![]() The crowd was collegial, and the roars that greeted each nomination were deafening. The city proclaimed May 8, 2023, “Michael Maso Day.” Josh Reynolds for The Boston Globeĭespite the late start and the number of awards - 35 - the ceremony clocked in at a reasonable three hours and 15 minutes. Michael Maso, the founding managing director of the Huntington who is retiring June 30, is honored by Kara Elliott-Ortega, Boston's chief of arts and culture, during the Elliot Norton Awards at the Huntington Theatre. the lights dimmed and the ceremony actually did begin, the Gold Dust Orphans kicking it off with a sexually explicit number from their nominated musical “Little Christmas Tree Shop of Horrors.” When Kulhawik came on afterward, she thanked the Orphans for their “tasteful opening” and added that they might have scared the cast of Wheelock Family Theatre’s “Matilda” “out of the auditorium into therapy.” That didn’t happen: The second musical number, “Naughty,” was from “Matilda,” and 9-year-old Sky Vaux Fuller’s performance elicited some of the loudest cheers of the evening. There was no end of hugging and screaming and hooting and hollering. DJ WhySham was providing the music onstage. It did almost seem that the awards were an excuse for a party. After the scheduled curtain of 7 p.m., I heard a gentleman remark, “They’re not going to start this thing for half an hour. As BTCA president Joyce Kulhawik observed in her welcoming remarks, even the balcony was occupied. But to say that the theater community was delighted to be able to gather in person would be an understatement. ![]() ![]() The COVID pandemic necessitated a virtual ceremony in 2020 there were no Elliot Norton Awards in 2021 after theaters had gone dark and last year’s presentation was again virtual. For the first time since 2019, the Boston Theater Critics Association was hosting a live ceremony. For a while Monday evening at the Huntington Theatre, I wondered whether the 40th Elliot Norton Awards were ever going to start. ![]()
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