The Elliot Norton Awards are presented annually to recognize achievement in the Greater Boston theatre community. The Norton Awards originated in the Norton Medal first bestowed in 1983 and since then awards now include Lifetime Achievement Award, the Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence, and more than a dozen awards to outstanding productions, performers, directors and designers.

The awards were founded in honor of Elliot Norton, who served as drama critic for Boston newspapers for forty-eight years and as moderator of Elliot Norton Reviews on WGBH-TV from 1958-1982. Mr. Norton reviewed more than 6,000 productions in New York and other American cities, and abroad, and in 1971 he received a special Tony Award from the League of American Theatres and Producers. Mr. Norton was born in Boston in 1903 and died in 2003 at the age of 100 years old.