Tour Awards Spotlight ‘Movin’ Out,’ ‘Graduate’
For the third year in a row, the League of American Theatres and Producers’ Touring Broadway Awards — formerly known as the National Broadway Theatre Awards — have declined to present any honors for performance. The awards, given annually to road shows, were to be distributed May 10 at the Hilton Hotel in New York City.
In the awards’ first two years, 2001 and 2002, the league presented prizes in 12 categories, including best actor and best actress in a musical and a play. Actors’ Equity Association, however, opposed the awards on the grounds that union and nonunion tours would contend equally. The union refused to change its position even after the league publicly agreed that only union tours would compete, and performance awards have been absent ever since.