Leslie Uggams, Wesley Taylor, David Alan Grier and More Announced as Theatre World Awards Presenters

The 68th annual Theatre World Awards will be held Tuesday, June 5th, 2012 at The Belasco Theatre, 111 West 44th Street, NYC. The 2 pm by-invitation-only ceremony will also include presentation of the 4th Annual Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence. This year The Theatre World Awards will have ASL interpretation.

Theatre World Awards' producers Erin Oestreich and Mary K. Botosan announced today that this year’s presenters will include Theatre World Award winners Leslie Uggams, Tony Sheldon, David Alan Grier, John Rubinstein, Wesley Taylor and Lizbeth MacKay (with more presenters to be announced).

Ms. Uggams won her TWA in 1966 for Hallelujah Baby! and Mr. Sheldon was honored last year for his performance in Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Mr. Grier won his TWA in 1982 for The First; Mr. Rubinstein won in 1973 for Pippin; Mr. Taylor was honored in 2009 for Rock of Ages and Lizbeth MacKay won in 1982 for Crimes of the Heart. Stacy Keach will present The Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence to Susan Pourfar.

The previously-announced 2012 Theatre World Award winners for Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut Performances during the 2011-2012 theatrical season are:

Tracie Bennett (End of the Rainbow)
Phillip Boykin (The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess)
Crystal A. Dickinson (Clybourne Park)
Russell Harvard (Tribes)
Jeremy Jordan (Bonnie & Clyde)
Joaquina Kalukango (Hurt Village)
Jennifer Lim (Chinglish)
Jessie Mueller (On a Clear Day You Can See Forever)
Hettienne Park (Seminar AND The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism & Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures)
(NOTE: This award is for two shows – Ms. Park made her debut both on and off-Broadway in the same season)
Chris Perfetti (Sons of the Prophet)
Finn Wittrock (Death of a Salesman)
Josh Young (Jesus Christ Superstar)

The winner of The 2012 Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence in the Theater is Susan Pourfar (Tribes).

The Theatre World Awards presentation on June 5th will be hosted by well-known theatre journalist Peter Filichia, with Barry Keating directing, and TWA event producers Mary K. Botosan and Erin Oestreich.

First presented in 1945, the Theatre World Awards are the oldest awards given for outstanding Broadway and Off-Broadway debut performances. The Theatre World Award winners are chosen by the Theatre World Awards committee, currently comprised of David Cote (Time Out New York and NY1), Joe Dziemianowicz (New York Daily News), Peter Filichia (The Newark Star-Ledger), Harry Haun (Playbill), Matthew Murray (Talkin’ Broadway), Frank Scheck (New York Post), and Linda Winer (Newsday). The accomplished stage performers who have won the prestigious Theatre World Award at the beginning of their careers include Meryl Streep, RoseMary Harris, Marlon Brando, Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Anne Bancroft, James Earl Jones, Liza Minnelli, Alan Alda, Zoe Caldwell, Christopher Walken, Alec Baldwin, Bernadette Peters, Audra McDonald, Al Pacino, Grace Kelly and so many more.

The Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence in the Theater honors an outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway performance. Last year the award went to Seth Numrich for his performance in War Horse. The Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence is chosen by the Trustees of The Dorothy Loudon Foundation, Lionel Larner, Executive Director, together with recommendations from the Theatre World Awards committee. Ms. Loudon had the unique talent of being able to make audiences laugh and cry and most of all love her…from her Broadway debut in Nowhere to Go But Up (for which she won a Theatre World Award), to such hits as Noises Off, West Side Waltz, Ballroom, to her incomparable ‘Miss Hannigan’ in Annie for which she won the TONY.