The winners of the 2022 Outer Critics Circle Awards, honoring the outstanding Broadway and off-Broadway productions of the 2021-2022 season, received their awards certificates and a bottle of Santa Marina Prosecco Rosè during a ceremony held in the Bruno Walter Auditorium at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center on May 26.
Outer Critics Circle President David Gordon emceed the ceremony. Photo by Lia Chang
Outer Critics Circle President David Gordon emceed the event, with Michael Levine on the keys.
André De Shields. Photo by Lia Chang
Tony, Grammy and Emmy winning Hadestown star André De Shields, Tony winner Beth Leavel and Wicked star Brittney Johnson were among the presenters.
De Shields plays his final performance in Hadestown on May 29. He’ll return to Broadway in the Fall with Wendell Pierce and Sharon D. Clarke in Death of Salesman. He can currently be seen as Purple Presley in Season 3 of Apple TV+ HELPSTERS. You can catch him on PBS, beginning Wednesday, June 4 in the TRUE COLORS LGBTQ+ Our Stories, Our Songs Concert with Maestro Luke Frazier’s American Pops Orchestra. On Sunday, June 12 at 2:00pm, the 2022 Tribeca Festival™ Storyteller Series is presenting Tony winner Cynthia Erivo Goes Back to Broadway, an intimate conversation between Ms. Erivo and Tony, Grammy and Emmy winning Hadestown star André De Shields as they discuss Broadway’s comeback, at The Indeed Theater at Spring Studios, 50 Varick St. in New York. On Monday, June 13, he’ll receive the Red Bull Theater’s Matador Award for Achievement in Classical Theater at the REVELRY Benefit Gala; and on Sunday, June 19, he will perform in his solo show, André De Shields is Frederick Douglass: Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory at Flushing Town Hall. This summer, he will star in a limited run of the World Premiere of Matthew Lombardo’s When Playwrights Kill at The Bushnell’s Belding Theatre.
THE LEHMAN TRILOGY Producer Caro Newling. Photo by Lia Chang
The Lehman Trilogy‘s Producer Caro Newling, accepted on behalf of the production’s six wins in the categories of Outstanding New Broadway Play, Outstanding Director of a Play for Sam Mendes, Outstanding Lighting Design for Jon Clark, Outstanding Sound Design for Nick Powell and Dominic Bilkey, and Outstanding Video/Projection Design for Luke Halls.
Kimberly Akimbo won four awards including Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical, Outstanding Actress in a Musical for Victoria Clark, Outstanding Director of a Musical for Jessica Stone, and Outstanding Book of a Musical for David Lindsay-Abaire.
David Lindsay-Abaire. Photo by Lia Chang
Six took home the Marjorie Gunner Award for Outstanding New Broadway Musical and also scored in the categories of Outstanding Score for Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, and Outstanding Costume Design (Play or Musical) for Gabriella Slade.
Gabriella Slade’s assistants, John Kristiansen and Lisa Zinni, accepted on her behalf. Photo by Lia Chang
Sanaz Toossi received the annual John Gassner Award – for a new American play, preferably by a new playwright – for the Atlantic Theater and Roundabout Theatre Company’s co-production of her play, English.
Sanaz Toossi received the annual John Gassner Award for her play, ENGLISH. Photo by Lia Chang
Atlantic Theater Company’s Artistic Director Neil Pepe and Managing Director Jeffory Lawson. Photo by Lia Chang
Special Achievement Awards were presented to Ruben Santiago-Hudson for Lackawanna Blues, and Johanna Day, David Morse, and Mary-Louise Parker for How I Learned to Drive. All had been eligible in previous years and reprised their outstanding performances two decades later as part of this season.
Ruben Santiago Hudson. Photo by Lia Chang
André De Shields and Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Photo by Lia Chang
On Day 26 of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage, I was able to celebrate Kristina Wong, who received the 2022 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for New York Theatre Workshop’s Off-Broadway premiere of Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord, directed by Chay Yew.
Kristina Wong. Photo by Lia Chang
She was named a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, received the 2022 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show, a 2022 EWP’s Vision Award, and has been nominated for a 2022 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Solo Performance, and a 2022 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance.
The full list of recipients is below:
The Marjorie Gunner Award for Outstanding New Broadway Musical
Six
Outstanding New Broadway Play
The Lehman Trilogy
Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical
Kimberly Akimbo
Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play
Prayer for the French Republic
John Gassner Award
(presented to a new American play, preferably by a new playwright)
English by Sanaz Toossi
Outstanding Revival of a Musical (Broadway or Off-Broadway)
Company
Outstanding Revival of a Play (Broadway or Off-Broadway)
Take Me Out
Outstanding Actor in a Musical
Jaquel Spivey, A Strange Loop
Jaquel Spivey. Photo by Lia Chang
Outstanding Actress in a Musical
Victoria Clark, Kimberly Akimbo
Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical
Matt Doyle, Company
Matt Doyle. Photo by Lia Chang
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical
Patti LuPone, Company
Outstanding Actor in a Play
Simon Russell Beale, The Lehman Trilogy
Outstanding Actress in a Play
LaChanze, Trouble in Mind
LaChanze and Jaquel Spivey. Photo by Lia Chang
Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Take Me Out
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play
Uzo Aduba, Clyde’s
Uzo Aduba and Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Photo by Lia Chang
Outstanding Solo Performance
Kristina Wong, Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord
Kristina Wong. Photo by Lia Chang
Kristina Wong and André De Shields. Photo by Lia Chang
Kristina Wong with her manager, Lilian LaSalle. Photo by Lia Chang
Outstanding Director of a Play
Sam Mendes, The Lehman Trilogy
Outstanding Director of a Musical
Jessica Stone, Kimberly Akimbo
Outstanding Choreography
Christopher Wheeldon and Rich and Tone Talauega, MJ
Outstanding Book of a Musical
David Lindsay-Abaire, Kimberly Akimbo
David Lindsay-Abaire. Photo by Lia Chang
Outstanding Score
Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, Six
Outstanding Orchestrations
Jason Howland, Paradise Square
Outstanding Scenic Design (Play or Musical)
Adam Rigg, The Skin of Our Teeth
Anton Volovsek accepted the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Scenic Design for THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH’s Adam Rigg. Photo by Lia Chang
Outstanding Costume Design (Play or Musical)
Gabriella Slade, Six
Outstanding Lighting Design (Play or Musical)
Jon Clark, The Lehman Trilogy
Outstanding Sound Design (Play or Musical)
Nick Powell and Dominic Bilkey, The Lehman Trilogy
Outstanding Video/Projection Design (Play or Musical)
Luke Halls, The Lehman Trilogy
Outer Critics Circle Commendations were presented to:
• The Standbys, Understudies, and Swings of the theatrical community who step up to perform, often on hours’ notice, to keep their shows running.
• The Covid Safety Supervisors, Managers, and Compliance Officers who put themselves in harm’s way eight times a week to keep the curtains up.
Lia Chang is an actor, a multi-media content producer, a performing arts photographer and an award-winning filmmaker. A co-founder of Bev’s Girl Films, Lia makes films that foster inclusion and diversity on both sides of the camera. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, and The Last Dragon. She stars in and is the Executive Producer for the indie films Hide and Seek (AA Film Lab’s 2015 72 Hour Shootout Best Actress Nomination), Rom-Com Gone Wrong, and When the World Was Young (2021 DisOrient Film Audience Choice Award for Best Short Narrative). Lia made her stage debut as Liat in a national tour of South Pacific with Barbara Eden and Robert Goulet, was featured as Joy in Signature Theatre’s revival of Sam Shepard’s Chicago and has worked extensively Off-Broadway. Photo archives: Lia Chang Theater Portfolio collection,1989-2011, housed in the AAPI collection in the Library of Congress’ Asian Reading Room; Lia Chang Photography Collection in The Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library. Awards: 2022 Prospect Muse Award, 2000 OCA Chinese American Journalist Award, the 2001 AAJA National Award for New Media. Lia is an AAJA Executive Leadership Graduate (2000), a Western Knight Fellow at USC’s Annenberg College of Communications for Specialized Journalism on Entertainment Journalism in the Digital Age (2000), a National Press Photographers Association Visual Edge/Visual Journalism Fellow at the Poynter Institute for New Media (2001), a Scripps Howard New Media Fellow at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism (2002), and a National Tropical Garden Environmental Journalism Fellow (2003). www.liachang.com, www.liachangphotography.com
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