Playwright Will Eno’s The Open House
and Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron’s musical Fun Home were named best play and musical, respectively, earlier tonight at the 29th annual Lucille Lortel Awards. Hotter-than-hot helmer Alex Timbers (Broadway’s Rocky) was named best director for his staging of Here Lies Love, the David Byrne/Fatboy Slim musical about the life and times of Imelda Marcos that recently resumed performances at the Public Theater. Here Lies Love was the top winner of the evening, walking off with five awards.
Best performance in a musical nods went to Michael Cerveris (Fun Home) and Ruthie Ann Miles (Here Lies Love).
Up-and-comer Tracee Chimo was named best actress in a play for Bad Jews. Steven Boyer won best actor for Hand To God.
Buyer & Cellar, Jonathan Tolins’s hit show starring Michael Urie as an out-of-work actor who takes a job maintaining a faux-street market in Barbra Streisand’s basement, was named outstanding solo show. The Foundry Theatre’s production of Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person Of Szechwan was named best revival.
The awards are overseen by the Off-Broadway League and are named for Lortel, the late actress, producer and founder of the White Barn Theatre in Connecticut and owner of the Theatre De Lys, later renamed in her honor, in Greenwich Village.
Veteran producer and Second Stage co-founder Robyn Goodman got a Lifetime Achievement Award and playwright Richard Nelson, whose landmark series of plays about the Apple family of New York’s Hudson Valley concluded last fall at the Public, was given a place on the Playwright’s Sidewalk outside the Lortel on Christopher Street.
The Lortels were founded as an alternative to the older Village Voice Obie Awards and are administered by the League, which represents commercial and non-profit producers.
Here’s the complete list of winners:
Outstanding Play
The Open House
Produced by Signature Theatre
Written by Will Eno
Outstanding Musical
Fun Home
Produced by The Public Theater
Music by Jeanine Tesori, Book and Lyrics by Lisa Kron
Based on the Alison Bechdel book
Outstanding Revival
Good Person of Szechwan
Produced by The Foundry Theatre
Written by Bertolt Brecht, Translation by John Willett
Outstanding Solo Show
Buyer & Cellar
Produced by Darren Bagert, Dan Shaheen, Ted Snowdon, Daryl Roth, Martin Massman, Pat Flicker Addiss, Doug Nevin, Joan Raffe & Jhett Tolentino, Andrew Tobias, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater
Written by Jonathan Tolins
Performed by Michael Urie
Outstanding Director
Alex Timbers, Here Lies Love
Outstanding Choreographer
Sonya Tayeh, Kung Fu
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play
Steven Boyer, Hand to God
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Play
Tracee Chimo, Bad Jews
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical
Michael Cerveris, Fun Home
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical
Ruthie Ann Miles, Here Lies Love
Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play
Jeremy Shamos, Dinner With Friends
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play
Lisa Kron, Good Person of Szechwan
Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical
Lucas Steele, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical
Judy Kuhn, Fun Home
Outstanding Scenic Design
Mimi Lien, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
Outstanding Costume Design (*TIE)
*Clint Ramos, Here Lies Love
*Paloma Young, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
Outstanding Lighting Design
Justin Townsend, Here Lies Love
Outstanding Sound Design
M.L. Dogg and Cody Spencer, Here Lies Love
SPECIAL AWARDS
Lifetime Achievement Award
Robyn Goodman
Playwrights’ Sidewalk Inductee
Richard Nelson
