The 79th Annual Theatre World Awards were absolutely marvelous at the Hard Rock Cafe (1501 Broadway) on June 2. It was an evening to remember as it honored Black theater legend Leslie Uggams with the John Willis Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Uggams has been performing for seven decades and is known for theater, film, and television work, but of course, this is Theatre World, so her decades of experience in theater were spotlighted. The award’s main purpose is to recognize and reward outstanding stage debuts. This year, two Black actresses received this honor: Ayana Arenas, who stars in the Broadway play “Purpose,” and Jasmine Amy Rogers, who stars in the Broadway musical “BOOP!”
The evening was hosted as always by Peter Filichia who shared dramatic, humorous, and historical tales with the audience. It was truly a delightful evening of celebrating talented individuals who are letting their light shine ever so brightly on the Great White Way.
Uggams was glad to tell the AmNews how she felt about receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, named after Theatre World founder John Willis, who was also a friend. “It means everything because John was so welcoming to me when I did my first Broadway show, ‘Hallelujah, Baby!’ This is right up there with getting a Tony. When people think that you contributed to theater, it’s wonderful,” she said.
Asked about all the roles she has played over the decades, Uggams described her preparation process. “I do my homework. We all have our little secrets [for] how we do it, but I’m always interested in the history of the character that you play.”
Her advice for young people who want to come into this business is, “Practice, do community theater, get to be seen somehow. That’s how it is, and a lot of it is luck as well, but if you’re prepared, they’ll find you.”
When asked about her favorite role in theater, Uggams confided, “It had to be in ‘Hallelujah Baby.’ It was quite a show. You know your first show. It changed my life.”
Brian Stokes Mitchell was fantastic and had incredible energy as he spoke of getting his first Theatre World Award, and, two years ago, receiving the John Willis Lifetime Achievement Award, which he was there now to present to Uggams. He spoke to the audience about John Willis deciding the first winners of the Theatre World Award in 1967, and one person among the prestigious group was the evening’s honoree: Leslie Uggams.
Mitchell went through Uggams’s show history and her award history, winning a Tony for “Hallelujah, Baby!” for playing Georgina. He took the audience through Uggams’s performance history, which started at age 3. She was the first Black teenage girl to appear on “Sing Along with Mitch,” breaking barriers. The top female roles she has played in the theater include Mame, Rose, and Maria in “West Side Story.” He also talked about her television and film roles, including Blind Al in “Deadpool.”
Mitchell also talked about his history with Uggams, such as working with her in “King Hedley II” on Broadway. “She’s a Tony winner, an Emmy winner, and tonight the winner of the John Willis Award for Lifetime Achievement in the theater,” Mitchell proclaimed.
Uggams came to the stage assisted by Mitchell. She said, “When John told me that I was going to be getting a Theatre World Award and it was my first show, I thought he was crazy. My Aunt Eloise was in ‘Porgy and Bess’ at the Ziegfeld Theater; Leontyne Price was Bess, I was 6 years old, in the audience with my mother and father, and I was like, ‘Wow, I want to do that’ … When I got the role in ‘Hallelujah Baby,’ I was playing the Harlem Club in Atlantic City and they saw I could sing, but they didn’t know I could act.”
When she got the role and sat down for the table read, she recalled, “I thought you were supposed to know the whole script, so when we sat down for the table read, I knew my stuff. One of the actors said, ‘Oh, she’s trouble.’”
Uggams added that “I love the theater. There’s nothing like the orchestra starting up and something happens inside of you and that curtain goes up and there you are, feeling the audience waiting to see if it’s going to be great. That’s why I love the theater — it’s live and you get to do it eight shows a week;, for me, that was nothing. I did 29 shows a week at the Apollo. That was child abuse, but we didn’t know that. If you can make it at the Apollo, baby, you can make it anywhere.”
Uggams also reflected on the resiliency of her profession. “What a year this has been in theater,” she said. “I’m happy. I was worried after the pandemic — is theater ever going to come back — and it’s come back even stronger. There are so many shows out there — I can’t keep up. It’s wonderful. It’s magic. For everyone in theater, that whole camaraderie that happens with all of us; we love each other, we take care of each other, we’re a community, and I’m so proud.”
She concluded with, “This means so much to me, because [it’s] a Lifetime Achievement Award … Thank you.”
Uggams’s daughter, Danielle Chambers, performed a medley of songs from “Hallelujah, Baby!” as part of a tribute to her mother. “There is another award she should get besides Lifetime Achievement, because she’s also an amazing mom, grandmother, mother-in-law, and she was an amazing daughter, too,” Chambers said.
Phylicia Rashad, director of “Purpose,” presented the Theatre World Award to Ayana Arenas. “Tonight’s recipient for the Theatre World Award for her Broadway debut is a newcomer to Broadway, but she’s not a newcomer [to the theater]. She has known a life and career in theater, working with the Steppenwolf Company in Chicago. She is very well-known to audiences in Chicago … I met her in New York at the Public Theater when we were in rehearsal for ‘Head of Passes.’ What an amazing artist: clean, raw, prepared, spontaneous, connected on every level to the work and every other artist on the stage. She’s superhuman in this way; it really is amazing. Sometimes in working with her on the stage, I would be so caught by her, I would almost forget where I was. She has that kind of magnetism; she is that special. This year, she has made her Broadway debut in Brandon Jacob-Jenkins’s ‘Purpose’ in the role of Morgan Jasper. She floors the audience every night she takes the stage without moving a muscle.”
Arenas was visibly moved and had to take a deep breath before saying, “It is enough for me to have Ms. Phylicia Rashad say those wonderful things about me. I’m so immensely grateful to God that the Theatre World committee and all of the awards organizations actually commit time and resources to acknowledging people’s work and their effort and encouraging them. This is a giant moment of encouragement to me. I am just so thankful to God that you bestowed such a great honor on me. Everyone doesn’t get the opportunity to accelerate and be acknowledged, so it truly is a gift to have that opportunity.”
Arenas added that, “It is a gift to me [at] this stage in my career, when I have done a great deal of theater in Chicago, to be making my Broadway debut in a play titled ‘Purpose’.’ It is an affirmation from God that I am, to the best of my ability, walking in my purpose. I just want to say that encouragement lives on. You may never know how it lives on, but if you want a legacy, encourage someone..”
She thanked Rashad for “taking the time out of your day to give them to me.” She also thanked the Theatre World committee for “doing the work that you’re doing.” Arenas included her colleagues in her remarks: “To my fellow awardees, congratulations to you and may we all be inspired to be a source of encouragement to someone else.”
Jerry Mitchell, director and choreographer of “BOOP!,” presented the Theatre World Award to the musical’s star, Jasmine Amy Rogers. “I met her before the pandemic,” he said of his first encounter with her. “She was finishing [at] Manhattan School of Music. She was auditioning, and she came into my presence and I knew at that moment she was a star. I got an offer to do ‘BOOP! The Musical’ and I thought of her … She came in for the audition and she blew it. Her tapping wasn’t so great … but Jasmine isn’t someone who quits — she is someone who continues to work. I’ve seen that the past nine years we’ve known each other and I’m so proud of her in the musical, but I’m more proud of her character.”
That would be how Rogers interacts with her colleagues in the musical. “I’m so proud of how she leads the cast, how at the age of 26, she’s making her Broadway debut,” he said. “How she shows up, not only for herself, but for others … I know this is her Broadway debut, but I have a funny feeling that if we’re lucky enough to live, we’re going to be seeing a whole lot of Jasmine Amy Rogers.”
Rogers was equally effusive in her acceptance remarks. “Thank you, everyone, for this incredible honor,” she said. “Thank you,Jerry, for letting me be in ‘BOOP1” — it is the greatest joy of my young life and I get to perform every night, which is my first love and my forever love, and I’m growing in a way that I didn’t think was possible, which is really exciting … [Musical theater has] been the love of my life forever. I’m just so happy to be here.”
Arenas and Rogers were among 12 Theatre World Award winners for their stage debuts: Sarah Snook in “The Picture of Dorian Gray”; Jak Malone, “Operation Mincemeat”; Nicole Scherzinger and Tom Francis, “Sunset Blvd.”; Marjan Neshat, “English”; Helen J. Shen-, “Maybe Happy Ending”; Kit Connor, “Romeo & Juliet”; Patsy Ferran and Paul Mescal, “A Streetcar Named Desire”; and Louis McCartney, “Stranger Things: The First Shadow.”
George Clooney received a special award for outstanding Broadway debut as playwright/performer for “Good Night, Good Luck.”
The Theatre World Awards committee includes theater journalists David Cole, Joe Dziemianowicz, Peter Filichia, David Finkle, Elyse Gardner, Harry Haun, Cary Wong, Frank Scheck, and yours truly, Linda Armstrong.