Posted: 6/6/17 at 8:33pm
It's always such a heartfelt, genuine evening of appreciation and love of theater. You can tell it's a labor of love for the awards committee and the board. Host Peter Filichia's insights and witticisms about the season's shows and performers carried the evening at the Imperial along at a nice clip. How great to see Dave Malloy and Katrina Link earn special awards and to see all the other award winners -- including Carlo Alban, Christy Altomare, Denee Benton, Jeremy Secomb, Jon Jon Brioines -- recognized for their outstanding debuts on either Broadway or Off-Broadway. Recipient Cobie Smulders was so moved by realizing her dream to be on Broadway that she was brought to tears. Plus Len Cariou delivered a delightful number from his "Broadway and the Bard," segueing from a Henry V speech to the title tune from "Applause." And it was great to see the cast (mostly the understudies, I think) of "Great Comet" do the "Letters" number in their home theater. Benjamin Scheuer also delivered a beautiful song about immigrants.
