Liesel Allen Yeager, Ben Cole and Scott Parkenson in Cock – Photo: Teddy Wolff
“This is a bit of a surprise,” marveled David Muse, artistic director of Studio Theatre, accepting the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Play during a ceremony held at the Lincoln Theatre Monday, April 6. His company’s 2014 production of Cock, Mike Bartlett’s drama about a gay man contemplating leaving his longtime same-sex partner for a woman, was an upset winner in the crown-jewel category that also included Studio’s most successful production ever, Bad Jews. Cock also defeated Olney Theatre’s Colossal, about the struggles of a gay college football player. Still, Olney’s production took home four awards, including Outstanding Original new play or musical.
Technically, Cock was one of two works crowned Outstanding Play at the 31st annual awards ceremony, presented by Theatre Washington to honor works that opened in 2014. For the first time, the Helen Hayes honored two people or productions in most of its leading categories, nearly doubling the number of awards in a slightly confusing process. Essentially, there are “Hayes” nominees, including Cock, or productions distinguished by a higher ratio of Actors’ Equity members to non-union contractors, and then there are “Helen” nominees, with fewer union members, often associated with smaller or newer companies. Most significant among the smaller “Helen” companies was Theater Alliance, which won seven awards, more than any other company. (Kennedy Center was second best, with five.)
Alliance’s wins included 2014’s other Outstanding Play, The Wonderful World of Dissocia, and Langston Hughes’s Black Nativity, one of three Outstanding Musicals honored. The other two were the result of a tie in the Hayes category: Kennedy Center’s Side Showand Signature Theatre’s Sunday in the Park with George. Side Show also won for its ensemble and costume designer Paul Tazewell, while Sunday won for its director, Matthew Gardiner, and lead actress, Brynn O’Malley.
Other winning highlights at the 31st annual ceremony: Erin Weaver, who won for her supporting work in the musical Ordinary Days at Round House Theatre and Mother Courage and Her Children at Arena Stage; Sam Ludwig as lead Hayes actor in Olney’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; Barbara Walsh for her scarily good portrayal of the deranged fundamentalist mother in Studio Theatre’s 2ndStage Helen show Carrie: The Musical; Nanna Ingvarsson for her astounding performance in the one-woman tour-de-force The Amish Project, a Helen production from Rick Hammerly’s fledgling theater collective Factory 449; and e’marcus Harper-Short, honored for his musical direction of Theater Allance’s Black Nativity.
The Spring-into-Summer offerings this year in the classical realm are as rich, diverse, and extensive as ever. There's even a WorldPride-affiliated event here and there, including a two-day festival that will close out May in surely the gayest way ever up at Strathmore. But don't think for a second that the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington is gonna take that lying down. In fact, for WorldPride, the organization's many choristers are planning to do a whole lot of popping up, all over the city, for two full weeks. And wouldn't you know it, they're even calling in reinforcements from all over the country.
For true fans of live music, and the whole concert-going and festival-going experience, Spring 2025 in the DMV is shaping up to be a banner season. And for those who're also fans of queer music and of seeing LGBTQ performers live in concert? Well, we're about to experience a real embarrassment of riches in that regard. And no, not just because of all those coming to town for WorldPride 2025. In fact, the number of out artists stopping through the area both before and after Pride this year is impressive.
Melissa Etheridge is one. Bob Mould another. Also due to visit is Allison Russell, John Grant, Rahsaan Patterson, Halsey, and Lucy Dacus. Not to mention Kylie Minogue, who's got local gay hearts beating padam padam for sure. Down the road, once Pride is a wrap, it'll be Ty Herndon's turn. Also Brandy Clark's. The Indigo Girls, Pink Martini, Laura Jane Grace will all also follow suit. Oh, and Cyndi Lauper will also return to have a little more fun -- and say farewell one more time, after time.
A robust fall/winter for dance in the DMV gives way to a lighter but still bountiful spring, with an impressive variety of utterly inviting events and performances to choose from -- from Decolonized Beatz Indigenous World Pride at Atlas Performing Arts, and international troupe Compañía Medusa exploring queer themes at Dance Place, to several collaborators melding tap dance with different genres of movement and music to keep us swinging all through the season.
ATLAS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
1333 H St., NE
202-399-7993
www.atlasarts.org
Decolonized Beatz Indigenous World Pride -- Celebrating the work of Indigenous storytellers, organizers, and performers, the arts and performance series Decolonized Beatz brings Indigenous World Pride to Arena Stage (1101 6th St. NW) on May 30, and the next day to Atlas with music and dance performances, panel discussions, film screenings, a drag show featuring Lady Shug and Ritni Tears, and a closing dance party with beatz by DJ Rivolta Sata (6/1, Lang Theatre, free admission but registration required)
BALLETNOVA CENTER FOR DANCE
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