Awards season is upon us! On Sunday, May 6, we had the privilege of attending the Lucille Lortel Awards at the Skirball Center of Performing Arts at New York University. The unique and celebratory awards ceremony highlighted the best of Off-Broadway from the past season.
Despite the “off”, automatically denoting the level of professional theatre, unfairly negating it to its fancy uptown cousin, Off-Broadway theatre is where most theatrical risks are taken creatively and new works are born. The appeal of risk and true art draws in a lot of celebs including Tina Fey and Zachary Quinto (among others), both who presented at the Lortel Awards to honor these diligent and fantastic artists.
Co-hosted by Laura Benanti and Jeremy Shamos of Broadway’s Meteor Shower (also starred Keegan-Michael Key and Amy Schumer), their friendly banter was entertaining and comical. Let’s be honest, it’s hard to keep the attention of New York actors for a 3.5+ hour awards show. They took jabs at the difference between Broadway and Off-Broadway — Benanti, being a several time nominee and Tony Winner (for Gypsy in 2008) and Shamos being a Lortel winner (2014 for Dinner with Friends); they used this a running joke to re-visit to when they needed material in between awards.
The competition in the Off-Broadway world this year was fiercely competitive with big names and original works taking the Off-Broadway stage this past season. In the musical categories, the big winner was KPOP, which won Outstanding Musical. KPOP is an original piece of immersive theatre that explores a Korean pop music factory where stars are made or broken. The musical stars Mean Girls on Broadway’s Ashley Park, who won the Lortel for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical. Her fellow Broadway plastics were there to cheer her on the entire night!
The play category was a bit more intense and the award for Outstanding Play was a two-way tie between School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play written by Jocelyn Bioh and Cost of Living written by Martyna Majok.
We had the opportunity to speak with first time nominee for playwriting, Bioh, about her nomination and the entire production process, which started about 10 years ago. “Honestly, I’m so grateful that the play [School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play] that this is just like, icing, cherry, on like the sweetest cake ever. So I really feel unbelievably honored and humbled.” The play was produced by MCC and directed by Indecent alum, Rebecca Taichman. School Girls was nominated for five (5 ) Lortel awards this year, with Mirirai Sithole winning in the Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play and Dede M. Ayite for Outstanding Costume Design categories.
Cost of Living was produced by Manhattan Theatre Club in association with Williamstown Theatre Festival and was nominated for three (3) Lortel awards this past season. In addition to the tie for Outstanding Play, Gregg Mozgala won for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play.
Perhaps the biggest snub of the night was the general lack of wins for Jerry Springer – The Opera, an audience favorite. The creative and explosive piece explores our cultural obsession with reality shows and other peoples’ (un) happiness. Described by Lortel nominee for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play, Terrence Mann, Jerry Springer – The Opera was “an extraordinary event…it was all of these disparate parts of theatre that come together, satire and reality show stuff and Jerry Springer, you know, kinda like holding ourselves up to the mirror and the light in such an awkward and horrible way and yet elevating it to that operatic sense of what’s important and what’s not. I think the thing that was brilliant about it was that he [Richard Thomas] did this all so satirically, but kept it also sincere.” Jerry Springer – The Opera was nominated for four (4) Lortel awards this season and Tiffany Mann was the sole win for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical.
Big winners included Harry Clarke, which won for Outstanding Solo Show, beating out Who’s Holiday. Harry Clarke also won for Outstanding Lighting Design. We had the opportunity to connect with both writer, David Cale and Lighting Designer, Alan C. Edwards. Both were thrilled to be part of the process of this supercharged and buzzed show. Edwards described the show as “a big thing to bite off and chew on” and was “over the moon” with merely the nomination. Cale attributed a lot of the success of the show to Billy Crudup’s award-winning performance. “I wasn’t quite sure what I had until I heard Billy start to rehearse it.”
Other highlights included Eve Ensler, writer of The Vagina Monologues receiving the much deserved Lifetime Achievement award, and celebrating 20 years of Hedwig and the Angry Inch with a performance from the show’s original creative team. Among big Broadway name presenters were Andrew Rannells, Patti Murin, Will Roland, and Carol Kane (who briefly reprised her Madame Morrible voice). A fun, celebratory night was had by all!
For a full list of this year’s Lucille Lortel winners, please visit: http://www.lortelaward.com/2018nominees.htm