The effervescent Afrobeat musical “Fela!” cleaned up at the 40th Helen Hayes Awards on Monday night at the Anthem, claiming five prizes — including best production of a musical — during a glitzy celebration of the best in D.C. theater.
Staged at Olney Theatre Center and co-produced with Round House Theatre, the revival was the Fela Kuti jukebox musical’s first since its Broadway tour ended in 2013. The show also earned awards for director Lili-Anne Brown, choreographer Breon Arzell, supporting performer Melody A. Betts and its ensemble.
“I pitched this show all over the country and everybody was scared except Jason Loewith and Ryan Rilette,” said Brown, referring to the artistic directors at Olney and Round House. “Thank you so much to everybody involved in any way, shape or form. It was such a journey of love.”
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Betts won an additional trophy Monday for playing Aunt Em/Evillene in “The Wiz” during the show’s pre-Broadwaystop at the National Theatre in October.
Peter Marks, a theater critic who left The Washington Post in December after a 21-year tenure, accepted the Helen Hayes Tribute. The lifetime achievement honor has previously been granted to the likes of August Wilson, Angela Lansbury, Stephen Sondheim and James Earl Jones.
Lauded by Helen Hayes Awards founder Bonnie Nelson Schwartz as an “extraordinary observer of culture” and by former Woolly Mammoth Theatre artistic director Howard Shalwitz as the “ideal audience member” and a “great prose stylist,” Marks took the stage to reflect on his roundabout path.
“How does one become a theater critic?” Marks said. “I know that it starts not with the desire to tear down or show how much you know but a desire to contribute, to find the language for those ecstatic moments when dramatic art fills you with wonder and joy. … I’ve had so many of those moments in Washington, which is unquestionably a great theater town. And it has been an honor of my life to help affirm that to the world.”
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D.C. theater’s take on the Tonys, the Helen Hayes Awards launched in 1984 and, for the past decade, have been divided into two designations: “Hayes” for larger shows with mostly equity casts — where “Fela!” competed — and “Helen” for lower-budget productions with mostly non-equity actors.
The Keegan Theatre’s production of “Seussical” dominated the “Helen” categories, grabbing a ceremony-best six prizes, including best production of a musical and two wins for director-choreographers Kurt Boehm and Ashleigh King.
“Keegan and ‘Seussical’ are both about two things: family and community,” Boehm said. “I’m so, so grateful to be part of this family and this community.”
Arena Stage tied Round House with an evening-best seven victories spanning four productions, including acting awards for Joe Ngo (“Cambodian Rock Band”) and Justin Weaks (“Angels in America Part One: Millennium Approaches”). “Swept Away,” the Avett Brothers jukebox musical that ran at Arena Stage before recently announcing a Broadway transfer, tied “Angels in America” with a ceremony-high 12 nominations and won in three technical categories.
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Taffety Punk’s French hospital-set tragicomedy “La Salpêtrière” and Woolly Mammoth Theatre’s Ukrainian satire “My Mama and the Full-Scale Invasion” won for best production of a play in the “Helen” and “Hayes” divisions, respectively. “The Jungle,” an immersive refugee drama co-presented by Woolly and Shakespeare Theatre Company, took the visiting production honor after previous runs in London, New York and San Francisco. Synetic Theater’s movement-based adaptation of “The Tell-Tale Heart” and Arena Stage’s Hollywood comedy “Exclusion” claimed the Charles MacArthur Award for outstanding new play or musical.
Tony winner Stephanie J. Block (“Sunset Boulevard” at the Kennedy Center) and D.C. favorite Bobby Smith (“Fun Home” at Studio Theatre) won for lead performer in a musical — in the third ceremony since the show switched to gender-neutral acting awards, with two winners per category.
End of carouselOther acting winners included Rob McClure (“Mrs. Doubtfire” at the National Theatre), Renea S. Brown (“The Mountaintop” at Round House), Kevin Mambo (“Radio Golf” at Round House) and Awa Sal Secka (“Ragtime” at Signature Theatre).
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A quartet of veteran D.C. actors — Felicia Curry, Rayanne Gonzales, Maria Rizzo and Holly Twyford — co-hosted the ceremony before an estimated audience of 1,600. After leading an opening number that rewrote lyrics from such musicals as “Sweeney Todd” and “Into the Woods,” the hosts bantered about the awards’ 40-year legacy and Washington’s reputation for cultivating drama onstage and on Capitol Hill.
“No one does political theater quite like Washington, D.C.,” Twyford said. “It’s hard to say at this point just how the 2024 season will play out, but we’re all subscribers to it, whether we like it or not.”
Alluding to the fall election pitting President Biden against former president Donald Trump, she added: “I mean, we know one way or another, it’s ending with a revival.”
An ensemble of actors also teed up the categories with song-and-dance interludes, and the evening’s musical highlight arrived when Betts returned to the stage in the show’s fourth hour for a rollicking rendition of “Don’t Nobody Bring Me No Bad News” from “The Wiz.”
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“I actually started my theater career here as a 5-year-old,” Betts said while accepting one of her prizes. “I was born in the DMV and raised in this city for the first nine years of my life. … This is a really full-circle moment, starting here and then coming here and you all accepting me and honoring me. I really want to say thank you for that.”
Administered by Theatre Washington, the Helen Hayes Awards are determined by more than 40 volunteer judges who considered 151 eligible productions presented in 2023.
A list of winners from all 41 categories can be found here.
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