The 2017 New York theater season continues its steady march towards the June 11 Tony Awards, with today’s announcement of the Outer Critics Circle Awards. New musical “Come From Away” and the hit revival of “Hello, Dolly!” each landed five nominations including best new musical and musical revival, respectively, an auspicious sign of things to come at other awards ceremonies.
The association made up of representatives from almost 100 newspapers, magazines, websites, and more, will honor the best of both Broadway and Off-Broadway in the 2016–17 season at the 67th Annual Outer Critics Circle Awards ceremony May 25 at Sardi’s Restaurant. Serving as the gala’s presenters will be Broadway legends Danny Burstein, Katie Finneran, and Christopher Fitzgerald.
Winning top Off-Broadway honors were David Yazbek and Itamar Moses’ new musical “The Band’s Visit” and Steven Levenson’s play “If I Forget.” J. T. Rogers’ “Oslo,” which also just fared well at the Lucille Lortel Awards, earned the award for best new Broadway play (last year’s winner, “The Humans,” went on to win the Tony as well). Because the Outer Critics Circle evaluated “Dear Evan Hansen,” “In Transit,” “Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812,” and “Significant Other” in previous seasons, the Broadway runs of those shows were not considered this year. This allowed big wins for newcomer “Come From Away,” Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s musical retelling of the 38 planes that landed in Gander, Newfoundland in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.
Bette Midler and Gavin Creel, two stars from “Hello, Dolly!”, earned acting honors from the organization, as did leading actor Andy Karl of “Groundhog Day” and featured actress Jenn Colella of “Come From Away.” In the play categories, Kevin Kline of “Present Laughter” and Danny DeVito of “The Price” were honored, as were both Laura Linney and Cynthia Nixon for “Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes.” All of this year’s acting winners are also up for Tony Awards.
READ: Everything You Need to Know About the 2017 Tony Awards
As was previously announced, this year’s John Gassner Award, given to an American play preferably by a new playwright, went to Bess Wohl for her critical smash “Small Mouth Sounds.”
For a full list of Outer Critics Circle nominees and winners, visit outercritics.org.
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