To borrow a note from last Broadway season’s megahit revival of Hello Dolly, there was certainly no blue Monday in your Sunday clothes on Monday, May 14th. Traditionally a “dark” day for most theatrical organizations, the DC theatrical community was alive and vibrant as they decked themselves out in their hippest, finest, and most flamboyant attire to celebrate the best of DC theatre for the 2018 Helen Hayes Awards. Continuing its three-plus decade custom of honoring excellence in professional DC theatre, with categories for equity (the Hayes Awards), non-equity (the Helen Awards), and touring productions, sponsor organization theatreWashington saluted a bumper year of theatrical arts and embraced its advances in gender and ethnic diversity.
Helen Hayes (1900-1993), warmly considered “the First Lady of American Theatre”, saw her first play at DC’s National Theatre at the age of 5, made her professional stage debut at the age of 9, and her Broadway debut later that year. She also has the distinction of being one of the first artists, who to date only number 12, to complete the exclusive EGOT cycle. She was the recipient of the first Tony award for Best Actress in a Play (plus two others and two honorary Tonys over her career) two Oscars (Best Actress for The Sin of Madelon Claudet and Best Supporting Actress for Airport), a Best Actress Emmy, and a Best Spoken Word Grammy, as well as receiving the Kennedy Centers and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She presided over the first (then named) Washington Theater Awards Society ceremony bearing her name, and the awards for Best Original New Play or Musical and Best Supporting Actor in a Play in both categories are named in honor of her late husband, playwright (The Front Page) and screen writer (Wuthering Heights, Gunga Din) Charles MacArthur, and son, James MacArthur (Hawaii Five-O), respectively.
An estimated 1800 performers, production staff, producers, fans, and benefactors descended upon the cavernous Anthem Theatre in Northeast DC’s wharf district near regional anchor Arena Stage. The evening was, as all awards ceremonies are, unapologetically long (slated for 2 hours but clocking in at 3 hours and 20 minutes), eventually predictable, congratulatory and (more accurately) self-congratulatory, yet it was peppered with a mix of all the spontaneity and verve that makes live theatre the thrilling entity it is. Co-hosts Alyssa Wilmoth Keegan and Michael J. Bobbitt got the evening off on a bright note with their upbeat opening number, an adaptation of Cabaret’s “Wilkommen” (“im Helen Hayes, au Helen Hayes, to Helen Hayes”), and did their best to keep the ball rolling at the best pace allowable. There were some rocky moments that followed in the first few categories. The winners of the first two awards of the evening, the namesake James MacArthur awards presented by his widow H.B. MacArthur, were no-shows to accept the honors from Miss Hayes’ daughter-in-law (as well as numerous others throughout), the envelope for best choreography winner wasn’t given to the presenter, and the award for Best Choreography in the Hayes category was announced only to be corrected mid-receipt that it was in fact a tie. Bookending this confusion in the final segment was a moment that threatened to rival the Moonlight Oscar night debacle, when theatreWashington founder Victor Shargai, after praising DC as the “greatest theatre town in the world”, commenced presenting all the final best production awards of the evening, only to lose track of the sequence of envelopes of nominees and winners provided him, requiring the assistance of a stage manager to sort it out on stage in real time. But one unforgivable technical glitch occurred during the presentation of Best Supporting Actor in a Musical, Helen category. Each award utilized a powerpoint display reminiscent of the televised ceremonies, showing a picture of each nominee as they were announced followed by the winner’s name and, in a much appreciated twist, their thanks all on one slide to (theoretically) cut down on running time. But with this award, before the presenter could announce the second nominee, the powerpoint zipped through the remaining slides to the winner, ruining the evening a bit for four other gentlemen, robbing them of their moment of acknowledgement. But….live theatre!!
These flaws were however balanced by exuberant speeches of love, acceptance, camaraderie, and celebration of how far socially and artistically the arts have advanced in recent years. The highlight of the evening was a well-deserved Helen Hayes Tribute Award to honor veteran DC actress Nancy Robinette, whose career has spanned nearly four decades in every major area venue including Shakespeare Theatre Company, Studio Theatre, Arena Stage, Round House Theatre, Signature Theatre, and Wooly Mammoth Theatre, as well as her Broadway debut in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night in 2016. Signature Theatre staples vocalist Natascia Diaz and guitarist Vincent Kempski, performed a touching tribute over the in memoriam segment of the ceremony. Several firsts occurred throughout the evening culminating in a record setting nine wins for the GALA Hispanic Theatre’s lauded production of In the Heights. Other firsts included Hayes Best Lead Actor in a Musical co-winner Kevin McAllister (who tied with Arena Stage’s Blakely Slaybaugh for The Pajama Game) becoming the first actor to win in both categories for portraying the same role (Colehouse Walker in Ragtime for Toby’s Dinner Theatre in the Helen category in 2016, and in Ford’s Theatre’s production this year), and the first time the same show took the top honor in both categories in a single year (GALA Hispanic Theatre in the Helen and Olney Theatre Center/Round House Theatre’s joint production in the Hayes for Best Musical In the Heights). Another first (and probable last) was a tie for Best Performer in a Visiting Production wherein two actresses won the same category in the same year for portraying the same character. Co-winners Alessandra Baldacchino and Abby Corrigan both portrayed graphic artist Alison Bechdel (as a child and college student respectively) in the national tour of Fun Home at the National Theatre. Other major awards went to Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Twelfth Night as Best Play in the Hayes category, Theatre Alliance’s Still Life With Rocket as Best Play in the Helen category, and Monumental Theatre Company, who received the John Aniello Award for outstanding emerging theatre company. The then Broadway Bound tryout of Mean Girls at the National Theatre, currently nominated for twelve Tony Awards next month, picked up Best Visiting Production.
At the end of the evening, the celebrated and the celebrating joined in an after party where the camaraderie and beer both flowed freely to the sounds of The World Famous DJ DyNasty.