Choreographer Steven Hoggett to Receive Special Honor at Chita Rivera Awards
(© David Gordon)
Steven Hoggett, movement director for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and movement consultant for Angels in America, will receive the inaugural Douglas and Ethel Watt Critics' Choice Award at the 2018 Chita Rivera Awards on May 20 at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.
The special award is bestowed by the journalists of the Chita Rivera Awards' Broadway judging committee to recognize outstanding work that falls outside the framework of the original categories. It is named for the longtime Daily News theater critic Douglas Watt and his wife Ethel, an original cast member of Carousel and Kiss Me, Kate who later became a producer. Hoggett will be honored, according to a press release, "for the poetry and punch of the movement passages in [Harry Potter and Angels in America], which he helped transform into enchantingly provocative physical theater. "
In addition, an initial lineup of presenters has been announced: Joel Grey (Cabaret), Ben Vereen (Pippin), Maurice Hines (Tappin' Through Life), Lea Salonga (Once on This Island), Jessie Mueller (Carousel), Norbert Leo Butz (My Fair Lady), Gavin Creel (Hello, Dolly!), Patricia Birch (Grease), Len Cariou (Sweeney Todd), Laura Osnes (Bandstand), Robert Fairchild (An American in Paris), Karen Ziemba (Prince of Broadway), and Andy Karl (Groundhog Day). More presenters will be announced later.
At this year's Chita Rivera Awards, actor, dancer, and choreographer Carmen de Lavallade will receive the second annual Lifetime Achievement Award, iconic composer John Kander will receive the Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theater as a Composer, and legendary theater director and producer Harold Prince will be presented with the SDC Director Award for Exemplary Collaboration with Choreographers.
The awards are produced by Nikki Feirt Atkins (founder and producing artistic director of American Dance Machine of the 21st Century) and Joe Lanteri (founder and executive director of the New York City Dance Alliance Foundation), with Patricia Watt and Iris Smith.
