Fun at the Outer Critics Circle Awards

I enjoyed a very well planned and written Outer Critics Circle awards program at Sardi's last week. The winners already had been announced (for the list of winners, click here), so this was a chance to mingle with them as they received their scrolls.

First, I owe a large hug to whomever did the seating arrangements. I had a front-row seat next to the delightful Elyse Sommer of Curtain Up and at the same table as Best Actress in a Musical co-winner Josefina Scaglione. (Angela Lansbury was supposed to be at our table, but another commitment forced her to change her arrival time to just before she was presented with the award for best featured actress in a play for Blithe Spirit. )

I loved the more intimate setting, and most of the winners seemed to sense it as they shared more personal thoughts when they accepted their awards. One them came through: that we all are involved in the theater because we love it and we have lots of fun doing what we do.

Presenter Tyne Daly adopted a mock British accent, feigning intimidation form the cast of The Norman Conquests who also presented. The three young boys who star as Billy Elliot received a special award for their performance. All were darling, every bit young men whose egos appeared unaffected by their catapult into the limelight this year, as they thanked their director Stephen Daltry, who also took home an award for Best Direction of a Musical. He most graciously thanked the boys for their part in the project and then walked over to their table where he embraced each in heartfelt appreciation. Very touching.

Pulitzer-prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage accepted her award for Best Play, Ruined, saying it was a blessing to be part of this theater season and to have been able to touch so many people with her moving tale set in war-torn Africa.

Scaglione, who is just as lively in person as when she's causing Tony to fall in love with her in West Side Story, dedicated her award to her country (Argentina) and to her family.

Perhaps the highlights was hearing Lansbury joke about "an old ham like me" needing to play a character like Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit. She joked about people coming to the theater to see Jessica Fletcher, the character she is famous for playing for years on television's "Murder She Wrote." She also made some gracious and heart-felt remarks thanking us critics for writing about theater so people will come.

Overall, it was a very pleasing get together and reaffirmed my feeling that it's a blessing to be part of this group of talented critics, with whom I also enjoyed getting to visit.

For photos from the event, click here.