BroadwayWorld has announced the winners of its inaugural BroadwayWorld Off/Off-Off Broadway Awards, which celebrate productions across New York City that had their first performances between October 1, 2019, and September 30, 2021, in an Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, or streaming venue. The big winner, with seven awards, was Stranger Sings!, Jonathan Hogue’s parody musical that ran at Players Theatre in August 2021. It was honored as Best New Musical (Off-Broadway), as well as for Best Peformance (Savannah-Lee Mumford), Best Costume Design (Cassandra McCall Endicott), Best Lighting Design (Jesse Scott), Best Choreography (Ashley Marinelli), Best Scenic Design (James Ortiz), and Best Sound Design (Megan “Deets” Culley).
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The award for Best New Musical (Off-Off Broadway) went to Rathskeller: A Musical Elixir, by Collin Kessler (book) and Brianna Barnes (score), which Dame Productions presented at New Ohio in September 2021. It is also won for Best Original Choreography (Grace Rudd). The original punk musical The Unrepentant Necrophile, created and performed by Katie Hartman, Nick Ryan, and Nathan Gebhard, was named Best Streaming New Musical.
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Love Quirks, which ran at St. Luke’s in February 2020, took four Off-Broadway awards: Best Direction (Brian Childers), Best New Book (Mark Childers), Best New Score (Seth Bisen-Hersh), and Best Production. And the revival of the 1973 musical Seesaw, which ran at Theatre Row in February 2020 as part of J2 Spotlight’s inaugural season, took home three Off-Off-Broadway prizes: Best Direction (Robert W. Schneider), Best Performance (Stephanie Israelson), and Best Production.
Other productions with multiple wins include the Off-Off-Broadway musical Anna Karenina: A Riff, which Notch Theatre presented at The Flea in November 2019. It brought awards for Best New Book to Gwen Kingston and Best New Score to Will Turner, Teresa Lotz, Yan Li, and Christie Baugher. The Last Boy, Steven Fisher’s new Off-Broadway play with music that ran at St. Clement’s in July 2021, was named Best New Play and Best Production of a Play. It also earned honors for Best Direction (Steven Fisher) and Best Performance (Dean Trevisani).
The remaining musical works honored include the Kimmel Center’s production of A Soulful Christmas as Best Streaming Musical, Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation as Best Theatrical/Immersive Experience (Off-Broadway), Dreamgirls on Clubhouse for Best Performance in a Streaming Musical (Alex Newell), and Marguerite for Best Non-Cabaret Solo Performance (Cady Huffman).