Who Decides the Lucille Lortel and Obie Awards?

This week for the award show series, I look at two award shows that do not consider Broadway: the Lucille Lortel Awards and the Obie Awards. 

The Lucille Lortel Awards are the only awards to deal with solely off-Broadway. The Lortels, which feature performance nominations irrespective of gender, have fairly typical categories. Nominations have already been announced with winners coming May 5. 

Unlike the other shows I’ve covered, the Lortels have one committee–this season it has 22 members–that does both the nominating and voting for the competitive categories. (An Administrative Committee decides three honorary awards.) The nominating/voting committee is made up of representatives of the Off-Broadway League, Actors’ Equity Association, Stage Directors & Choreographers Society, United Scenic Artists, the Lucille Lortel Theatre, in addition to theater journalists, academics, and other off-Broadway professionals. Members are required to see all the eligible shows. This season there were 75 eligible productions. In order for a show to be eligible, it has to be presented by a member of the Off-Broadway League and meet certain criteria related to performance number, invitations to committee members, etc. So, basically, Tony rules, except for off-Broadway.

Shows register for Lortel eligibility and, when they do, they provide a list of all the people eligible in each of the award show categories. “That information is compiled into a series of very long lists,” said George Forbes, Executive Director of the Lortel Foundations. “Those lists are all sent to the nominators. The nominators are then asked to provide us with up to two choices for each category.”

Each nominator’s top two choices form a short list that serves as the jumping-off point for the nomination meeting. According to Forbes, when the conversation begins for each category, nominators are given the option of adding to the list. Each nominator is asked to speak about their nomination choices. Then there is a vote. Every nominator gets to vote for up to the ultimate number of nominees in a given category (so seven for performance categories, five for most others). According to Forbes, these are tallied to come up with the nominees. If there are ties for the final slots, there are runoffs until the final list is compiled. The process is all done on Google Forms, enabling quick vote tabulation and form modification.

This same group votes for the winners. They can vote for up to three choices on a weighted weighted ballot with their first choice getting three points, the second choice getting two, third choice getting one point. Top point-getters win. If there is a tie, more than one person gets the honor. 

The group finds out the winners at the award show. “We're surprised," Forbes said. “Could you imagine how awful it would be if I knew in advance? I'm out there talking to everybody and wishing them luck. I'm not a good liar.”

The Obies, which are now presented solely by the American Theatre Wing (which co-presents the Tonys), have a looser process with categories varying from year to year. There are no nominations–each season multiple winners are announced in whatever category the judges choose to award Obies in that season. Earlier this year, the Obies announced it would begin eschewing an awards ceremony and instead bestow winners with grants ranging from $1,000-5,000. The Obies are also different for another reason: eligibility for the Obies doesn’t end until the end of August this year, so they are not given during the spring award crunch. 

Off and off-off-Broadway productions submit for consideration to the Obies and fill out a form, similar to the Lortels. This season the judging committee is writer/director/performer Aya Ogawa, writer/performer David Greenspan, Playbill Editor in Chief Diep Tran, actor Heather Alicia Simms, writer/performer Modesto “Flako” Jimenez, wig designer and performer Nikiya Mathis, writer/performer Ryan J. Haddad, director Taylor Reynolds, scenic designer Wilson Chin, and playwright Haruna Lee. These folks don’t have to see every eligible show, but they each see many. They meet several times over the season to discuss what should be recognized. Their discussion forms a ballot and then that ballot is used to decide the winners in the competitive categories.  

Given that the award shows that include Broadway often focus on Broadway, these award shows are important in honoring the rest of the theatrical landscape. 

Industry Trends Weekly is a short column that runs in the weekly Industry Pro Newsletter. To read past columns and subscribe click here. If you have an idea for the column, you can reach the author at cara@broadwayworld.com.