Steven Hoggett to Receive Critics' Choice Award at Chita Rivera Awards; Osnes, Salonga, and More to Present

Steven Hoggett, who is represented on Broadway this season with Angels in America and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, will receive the inaugural Douglas and Ethel Watt Critics' Choice Award at the 2018 Chita Rivera Awards (www.ChitaRiveraAwards.com),taking place at NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts (566 LaGuardia Place, off Washington Square Park) on Sunday, May 20 at 7:30pm. Hoggett will be honored for the poetry and punch of the movement passages in these plays, which he helped transform into enchantingly provocative physical theater.

The Douglas and Ethel Watt Critics' Choice Award is bestowed by the journalists of the Chita Rivera Awards' Broadway judging committee, to recognize outstanding work that falls outside the framework of the original categories. It is named for the longtime Daily News theater critic Douglas Watt and his wife Ethel, an original cast member of Carousel and Kiss Me, Kate who later became a producer.

The Critics' Choice selection committee is made up of Sylviane Gold, theater columnist for Dance Magazine; Anna Kisselgoff, former Chief Dance Critic of The New York Times; and Wendy Perron, former Editor-in-Chief of Dance Magazine.

Hoggett will be honored along with previously announced actress, dancer, and choreographer Carmen de Lavallade, who will receive the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award, iconic composer John Kander, who will receive the Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theater Award and legendary theater director and producer Harold Prince, who will be presented with the SDC Director Award for Exemplary Collaboration with Choreographers.

The presenters of the Chita Rivera Awards were also announced today. They include: Joel Grey (Cabaret), Ben Vereen (Pippin), Maurice Hines (Tappin' Through Life), Lea Salonga (Once On This Island), Jessie Mueller (Carousel), Norbert Leo Butz (My Fair Lady), Gavin Creel (Hello Dolly!), Patricia Birch (Candide, Grease), Len Cariou (Sweeney Todd), Laura Osnes (Bandstand), Robert Fairchild (An American In Paris, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein), Karen Ziemba (Prince of Broadway), and Andy Karl (Groundhog Day). More presenters will be announced in the coming days.

The Chita Rivera Awards are produced by Nikki Feirt Atkins, Founder and Producing Artistic Director of American Dance Machine of the 21st Century (www.ADM21.org), Joe Lanteri, Founder and Executive Director of the New York City Dance Alliance Foundation (www.NYCDAFoundation.net) along with Patricia Watt and Iris Smith. Lanteri also serves as director of the 2018 Chita Rivera Awards.

Tickets for the Chita Rivera Awards are currently on sale and can be purchased at www.ChitaRiveraAwards.com or by calling 1-855-NYC-5678. Ticket prices are as follows: $100 for a balcony ticket to the Awards ceremony, $300 for a par-terre ticket to the Awards ceremony and admission to the red carpet pre-show cocktail party, $500 for an orchestra ticket to the Awards ceremony and admission to the pre-show red carpet cocktail party and VIP reception, and $5000 for 10 Orchestra tickets to the Awards ceremony, admission for 10 to the pre-show red carpet cocktail party & 1 table at the VIP reception.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos