68th Annual Theatre World Award Winners Announced - Tracie Bennett, Jeremy Jordan, Josh Young and More!

The 68th annual Theatre World Awards will be held Tuesday, June 5th, 2012 at a theatre TBA. The 2 pm by-invitation-only ceremony will also include presentation of the 4th Annual Dorothy Loudon Award for Excellence.

The 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 will be held Tuesday, June 5th, 2012 at 2:00 PM at an invitation-only ceremony in NYC. Well-known theatre journalist Peter Filichia will again host; Barry Keating will direct, and Mary K. Botosan and Erin Oestreich are the event’s producers.

First presented in 1945, the prestigious and much-loved 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.

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 67: 2010-2011, the most complete pictorial and statistical record of the American theatre season, is currently available at all major booksellers and online.

The Theatre World Award Board of Directors is: Barry Keating (President and Director), Erin Oestreich (Vice-President and Producer), Tabitha Falcone (Treasurer), Mary K. Botosan (Co-Secretary and Producer), Alden Fulcomer (Co-Secretary), Dale Badway, Kimothy Cruse, Tom Lynch (Founding Board member), Lisa Rothe and Stephen Wilde. For more information about the Theatre World Awards (including a list of past recipients), visit www.theatreworldawards.org.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.