Lortel, Bistro, MAC Award Dates Announced

Ruben Santiago-Hudson
will receive a Lifetime Achievement
Award at the Lortels

The 39th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards – honoring excellence in the Off-Broadway theater – will be handed out in the annual ceremony on Sunday, May 5, 2024, at 7PM at NYU Skirball. Special Award recipients for 2024 have also been announced. The Lortel Awards are produced by the Off-Broadway League and the Lucille Lortel Theatre, with additional support provided by TDF.

Special Award honorees include actor-director Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Lackawanna Blues, Jitney) for Lifetime Achievement; Dominique Morriseau (Skeleton Crew, Sunset Baby) will receive the Playwrights Sidewalk Honor outside the Lucille Lortel Theater; and Ars Nova for Outstanding Body of Work. 

Nominees for the Lortels will be announced on April 4 and there will be a Nominees Breakfast on April 17. The Lortels are presented for Off-Broadway work from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024. . Representatives of the Off-Broadway League, Actors’ Equity Association, Stage Directors & Choreographers Society, United Scenic Artists, the Lucille Lortel Theatre, in addition to theatre journalists, academics and other Off-Broadway professionals, serve on the Voting Committee (though no members' names are listed in the press release or on the Lortels' website.)

The event will, as always, be open to the public, with tickets available for purchase beginning April 4 at tickets.nyu.edu or at the NYU Skirball box office Tuesday – Saturday 12pm–6pm. As always, the Lortel Awards is a benefit for the Entertainment Community Fund and fans are encouraged to make donations at LortelAwards.org.

Reconstructing the Carol Burnett Show, Part 5

MeTV has made the transition from previously unaired early Carol Burnett Show segments (from Seasons 1-5) to the long-in-syndication Carol Burnett and Friends (Seasons 6-10). Will they show segments from the final season 11 when Dick Van Dyke was a regular for part of that time? Anyway, for Part Five of my reconstructing Carol's beloved series, we pick up various airings from Amazon, YouTube and MeTV.

Season OneOct. 16, 1967: Phyllis Diller, Gwen Verdon, Bobbie Gentry, William Schallert

(L.to r.) Carol, Phyllis Diller, Bobbie Gentry and Gwen Verdon
as the Beatles

Found on YouTube. Broadway dance legend Gwen Verdon and country-western star Bobbie Gentry are given solo spots and not integrated into sketches, as was the custom with most of the musical guest stars in later seasons. Bobbie sings her hit "Ode to Billy Joe," which Carol would later reference in the infamous Went With the Wind sketch ("Why Billy Joe McAllister, I thought you jumped off the Tallahatchee Bridge!"). Gwen performs a bizarre dance to the Simon and Garfunkel hit "Feelin' Groovy (The 59th Street Bridge Song)." (A bridge theme?) The chorus boys, who include Lee Roy Reams before he broke out and became a featured player in such Broadway shows as Applause and 42nd Street, are costumed by Bob Mackie as if they are in Dr. Seuss cartoon wielding Seussian instruments while Gwen is bedecked with flowers like a hippie goddess. Phyllis Diller delivers her usual comedy schtick of being unattractive and a horrible housekeeper. All three guests join Carol in a tribute to the Beatles, costumed as the Fab Four on the Sgt. Pepper album cover. They march through the studio audience, a rare staging for the show.