A Brief History of the Theatre World Award

The Theatre World Awards are presented annually at the end of the theatre season to six actors and six actresses for their significant debut performances in a Broadway or Off-Broadway production. The ceremony is a private, invitation-only event followed by an afternoon party to celebrate the new honorees and welcome them to the Theatre World “family.” In what has become a highly entertaining and often touching tradition, 12 former winners serve as the presenters, and often relive moments from past ceremonies and share wonderful stories rarely heard at other theatrical awards.

In 1944, three young men who loved theatre, Daniel Blum, Norman McDonald, and John Willis, came up with the idea of a yearly celebration that would acknowledge "Promising Personalities"—twelve debut performances by actors appearing on Broadway. In the beginning, the ceremony was a simple cocktail party among friends in Daniel Blum’s sumptuous apartment with Blum presenting the award. In the first two years alone, a nod was given to performances by Betty Comden, Judy Holliday, and John Raitt, joined the following year by Barbara Bel Geddes, Marlon Brando, and Burt Lancaster.

At the 1949 party, Carol Channing won. A couple of years later she said to other “Promising Personalities” winners who were all attending a cocktail party prior to the one at Daniel’s, “We’d better get over to Daniel’s and support that Award because otherwise no one is gonna know who we are sixty years from now.”

As Off-Broadway became a potent force in New York theatre life, performances there became eligible for recognition as well as Broadway. Later, special awards would occasionally be presented to an entire cast of a production, or to an individual or organization that had made an outstanding contribution to the theatre that season.

It wasn’t until 1969 that the award became known officially as the Theatre World Award. The first awards were a framed certificate and then a plaque. The beautiful bronze Janus Award, sculpted by internationally recognized sculptor Harry Marinsky, made its debut at the 1973 Theatre World Awards ceremony, and is still used today.

Upon Daniel Blum’s death in 1964, John Willis inherited the entire responsibility for the Award. For the next 30 years, with an occasional assistant, he single-handedly kept the Theatre World Awards alive by hosting the annual party, often with Carol Channing acting as the sole presenter as late as 1971. Then Robert Morse, Colleen Dewhurst, Julie Harris, and Rosemary Harris followed. At the 1976 ceremony, John invited twelve former winners and each in tern presented to a newcomer. And thus began the ritual of presenters entertaining the audience with anecdotes about how they won or what the Award had come to mean to them.

As the years went by and the number of former winners increased, the ceremony outgrew John’s apartment. It eventually moved to the Gotham Hotel in the 1970’s and the Hotel St. Regis ballroom in the 1980’s. In 1990 the ceremony was held at the Roundabout Theatre Company, whose home base then was the Union Square Theatre. The Roundabout housed several of the ceremonies through the next sixteen years, at their former home at the Criterion Center, and eventually at Studio 54, which served as the venue for the Awards from 2000–2006. In 2007 the ceremony was held at New World Stages, New York’s first Off-Broadway “multi-plex,” and the 2008 ceremony was held at the beautifully refurbished Helen Hayes Theatre.

At the ceremony, the former winners who were selected to present for that year would gather at a long table on the stage and, one-by-one, present the awards to the winners. John Willis joined them at the table and served as host for the ceremonies until the mid 90s, creating a relaxed party atmosphere for the event. In recent years, the ceremony has included former winners returning to provide entertainment, sometimes singing a song from the show from which they won their Theatre World Award.

As the Awards continued to grow, the need to invite members of the press and media became apparent. So, while remaining an intimate gathering for those in attendance, the outside world now gets a small peek at the event through various media and online outlets, including cable television’s Broadway Beat, New York 1’s On Stage, Broadwayworld.com, Theatremania, and Playbill. As the venue grew in size, winners were able to bring more family, friends, agents and managers to witness the celebration of their induction to the Theatre World family.

John also instituted a tradition of beloved birthday cards, sending one to every winner each year. Every year presenters would mention how they cherished receiving it. One said, “John even found me when my own mother couldn’t. I was entertaining on a cruise ship in the Sea of Saipan!” The birthday cards secured John’s idea of the Theatre World Award winners being a family. Winners return year after year to the annual ceremony to see one another and to celebrate those newly honored.

At the 50th Ceremony in 1994, Patricia Elliott (1973) was presenting. She and others, including Bernadette Peters (1968), Lonny Price (1980), and Walter Willison (1971) had been concerned for sometime about preserving John Willis’s legacy as John would soon be 80 and was hoping to retire. Before presenting, Patricia suggested that the winners could give John one big “Birthday Card” by annual contributions to his legacy. The standing ovation for John eventually led to the formation of the current not-for-profit Theatre World Awards, Inc., formed by Patricia on May 17, 1997 with the help of Tom Lynch (Theatre World publication and current board member) and Marianne Tatum (1980).

To find someone with John’s gentlemanly demeanor and elegant presence as host to the Awards was not so easy. On a tip from Walter Willison, Patricia called Peter Filichia, a theatre critic and an accomplished theatre archivist on his own. At the 54th ceremony in 1997, John passed his baton to Peter who, as host, has continued to match John’s personality, charming presence, wit and love of the theatre. And though John has retired from hosting the event, he still attends ceremony each year.

The contribution the Award has made to the theatre is incalculable. Winners through the years acknowledge that of all the awards, it is the one they most cherish because it is not a competition. It is freely given at a time when any kind of encouragement is welcome in an industry known more for rejection than reception. It is the award that often inspires one to “get up and go” when the going gets rough.

The Theatre World Awards are now voted on by a committee which includes Peter Filichia and six other New York theatre critics. The Awards are administered by a board of directors who also serve as the producers and directors of the annual event. Any actor appearing in their first major reviewable performance in a lead or supporting role in a Broadway or Off-Broadway show is eligible for consideration, even if an actor has previously appeared in a show in an ensemble or as a swing. Every year the ceremony is supported by previous winners, producers, and friends who generously contribute time and funds to bring the ceremony to fruition.

At the same time that Blum and Willis created their award, they also began the Theatre World publication. It evolved into the most comprehensive annual pictorial and statistical record of the American theatre. It includes not only the Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway season, but that of the regional theatres, major theatrical awards, complete coverage of the Theatre World Awards ceremony, and obituaries from that season as well. As reference books they are unparalleled. Through them one can charter the career progress of playwrights, actors, designers, producers, companies, et al. They represent undiscriminating documentation, and a celebration and preservation of precious theatre history.

John Willis, a Tennessee native, is a graduate of Milligan College and the University of Tennessee. He did graduate work at Indiana and Harvard Universities. He was formerly a teacher in the New York public high schools, and also served as editor of Dance World, Opera World, A Pictorial History of the American Theatre 1860–1985, and A Pictorial History of the Silent Screen. Previously, he served as assistant to Daniel Blum on Great Stars of the American Stage, Great Stars of Film, A Pictorial History of the Talkies, A Pictorial History of Television, and A Pictorial Treasury of Opera in America.

On behalf of Theatre World, Mr. Willis has received a 2001 Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre, the 2003 Broadway Theater Institute Lifetime Achievement Award, a 1994 special Drama Desk Award, and in 1993, the first Outstanding Special Lucille Lortel Award. On behalf of Screen World, he received the prestigious 1998 National Board of Review Wiliam K. Everson Award for Film History. He has also received a Professional Excellence Award from his alma mater, Milligan College.

John has served on the nominating committees of the Tony Awards and the New York University Musical Theatre Hall of Fame. He has also served on the national board of directors for the Clarence Brown Theatre at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN, as well as the past board of directors of the National Board of Review. In 1993, the auditorium in which he had performed as a high school student was renovated and christened the John Willis Performing Arts Center at Morristown-Hamblen High School East, in Morristown, TN. And in 2007, a classroom in the new Milligan College theatre complex was named in his honor.

Theatre World exists, gratefully, through the cooperation and generosity of all of the New York and regional companies’ press agents and publicists who provide the crucial data and photographs to complete the publication. Ben Hodges, a fellow Tennessee native and old family friend of the Willis family, currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Theatre World, published by Applause Theater and Cinema Books. Scott Denny serves as the Associate Editor.

Theatre World Award Fun Facts

“Sing Out, Louise”—The role of Gypsy Rose Lee in Gypsy has garnered three Theatre World Awards for the actresses who have portrayed her: Zan Charisse in the 1973 revival starring Angela Lansbury, Christa Moore in the 1990 revival starring Tyne Daly, and Tammy Blanchard in the 2003 revival starring Bernadette Peters.

“We Are a Family”—Several former Theatre World Award winners share family ties as well as this special award: Mother-Daughter: Rosemary Harris (The Climate of Eden, 1952) and Jennifer Ehle (The Real Thing, 2000); Meryl Streep (27 Wagons Full of Cotton, 1976) and Mamie Gummer (Mr. Marmalade, 2005); Carlin Glynn (The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, 1978) and Mary Stuart Masterson (Nine, 2003); Father-Daughter: Richard Burton (The Lady’s Not for Burning, 1951) and Kate Burton (Winners, 1983); Mother and Father-Daughter: Tammy Grimes (Look After Lulu, 1959), Christopher Plummer (The Dark is Light Enough, 1955) and Amanda Plummer (A Taste of Honey, 1981); Father-Son: Alan Arkin (Enter Laughing, 1963) and Adam Arkin (I Hate Hamlet, 1981); James Daly (Major Barbara and Mary Rose, 1951) and Tim Daly (Coastal Disturbances, 1987); Sisters: Ann Crowley (Carousel, 1947) and Patricia Crowley (Southern Exposure, 1951); Natasha Richardson (Anna Christie, 1993) and Joely Richardson (Madame Melville, 2001); Brother-Sister: Peter Fonda (Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole, 1962) and Jane Fonda (There Was a Little Girl, 1960).

“I Love My Wife”—Many of our previous Theatre World Award winners found true love: Charlton Heston (Design for a Stained Glass Window, 1950) and Lydia Clarke (Detective Story, 1950); Geraldine Page (Mid-Summer, 1953) and Rip Torn (Sweet Bird of Youth, 1959); James Earl Jones (Moon on a Rainbow Shawl, 1962) and Cecilia Hart (Dirty Linen, 1977); Warren Beatty (A Loss of Roses, 1960) and Annette Bening (Coastal Disturbances, 1987); Ed Harris (Precious Sons, 1986) and Amy Madigan (The Lucky Spot, 1987); Kevin Kilner (The Glass Menagerie, 1995) and Jordan Baker (Suddenly Last Summer, 1996); Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson (both in Anna Christie, 1993).

“My Boy Bill”...and Will—John Raitt (1945) and Michael Hayden (1994) both won Theatre World Awards for portraying the role of Billy Bigelow in Carousel. Harry Groener (1980) and Justin Bohon (2002) both won Theatre World Awards for the role of Will Parker in Oklahoma!

“Younger Than Springtime”—Our youngest Theatre World Award Winner was Conor Donovan (Privilege, 2005) who was only 10 when he received his award. Other winners who broke out early: Eddie Hodges, 11 (The Music Man, 1958); Jonathan Kaplan, 11 (Rags and Falsettos, 1992); Ralph Carter, 12 (Raisin, 1974); Mitchel David Federan, 12 (The Boy From Oz, 2004); Andrea McArdle, 13 (Annie, 1977); Martine Allard, 13 (The Tap Dance Kid, 1984); Carol Lynley, 15 (The Potting Shed, 1957); Patty Duke, 14 (The Miracle Worker, 1960); Bonnie Bedelia, 15 (My Sweet Charlie, 1967); Cynthia Nixon, 15 (The Philadelphia Story, 1981); Patricia Crowley, 16 (Southern Exposure, 1951); Michael Rupert, 16 (The Happy Time, 1968); Ann Crowley, 17 (Carousel, 1947); Lauri Peters, 17 (The Sound of Music, 1960); Liza Minnelli, 17 (Best Foot Forward); Kristofer Tabori, 17 (How Much How Much); Danielle Ferland, 17 (Into the Woods, 1988); and Linzi Hately, 17 (Carrie, 1988).

“No One Mourns the Wicked”—At the 2006 ceremony, Ralph Fiennes (Hamlet, 1995), who plays the evil Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films, presented the Theatre World Award to his Faith Healer cast member Ian McDiarmid, who portrayed the sinister Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars films. Incidentally, Richard Griffiths, who co-stars with Fiennes in the Potter films as Uncle Vernon, received a Theatre World Award also that year for his performance in The History Boys.

“How to Succeed...”—Some winners have won the Award as a replacement cast member in a long-running production: Dorothea MacFarland (Oklahoma!, 1947); Ann Crowley (Carousel, 1947); Sheila Smith (Mame, 1967); Ute Lemper (Chicago, 1999); Reba McEntire (Annie Get Your Gun, 2001); and Fantasia (The Color Purple, 2007).

To learn about the Theatre World book, which includes coverage of the annual Theatre World Awards ceremony, click on the Applause Theatre and Cinema Books link below.
Purchases of Theatre World publications do not benefit the Theatre World Awards, Inc.