nominated in the Best Actor category and the composer Shaun Davey nominated for his work on a musical play based on James Joyce's The Dead.
The Tony Awards, theatre's equivalent of the Oscars, will be presented on June 4th at Radio City Music Hall in New York.
Mr Byrne was nominated for his performance in A Moon For The Misbegotten, a play by Eugene O'Neill which is currently on Broadway. Also from the play, Cherry Jones and Roy Dotrice were nominated in the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor categories.
A Moon For The Misbegotten is set on a farm in Connecticut in 1923. Gabriel Byrne plays the part of a tormented alcoholic who finds solace in the arms of a shy Irish-American girl. When the play had its premiere on Broadway in 1957, it starred Cyril Cusack.
The playwright Eugene O'Neill was born in New York in 1888 and won both the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Pulitzer Prize for a body of work which included Anna Christie and Long Day's Journey Into Night.
Meanwhile, Shaun Davey shares illustrious company for his Tony nomination in the Best Original Score category. The Irish composer and musician will compete for an award with Elton John and Tim Rice. Mr Davey composed the music and lyrics for James Joyce's The Dead which opened on Broadway on January 11th and was sold out. The play has secured five Tony nominations.
Shaun Davey is best known for his production, The Brendan Voyage, which was premiered in 1979 as a suite for uileann pipes and orchestra. Some of his more recent work includes the soundtracks for the popular series Ballykissangel and the film Waking Ned.
The 54th Annual Tony Awards will be hosted by the actress Rosie O'Donnell. The awards are named after Antoinette Perry, a founder of the American Theatre Wing.
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