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Blacks On Broadway And Off-Broadway Celebrated By New Awards!

By Linda Armstrong

There’s a brand new Awards show in town and Friday on Juneteenth was its inauguration, The Antonyo Awards, created by Broadway Black founder, Drew Shade, celebrate African American excellence on Broadway and off-Broadway. Winners were picked by the public, who voted online. The virtual evening on YouTube was hosted by Shade and the evening featured musical performances from productions like “The Secret Life of Bees” and included historical information with the Black facts behind different Broadway productions. Contemporary Black performers sang numbers from musicals including “Phantom of the Opera,” “Lady Day,” “Shuffle Along,” “Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess,” “South Pacific” and “The Wiz,” while historical information was placed on the screen, including mentioning that Norm Lewis was the first Black Phantom on Broadway, and Jordan Donica was the first

Audra McDonald

Black Raoul on Broadway. There was also a section of the program that had actors reciting powerful moment from monologues created by great Black writers like August Wilson.

Awards presenters included incredible theater icons such as Audra McDonald, George Faison, Nicolette Robinson, James Monroe Iglehart, Titus Burgess, along with Jelani Alladin, Derrick Baskin and Ephraim Sykes. The Antonyo Awards had men and women competing in the same category. It was quite nice to look at a list of nominees and seeing all Black nominees! The Antonyo Awards created its own types of award categories in addition to the ones commonly used.

“For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/when the rainbow is enuf” won five Antonyo Awards for best revival, Camille A. Brown won best choreography, Okwui Okpokwasili (The Lady In Green) won best featured actor, Toni-Leslie James won best costume design and Nikiya Mathis won best hair & wig design.

“Tina: The Tina Turner Musical,” won for best musical and an Antonyo Award for best actor in a musical went to Adrienne Warren. The marvelous Audra McDonald received the Antonyo for best actor in a play on Broadway for her innovative work in “Frankie and Johnnie at the Claire De Lune.” McDonald thanked Broadway Black and everyone at the Antonyo Awards and said, “Let’s celebrate each other and let’s hold each other up and let’s move forward.”

Best actor in a musical off-Broadway went to the LaChanze for her tremendous performance in “The Secret Life of Bees,” a production that also won best original score.

The Antonyo Award for best play was won by “BLKS” written by Aziza Barnes. Best actor in a play off Broadway was presented to Danielle Brooks for her sultry performance in “Much Ado About Nothing” at the Delacorte Theatre. Brooks was absolutely beaming as she exclaimed, “This is for the chocolate thick girls, you can be a romantic lead too.”

Best featured actor in a musical on Broadway went to Celia Rose Gooding for her riveting performance in “Jagged Little Pill.” Best featured actor in a play on Broadway was won by Chalia La Tour for “Slave Play.” Best featured actor in a musical off-Broadway went to Jasmine Cephas Jones for “Cyrano.”

Best solo performance was deservedly won by Michael Benjamin Washington, for his stunning performance in Anna Deavere Smith’s “Fires In The Mirror.”

The Antonyo Award for best book went to Michael R. Jackson for “A Strange Loop.” Best director was won by Lileana Blain-Cruz for “Anatomy of A Suicide,” which also received best sound for Rucyl Frison. “A Soldier’s Play” won Allen Lee Hughes, an Antonyo for lighting design. Lawrence E. Moten III received the Antonyo for best scenic design for “Native Son.” Best orchestration was awarded to “Skinfolk: An American Show.”

The Antonyo created its own categories like best quarantine content, won by Daniel J. Watts for “The Jam IG Live.” Playwright Loy A. Webb received the Lorraine Hansberry Award; phenomenal playwright Donja R. Love received the Langston Hughes Award and Dharon E. Jones received the Welcome Award. Michael McElroy, founder of Broadway Inspirational Voices beautifully sang “It’s my way or the highway,” in a ceremony to present Tony award winning, legend Chuck Cooper with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Cooper shared, “I am honored and a bit surprised. In these turbulent times there’s a movement in the world to promote empathy… the social justice, the young people out in the streets are the vanguard of this vital work.”

The National Black Theatre was honored with The Doors of the Theatre Are Open Award.

Throughout the evening, the fact that The Antonyo Awards were held on the significant date of Juneteenth, was acknowledged. It takes on a much stronger meaning to hold this ceremony when Blacks found out they were free, especially with the movement currently happening to proclaim that “Black Lives Matter.”