Kerry Butler (Hairspray) and Denis O’Hare (Take Me Out) were announced yesterday as the winners of Actors’ Equity Association’s 58th Annual Clarence Derwent Awards for the most promising female and male performances on the New York metropolitan scene.
In Take Me Out, O’Hare plays Mason Marzac, a gay man who takes a job as business manager for a major league baseball who has just announced his homosexuality to the world. In the hit musical Hairspray, based on the John Waters film, Butler plays Penny Pingleton, a ditzy schoolgirl who is introduced to a whole new way of thinking as her best friend struggles to integrate a popular TV dance show.
The Clarence Derwent Awards are Broadway’s oldest awards, established in 1944 by actor and former Equity president Clarence Derwent. The awards, which come with a $1,000 cash prize, will be presented on June 10.