Jessie Mueller, Kathy Najimy & More Added to 2016 Lilly Awards Honoree List; Lupita Nyong'o, Gloria Steinem & More Will Present

The 7th Annual Lilly Awards Ceremony, which celebrates women of distinction in the American Theater, have added honorees to the special awards ceremony, including Tony Award-winner and 2016 Tony Award nominee Jessie Mueller, Kathy Najimy, Genne Murphy, Candis Jones, Rehana Lew Mirza, and the women of Waking the Feminists. They join previously announced honorees include Danai Gurira, Martha Plimpton, Kate Whoriskey, and Mia Katigbak. The Lilly Awards will be presented Monday, May 23, at the Signature Theatre (480 West 42nd St).

Writer, political activist, and feminist organizer, Gloria Steinem, along with Academy Award-winner and 2016 Tony Award nominee Lupita Nyong'o and the women of Eclipsed, will be on hand to present awards to some of these exceptional honorees. Other presenters include Lloyd Suh, Russell G. Jones, Rachel Chavkin, and Neena Beeber. The Lilly Awards will also recognize Norbert Leo Butz and his organization, The Angel Band Project, as well as boast special musical performances by Rebecca Naomi Jones, Amanda Green, and Georgia Stitt.

The Lilly Awards will honor the extraordinary contributions made to the American Theater by women, as well as announce the $25,000 Stacey Mindich Prize, which funds a new work by a female playwright, and the Leah Ryan Prize, which awards an annual cash prize to an emerging woman playwright and produces a reading of the winning play in New York City.

To reserve tickets to the event, please click here: bit.ly/7thLillys. After party to follow, sponsored by Dramatists Play Service and The Interval.

The Lilly Awards were started in the Spring of 2010 as a way to honor the work of women in the American Theater. The founders of The Lillys are Julia Jordan, Marsha Norman and Theresa Rebeck. The awards are named for Lillian Hellman, a pioneering American playwright who famously said "You need to write like the devil and act like one too when necessary."

Previous winners who have received the Lilly Award include Mary Rodgers, Dominique Morisseau, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Jeanine Tesori, Liesl Tommy, Kelli O'Hara, Pam MacKinnon, Leigh Silverman, Anne Kauffman, Sarah Ruhl, Kristin Chenoweth, Annie Baker, Susan Stroman, Lynn Ahrens, Tina Fallon, Amy Herzog, Nina Arianda, Diane Paulus, Katori Hall, Tina Howe, Estelle Parsons, Lynne Meadow, Ntozake Shange, Jessica Hecht, and Lois Smith.

For additional information about the Lilly Awards (including a list of all past recipients), visit www.thelillyawards.org.