2025 Helen Hayes Award
May 19th
I’ll go to the ticket Theatrewashington.org
It’s helpful to have a “funny of tricks that are more convenient than others” to host the Helen Hayes Awards. With a background in Standup and Improvev, he has experience in holding children’s dance competitions and underground comedy clubs, and actor Mike Millan fits his tickets.
And if he has concerns, Milan hasn’t shown them. He is primarily looking forward to co-hosting with Felicia Curry, a Helen Hayes Award-winning local actor who has successfully hosted the event multiple times.
Based in both LA and New York, Milan is a skilled actor whose DMV connections include two productions in Arlington’s signature theatre “The Road to the Stage” (2022) and Sondheim’s Zanny Romp “It Happened on the Way to the Forum” (2024).
This year, “Forum” has won seven Helen Hayes nominations, including the musical outstanding ensemble, Hayes, musical outstanding lead performers and Hayes outstanding lead performers.
Milan is not chosen for his memorable turn as Hysterium, a nervous gay slave in the “Forum,” but he enjoys the part and says, “If they don’t appoint you, they’ll make you work in the event.
Both him and curry have a moment of sparkle: “It’s not my Netflix special. It’s not all about me. It’s a twist for me, but I’ll do my best to share the spotlight,” he promises.
The 41st Helen Hayes Award celebration will take place on Monday, May 19th at the National Anthem of D.C., District Wharf, named after Broadway legendary first lady Helen Hayes.
Recognizing the works of 165 eligible productions published in the calendar year of 2024, nominations were made in 41 categories and grouped into the “Helen” or “Hayes” cohort.
The nods are the results of 51 carefully reviewed judges taking into account 2,188 individual pieces, including design, orientation, choreography, and performance. Productions under consideration in 2024 included 57 musicals, 108 theatres and 37 world premieres.
Out-sound designer Madeline “Mo” Osrezik is a production of the Flying V Theater for Natsu Onoda Power’s “Astro Boy and the God of Comics” and is a retro Sci-Fi production for Helen, who has outstanding sound design. Oslijsek, 29, brings weirdness to her work, both professionally and personally.
She describes “Astroboy” as a multimedia love letter.
Baltimore-based Osrejek alternates between queer and lesbians, saying, “My work is deeply connected to being queer. The reason I describe myself as a strange, interdisciplinary artist is because I think it’s important that the words are used and genuinely accepted.
“I came out at the age of 21 just before I became immersed in my research into sound design,” she says. “A large part of it has made me feel more serious about the work I do, and part of what comes out was being ambitious and not afraid to ask what I want about art.
Playwright Director and actor Nick Alcott is no stranger to the Helen Hayes Award. Currently in its 45th year at the Washington Theatre, Alcott has received multiple Helen Hayes Award nominations and has received the Charles MacArthur Award for outstanding new play. He also oversaw the ceremony several times.
This year he was nominated for Helen, the play’s outstanding director, for the production of “The Nance,” the story of Douglas Carterbean’s burlesque performer in the 1930s.
“It’s funny how things have changed, says gay Alcott.” It used to be the Washington Post, so I knew if it was a hit or not. Well, this post never came to “Nance,” so I wasn’t sure if the show was interested. Naturally, I was incredible to learn that I received 11 nominations, including Outstanding Ensemble, Helen, Outstanding Production-Play, Helen, and Node of Helen, an outstanding lead performer.
Alcott and Lassotto returned to 1983 when they both performed at Petrucci’s dinner theatre in Laurel, Maryland in Agatha Christie’s “Mouse Trap” production and have been working together ever since.
The four-year “The Nance” was scheduled to open in May 2020, but the pandemic has shut it down. Rather heroically, the artistic doctor of the first stage, Alex Levy, along with most of the cast and design team, stuck to the production.
“In 2020, issues of gender and sexuality were less pressing on the political scene in America,” says Alcott.
“The characters in Burlesque House were family and united to stand up to the outside world. It was a fun environment, a slice of history that many of us didn’t know about, and we didn’t understand how relevant it was.”
Other Queer Helen Hayes candidates include John Hudson Odom, the outstanding lead performer of Forger Theatre’s “pervert” play “Hayes.” And Hayes, the musical standout lead performer, will be at the Kennedy Center with Johnny Link in the signature “Private Jones” and “Tick, Tick… Boom!” Beaniefeldstein has earned the outstanding support performer for Hayes, the musical from Kennedy Center’s “25th Putnam County Spelling Bee.”
A full list of winners will be available on Theatrewashington.org Tuesday, May 20th.
Source: Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News – www.washingtonblade.com
