BWW Chicago Awards — Nominate Your Favorites

The 2026 Regional Awards honor productions which had their first performance between October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026. Our editors have set the categories and now YOU get to nominate and vote for your favorites! Nominations are reader-submitted and will be open through October 31.

After the nomination period ends, BroadwayWorld's editors will proof the list for eligibility and errors, then voting will begin in early November and run through December 31. Winners will be announced in January!

Eligibility: 

-In categories without a designation for the type of theater, both professional and non-professional productions are eligible.

-In categories designated for professional theaters - community theaters and companies that do not pay their performers are not eligible.

-In non-professional categories, participants are not eligible if they have been compensated for their performances.

*NEW* -No production that has taken place in an elementary, middle, or high school as part of the curriculum or extra-curricular programming is eligible, inclusive of non-professional categories.

-A production staged as part of an educational program for youth under age 18, where participation is based on enrollment of any kind, is not eligible in any category, inclusive of non-professional categories. (Example: a production of a Junior/Kids musical staged at an after-school or weekend program.)

-Where there is a disagreement on 'opening night' credits, we defer to billing as provided to us by the producers/producing organization.

-Productions (inclusive of streaming productions) that had no in-person audience for a publicly ticketed performance within the region in which they are submitted are not eligible.