On the red carpet for this year’s Theatre World Awards I asked the winners, all making their New York stage debuts, two questions (or tried to): When did they first realize they would be professional performers, and what do they do to cool down from an intense performance.

Responding to one or both questions in the videos below: Among tthe dozen 2026 winners, Ben Ahlers (Death of a Salesman), LJ Benet (The Lost Boys), Madeline Brewer (Becky Shaw), Will Harrison (Punch), and nine-year-old River Lipe-Smith (Caroline), but also past winners Alec Baldwin (Theatre World Award winner in 1986, for his role in Joe Orton’s “Loot”) Lea DeLaria (Theatre World Award winner in 1998, for her role as Hildy Esterhazy in the revival of the musical “On the Town”), Cheyenne Jackson (2005, for the musical “All Shook Up”), Benjamin Pajak (2022, for the role of Winthrop Paroo in the revival of “The Music Man.”) Charles Busch, winner of many other awards, was also attending the Theatre World Awards and answered a more interesting question: How did he make it happen?

Among those not answering, walking right by me: Adrien Brody and Sam Tutty, although I post ideos of them anyway below.

I’ve been invited for more than a dozen years to cover the red carpet of the Theatre World Awards, which have been awarded annually since 1945. This year, the dozen honored were chosen from a total of 245 people performing in New York theater (either Broadway or Off-Broadway) for the first time. This year was also the first time that my experience on the red carpet made me feel like part of the faceless mob of desperate fans in the climax of The Day of the Locust.

Middle two rows of photographs above are 2026 Theatre World Award winners

Mostly same winners, different question:

I thought he was turning around for an interview

(Notice, under two minutes:)