Neil Patrick Harris, Susan Stroman, James Monroe Iglehart, Andy Karl & more Nominated for Astaire Awards, Held June 2 in NYC
The nominees have been announced for the 32nd Annual Fred & Adele Astaire Awards which will be held on Monday, June 2 at 7:30pm at NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. Select tickets are available to the public priced at $425, $200 & $75; tickets can currently be purchased online at www.TheAstaireAwards.org.
Outstanding Male Dancer in a Broadway Show
Julius Chisholm, After Midnight
Nick Cordero, Bullets Over Broadway
Virgil Gadson, After Midnight
Jared Grimes, After Midnight
Neil Patrick Harris, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
James Monroe Iglehart, Aladdin
Andy Karl, Rocky
Desmond Richardson, After Midnight
Outstanding Female Dancer in a Broadway Show
Krystal Joy Brown, Big Fish
Dormeshia Sumbry Edwards, After Midnight
Karine Plantadit, After Midnight
Gayle Rankin, Cabaret
Monique Smith, After Midnight
Heléne Yorke, Bullets Over Broadway
Karen Ziemba, Bullets Over Broadway
Outstanding Choreographer for a Broadway Show
Casey Nicholaw, Aladdin
Susan Stroman, Big Fish & Bullets Over Broadway
Warren Carlyle, After Midnight
Steven Hoggett and Kelly Devine, Rocky
Josh Prince, Beautiful
Peggy Hickey, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
Rob Marshall, Cabaret
The Astaire Awards is the only awards show to honor excellence in dance and choreography on Broadway and in film and were first started in 1982 by the late Fred Astaire and the late Douglas Watt (a critic and writer for the NY Daily News and The New Yorker, his 100th birthday would be this year). This year will also honor 5-time Tony Award nominee and 2-time Emmy Award-winning veteran choreographer Pat Birch with its Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award and legendary dancer and dance instructor Luigi with the Outstanding Achievement in the Preservation of Musical Theatre Award.
American choreographer and director Pat Birch began her career as a dancer in Broadway musicals, including Brigadoon, Goldilocks, and West Side Story and she has performed as a soloist with Martha Graham and Agnes de Mille. She earned Tony Award nominations for her choreography of the original Broadway productions of Grease, Over Here!, Pacific Overtures, Music Is and Parade, has directed and choreographed music videos for Cyndi Lauper, the Rolling Stones, and Carly Simon and also choreographed numbers on Saturday Night Live for six years.
Born Eugene Louis Faccuito in Steubenville, Ohio and nicknamed Luigi from Gene Kelly, as a dancer he appeared in over 40 films including An American in Paris, Annie Get Your Gun, On the Town, Singin’ in the Rain, The Band Wagon and White Christmas. The exercise routine he created for his own rehabilitation after a devastating accident became the world’s first complete technique for learning jazz dance. His students have included Liza Minnelli, Ben Vereen, Tony Roberts and Susan Stroman.
Each year The Astaire Awards also gives a special ‘Adele Astaire Scholarship’ to a young up and coming dancer and the awards are presented each year by Patricia Watt (the daughter of Douglas Watt).
The 32nd Annual Fred & Adele Astaire Awards will take place on Monday, June 2 at 7:30pm at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at New York University (566 LaGuardia Place). Select tickets are available to the public, priced at $425, $200 & $75 and can be purchased online at www.TheAstaireAwards.org.
Photography: Barry Gordin Follow Us On Facebook
