Theatre World Awards for Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut performances during the 2008-2009 theatrical season will be presented by former Theatre World Award winners, including: Craig Bierko (The Music Man, 2000), Daniel Breaker(Passing Strange, 2008), Kristin Chenoweth (Steel Pier, 1997), Tovah Feldshuh (Yentl, 1976),Susan Kellermann (Last Licks, 1980), Loretta Ables Sayre (South Pacific, 2008), and John Tartaglia (Avenue Q, 2004).
There will also be performances by former Theatre World Award winners, including: Ann Hampton Callaway (Swing!, 2000), Nellie McKay (The Threepenny Opera, 2006), and Vivian Reed (Bubblin' Brown Sugar, 1976). Broadway veteran musical director Henry Aronson will serve in that capacity for the event.
As previously announced, the 2008-09
Theatre World Award winners are:
David Alvarez /
Trent Kowalik /
Kiril Kulish,
Billy Elliot, The Musical;
Chad L. Coleman, Joe Turner's Come and Gone;Jennifer Grace, Our Town;
Josh Grisetti, Enter Laughing, The Musical;
Haydn Gwynne,
Billy Elliot, The Musical;
Colin Hanks, 33 Variations;
Marin Ireland, reasons to be pretty;
Susan Louise O'Connor ,
Blithe Spirit;
Condola Rashad, Ruined;
Geoffrey Rush, Exit the King;
Josefina Scaglione,
West Side Story; and
Wesley Taylor,
Rock of Ages. A Special Award given to the Entire Cast of The Norman Conquests is being presented to:
Amelia Bullmore,
Jessica Hynes,
Stephen Mangan,
Ben Miles,
Paul Ritter, and
Amanda Root.
The Theatre World Awards presentation will be held at Manhattan Theatre Club's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th Street, in an invitation-only ceremony, Tuesday, June 2, 2009from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Peter Filichia will host, Barry Keating will direct, and Scott Denny, Kati Meister, and Erin Oestreich are the event's producers. John Willis, a founder of the Theatre World Awards, will be in attendance.
First presented in 1945, the prestigious
Theatre World Awards are the oldest awards given for Broadway and Off-Broadway debut performances, and are among the oldest honors given to stage performers. The
Theatre World Award winners have been chosen by the
Theatre World Awards voting committee, currently comprised of
David Cote (Time Out New York and NY1),
Peter Filichia(The Star-Ledger and Theatermania),
Harry Haun (Playbill), Matthew Murray (Talkin' Broadway),Frank Scheck (New York Post), Doug Watt (Critic Emeritus, New York Daily News), and Linda Winer (Newsday).
The
Theatre World Award Board of Directors is: Kati Meister, President; Erin Oestreich, Secretary; Scott Denny, Treasurer;
Tom Lynch, founding Board member; and
Barry Keating.
For more information about the
Theatre World Awards (including a listing of past recipients) please visit: theatreworldawards.org.
The
Theatre World Awards are presented annually in the spring to six actors and six actresses for their debut performances in a Broadway or Off-Broadway production. The ceremony is an invitation-only event followed by an afternoon party to celebrate the twelve new honorees and welcome them to the
Theatre World "family." In what has become a highly entertaining and often touching tradition, former winners present awards to the new honorees, often reliving moments from past ceremonies and sharing wonderful stories rarely heard at other theatrical award ceremonies.
In 1944, three young men who loved theatre,
Daniel Blum, Norman McDonald, and
John Willis, came up with the idea of a yearly celebration that would acknowledge "Promising Personalities," - twelve debut performances by actors appearing on Broadway. In the beginning, the awards ceremony was a simple cocktail party among friends in
Daniel Blum's sumptuous apartment, with Blum presenting the award. In the first two years alone, actors saluted for their debut performances included
Betty Comden,
Judy Holliday, and
John Raitt, joined the following year by
Barbara Bel Geddes,
Marlon Brando, and
Burt Lancaster, among others.
At the 1949 party,
Carol Channing won. A couple of years later she said to other winners who were all attending a cocktail party prior to the one at Daniel's, "We'd better get over to Daniel's and support that Award because otherwise, no one is gonna know who we are sixty years from now."
As Off-Broadway became a potent force in New York theatre life, performances there became eligible for recognition as well as those on Broadway. It wasn't until 1969 that the award became known officially as the
Theatre World Award. The first awards were in the form of a framed certificate and later, a plaque. The beautiful bronze Janus Award, sculpted by internationally recognized sculptor Harry Marinsky, made its debut at the 1973
Theatre World Awards ceremony, and is still used today.
Upon
Daniel Blum's death in 1964,
John Willis inherited the entire responsibility for the Award. For the next 30 years, with an occasional assistant, he single-handedly kept the
Theatre World Awards alive by hosting the annual party, often with
Carol Channing acting as the sole presenter as late as 1971. Then
Robert Morse,
Colleen Dewhurst,
Julie Harris, and
RoseMary Harris served as presenters over the next 5 years. At the 1976 ceremony, John invited twelve former winners and each in turn presented to a newcomer. And thus began the ritual of presenters entertaining the audience with anecdotes about how they won or what the Award had come to mean to them.
The
Theatre World Awards are now voted on by a committee, which includes
Peter Filichia and six other New York theatre critics. The Awards are administered by a Board of Directors, who also serve as the producers and directors of the annual event. Every year, the ceremony is supported by previous winners, producers, and friends of the Awards, who generously contribute time and funds to bring the ceremony to fruition.
John Willis, 92 years young, will, as always, be in attendance.
At the same time that Blum and Willis created their award, they also began the
Theatre Worldpublication. It evolved into the most comprehensive annual pictorial and statistical record of the American theatre. It includes not only the Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway season, but that of the regional theatres, major theatrical awards, and complete coverage of the
Theatre World Awards ceremony as well.
Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.
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