STAGE TUBE: Julie Halston, Everett Quinton Accept Alliance Awards

The Off Broadway Alliance, the organization of Off Broadway producers, theaters, general managers, press agents and marketing firms, presented the inaugural Off Broadway Alliance Awards Reception June 21, 2011 at Sardi's. Honorees were on hand to receive their awards and Romulus Linney, Ellen Stewart and Lanford Wilson were posthumously inducted into the Off Broadway Hall of Fame. 

Among the attendees were Legend of Off Broadway honorees Charles Busch, Julie Halston, Tom Jones, Everett Quinton and Blue Man Group. Tanya Berezin, a founder of Circle Repertory Theater, will posthumously honor Off Broadway Hall of Fame inductee Lanford Wilson and Laura Callanan will posthumously honor her husband, Hall of Fame inductee Romulus Linney.

Click below to check out the acceptance speeches from Halston and Quinton!

Other honorees included producer Tom D'Angora and Christine Pedi accepting the award for Best New Musical for NEWSical the Musical: Full Spin Ahead; Playwright Mark St. Germain and the cast of Freud's Last Session accepting the award for Best New Play; Lori Fineman, executive director of The Transport Group, accepting the award for Best Musical Revival for Hello Again; Punchdrunk accepting their award for Best Unique Theatrical Event for Sleep No More; and Colin Lewellyn and Danielle Pakradooni, who accepted the Best Long-Running Show Award for Blue Man Group.

Other distinguished guests included The Book of Mormon's Andrew Rannells and Lewis Cleale as well as Rita Gardner and Blaire Stauffer - the original Luisa and Mute in the 1960 company of The Fantasticks.

The awards honored outstanding achievement in Off Broadway theater for the 2010-2011 season.

The Off Broadway Alliance is a non-profit corporation organized by theater professionals dedicated to supporting, promoting and encouraging the production of Off Broadway theater and to making live theater increasingly accessible to new and diverse audiences. The Alliance holds monthly meetings and membership is open to everyone in the Off Broadway theater community.

Among its initiatives, The Off Broadway Alliance founded and sponsors 20at20, the biannual event where you can buy $20 tickets to dozens of Off Broadway shows twenty minutes before curtain. It produces a free Seminar Series focusing on the culture, business and history of Off Broadway featuring major players from the Off Broadway scene. It also administers the free "This Day in Off Broadway History" online calendar. The Alliance released the first ever Off Broadway Economic Impact Report, which detailed Off Broadway's $461 million annual impact on the economy of the City of New York.