Watch 2022 Theater World Award Winners on Their First Time, and Tough Times

Sharon D Clarke and Harvey Fierstein, 2022 Theatre World Award winners, hug before the ceremony

A dozen luminous first-time New York stage performers, plus Harvey Fierstein, and 21 members of the ensemble of The Music Man, were honored at the 76th annual Theatre World Awards — the first such ceremony in three years. In the video below, I ask some of them when they first realized they were going to be a professional performer — and how the cataclysmic events of the last few years have affected their performance, for better or for worse. It’s interesting to note that they chose a different cataclysmic event on which to focus — the racial reckoning, the wave of antisemitism, the pandemic — sometimes depending on what they show they were in.

Theatre Award winners who appear in the videos

Justin Cooley, “Kimberly Akimbo”

Sharon D Clarke, “Caroline, or Change”

Benjamin Pajak, 11 and Kayla Teruel, 12, two of the 21 cast members of “The Music Man,” all making their Broadway debut, being given Outstanding Ensemble Award.

Patrick J Adams, “Take Me Out”

Bonnie Milligan (2019 recipient)

Geneva Carr (2015 recipient)

Gaby French, “Hangmen”

Harvey Fierstein, John Willis Award for Lifetime Achievement

Yair Ben-Dor, Prayer for the French Republic

Full list of winners

Author: New York Theater

Jonathan Mandell is a 3rd generation NYC journalist, who sees shows, reads plays, writes reviews and sometimes talks with people.

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