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Video: On the Red Carpet for the 2023 Outer Critics Circle Awards
May 17, 2024
In this video, go inside the 2023 Outer Critics Circle Awards ceremony, hosted at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center's New York Public Library for The Performing Arts.
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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We're at the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center for the 72nd Annual
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Outer Critics Circle Awards, where I caught up with many of this year's winners
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First of all, congratulations. Thank you. What does this honor mean to you? Oh my gosh
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You know, it's so lovely to be acknowledged in this way. I think this journey with Prima Facie
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continues to be such a blessing and a surprise. You know, I feel like I'm here representing
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the entire crew, you know? I feel like, you know, it is a solo performance
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but there are so many people that make this possible and have helped me get to this point
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So it's really lovely to be able to acknowledge that, yeah. What does this honor mean to you
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Oh my gosh. I love the name Outer Critics Circle because we all feel like we've been on the outer circle
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at some point in our life, right? So I understand and I get it. And it's a really huge, huge honor to win anything
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that has to do with this play. We work so hard on it. But from these guys, it's a little special
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something extra special. What's made this so special for you with working on this piece
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Well, I'm just honored that people recognize the work and recognize what's gone into this
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and they get what we were trying to do. Congratulations. Thank you
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What does this honor mean to you? Oh my gosh. I mean, Merrilee was such a huge gift
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and we had no idea what we were getting into, even starting it
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So for people to love the show as much as they did and do
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and for them to love these characters that we spent so much time on
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just, it's incredible. I feel so honored. You're a winner. I know
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I'm excited. I'm nervous. I've never won anything before. This is the first time I've ever really won anything
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in my life, certainly my professional life. So yeah, this is like a brand new experience for me
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I'm so grateful. I just can't believe it. I mean, Lea Salonga just called me a Broadway star
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So I think everything else sort of just like pales in comparison at this point. Totally
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After that walking in, hearing that. Yeah, exactly. You are a double winner today
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Yes, this is my version of everywhere all at once. What do these honors mean to you
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Oh, this is thrilling and huge. I mean, to have a play revived means it's tremendous
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And then to have the outer critic circle, the end of the voters recognize the excellence
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of the production of Top Dog, Underdog, brilliant. And then to have them love The Heart of They Come
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that's just thrilling to me. What an incredible season for you, uptown and downtown
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Yeah, that's why I was saying, this is me everywhere all at once. This is my everywhere all at once
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And you know, Richie, I've been writing plays for 40 years. 40 years I've been at this
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So it's a lot. It means a lot to me. Yay. First of all, congratulations
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Tell me what this honor means to you. Well, it means a lot. The first time I didn't win
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No, I first heard of it back in 93 was the last time for Jacob Zulu
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So it's been a while, but it's fantastic when people, when anyone, you get recognized for your hard work
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You know, and Bruce wrote a great play that we worked really hard on
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and put a lot of our souls into it. So if people like it, that just makes us happy. Congratulations
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What does this honor mean to you, Robert? It means everything. I love this award and this ceremony
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It's sort of the start of the season. It just, they've been so lovely to me
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And you know, it's the critics. It's the people who say, we celebrate your show
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We're awarding your show and rewarding your show. And I love it
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I'm so honored by it. I truly am. It's a little hashtaggy, but I mean it
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It really is an honor. Congratulations. Thank you so much. What does this honor mean to you
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You know what? I'm actually really thrilled about this one. I've never won a prize for directing before
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And I've been doing it 27 years. So I'm kind of chuffed, which I don't want to gloat
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but it's meaningful. Tell me what you enjoyed the most about bringing Fat Ham to Broadway
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Looking at the audience, like, you know, at a certain point in the process, the playwright isn't writing so much anymore
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So you get to like in previews, just watch people watch the play
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And it's so rewarding. It always fills me with so much joy and excitement
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because I think it really is sort of like meeting people in a moment that they need
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You know, I think coming out of the last few years, I think just the joy and the excitement of the play
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people are really hungry for that. I'm excited. What does this honor mean to you, Michael
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Oh, just the world. I mean, to have people who's writing and opinions
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means so much to me and who bring so many people to the theater, recognize Parade and my work
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and also the work of Joshua D. Reid on A Christmas Carol
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is truly a thrill. So I'm just so grateful and humbled to be
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amongst all these incredible artists. How excited are you to be here, Alfred
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today at the Outer Critics Circle? Tremendously excited. I didn't think this would ever happen to me again
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I can't tell you what it means to me. The Outer Critics mean a lot
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I mean, that's what sells our shows and to be recognized like this by a show like Parade
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is an enormous, enormous, wonderful thing. What does this honor mean to both of you
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We're thrilled to be part of this season and more importantly, to have such a great show
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with a brilliant creative team and performances. Brilliant. If I do say so myself
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Oh, yeah. Yes, and of course, when you produce something, you want there to be the love
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And our entire company feels it internally and we're so glad we're getting it externally as well
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The joy your show brings to so many people, a lot of awards you're winning here today
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And just, like I said, I told you this yesterday, we all watch the doors open at the Shubert Theater
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and watch the audiences come out. What that means to you as writers
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It means everything. I mean, we try to write shows that are the shows
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that we would want to see and we want to give the audience everything
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entertainment and the messages that are in there, but coded in entertainment
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Because the world's in danger now, you know? Oh, yeah. I'm very thankful to the Outer Critics Circle
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because it just means that the word of our show has spread beyond the borders of New York City
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and it's being appreciated by other discerning members of our community across the country
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Love it. You know, we worked so hard on these orchestrations. We're just glad that people outside of New York City
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are able to hear them and appreciate them. And that's the beauty of a cast album as well. Yeah
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This is amazing. Especially the critics who kind of always think you're going to nail it
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And this is nice to be rewarded. It's fabulous. I'm almost like, am I credit-proof now
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I mean, this is it? I go waving my little thing around? Okay
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Well, so I'm very excited. I really am. Nervous and excited. You know, whenever you get an award
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which I've had a couple of them, it's like banging on a door saying
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let me in! And then somebody goes, okay, and they open the door and you go, well, that's it
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But it's fabulous. It really is fabulous. Tell me what this honor means to you
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This was such a surprise. I mean, to be nominated for Christmas Carol, to win Christmas Carol
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it is honestly the climax of my career at this point in time
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And I'm super excited to just share the story with the world and get to have a future for the show. Congratulations
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An honor well-deserved. What does this honor mean to you? You know, it means an awful lot to me
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I first experienced Broadway by reading reviews. I was a kid in Central Pennsylvania
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living in Appalachia, basically, and reading reviews in periodicals is how I first experienced Broadway
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It's how I decided I wanted to come see Into the Woods and Phantom, which were the first two shows
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that I ever saw on Broadway. So it actually, this means a lot
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I know you guys see everything. And so you guys giving me an award means a lot
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Been nominated for this one a bunch, I think, and I've never won it before, so I'm thrilled
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