The annual Helen Hayes Awards crowned the best of local theater Sunday night at The Anthem in Southwest, D.C.
Over 1,600 theater creators and supporters attended the event, which included performances by Quadry Brown, Carolyn Burke, Drake Leach, Kanysha Williams, Michael Urie, Frenchie Davis and Solomon Parker III.
Judges considered 39 musicals and 97 plays, including 38 world premieres. Winners were divided into “Hayes” for Equity (majority union) casts and “Helen” for non-Equity casts (majority nonunion) to delineate the level of production resources.
On the Equity side, Outstanding Musical went to Signature Theatre’s production of “The Color Purple,” while Outstanding Play went to Studio Theatre’s re-examination of “The Crucible” in “John Proctor is the Villain.”
On the non-Equity side, Outstanding Play went to Synetic Theater’s “Host & Guest,” while Outstanding Musical went to GALA Hispanic Theatre’s “On Your Feet! The Story of Emilio & Gloria Estefan.”
Overall, GALA Hispanic Theatre won the most with 11 total awards, followed by Signature Theatre with six awards (“The Color Purple,” “She Loves Me”), Olney Theatre with five (“The Music Man,” “The Joy That Carries You,” “A.D. 16”) and Round House Theatre with five (“The Tempest,” “We Declare You a Terrorist …”).
Synetic Theater won three awards (“Host & Guest”), The Kennedy Center won three (“Guys and Dolls”), Prologue Theatre won two (“The Revolutionists”), Studio Theatre won two (“John Proctor is the Villain”), Keegan Theatre won two (“The Outsider”), Toby’s Dinner Theatre won two (“Monty Python’s Spamalot,” “The SpongeBob Musical”) and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company won two (“There’s Always the Hudson,” Tony nominee “Ain’t No Mo”).
Single wins went to Imagination Stage (“Naked Mole Rat”), Monumental Theatre (“Tick, Tick … Boom!”), Mosaic Theatre (“The Ballad of Emmett Till”), Perisphere Theater (“Blue Door”), Shakespeare Theatre Company (“The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci”), Theater Alliance (“Poetry for the People”) and Theater J (“Fires in the Mirror”).
See the full list of winners here.
