2010-11 Theatre World Award Winners Announced - Barkin, Hemingway, Larroquette, Miller, Quinto, Sheldon, Motherf**cker & More

The 67th annual Theatre World Award winners for Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut Performances during the 2010-2011 theatrical season are:

Ellen Barkin, The Normal Heart, Desmin Borges, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, Halley Feiffer, The House of Blue Leaves, Grace Gummer, Arcadia, Rose Hemingway, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, John Larroquette, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Heather Lind, The Merchant of Venice, Patina Miller, Sister Act, Arian Moayed, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Jim Parsons, The Normal Heart, Zachary Quinto, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes and Tony Sheldon, Priscilla Queen of the Desert

The third annual Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence will go to Seth Numrich of War Horse.

The first annual Lunt-Fontanne Award for Ensemble Excellence will go to the cast of: The Motherf**ker with the Hat: Bobby Cannavale, Chris Rock, Annabella Sciorra, Elizabeth Rodriguez and Yul Vázquez.

The Theatre World Awards presentation will be held at a theater to be announced, in an invitation-only ceremony, Tuesday, June 7, 2011 starting at 2:00 p.m. Peter Filichia will host, Barry Keating will direct, and Mary K. Botosan and Erin Oestreich are the event’s producers. There will be a tribute to John Willis, founder of the Theatre World Awards, who passed away last summer. In addition to the Theatre World Awards, the ceremony will also include the presentation of the third annual Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence and the inaugural Lunt-Fontanne Award for Ensemble Excellence.

First presented in 1945, the prestigious Theatre World Awards are the oldest awards given for outstanding Broadway and Off-Broadway debut performances. The Theatre World Award winners and the Lunt-Fontanne Award for Ensemble Excellence have been 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 Star-Ledger and TheaterMania), Harry Haun (Playbill), Matthew Murray (Talkin’ Broadway), Frank Scheck (New York Post), and Linda Winer (Newsday). The Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence has been chosen by the Trustees of the Dorothy Loudon Foundation, Lionel Larner, Executive Director.

The Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence goes to an outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway performance. Last year the award went to Bobby Steggert for his performances in Ragtime and Yank! The Loudon Award is bestowed by the Dorothy Loudon Foundation in behalf of its namesake actress. 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.

The Lunt-Fontanne Award for Ensemble Excellence goes to an outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway ensemble. The award is bestowed upon the named ensemble by writer-director-teacher Aaron Frankel and the Theatre World Awards in honor of the late Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. Mr. Frankel is a founding member of the Society of Stage Directors & Choreographers and a past Chairman and President of that organization’s foundation. He is also the author of “Writing the Broadway Musical” (revised and updated in 2000). Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne are considered the greatest acting couple in the history of the American stage. They met and first acted together in 1919 and married in 1922. After 1928, neither appeared separately on stage again. Of their more than two dozen performances as a team, some of their best known works include The Guardsman, Design for Living, Amphitryon 38, There Shall Be No Night, The Taming of the Shrew, O Mistress Mine and their final work on Broadway, The Visit. They were uniquely versatile actors and known for their dedication to perfection. Other actors felt honored to work in their ensemble company.

The Theatre World annual remains the definitive record of the American theatre season, including photos and statistics from Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway, and regional companies, in addition to special sections dedicated to obituaries, long-running productions, and major theatrical awards. Theatre World is edited by Ben Hodges and Scott Denny, and published by Applause Theatre and Cinema Books, a division of Hal Leonard Performing Arts Publishing Group. Theatre World Volume 66: 2009-2010, now more complete than ever and with over 900 photos is currently available at all booksellers and online.

The Theatre World Award Board of Directors is: Barry Keating (President and Director), Erin Oestreich (Vice-President and Producer), Jon Lonoff (Treasurer), Cara Lustik (Secretary), Mary K. Botosan (Producer), Vern T. Calhoun, Dorothy W. Kopelman, Tom Lynch (Founding Board member), Kati Meister (Executive Producer), Sal Scamardo, and Jane Stuart. For more information about the Theatre World Awards (including a list of past recipients), please visit: theatreworldawards.org. The TWA Board also encourages theater lovers to “LIKE” the Theatre World Awards fan page on Facebook.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos