2024 Henry Awards honor best theater from Denver to Carbondale

The 18th annual Henry Awards were a predictably unpredictable affair Monday night as the Colorado Theatre Guild defied its recent history by sending its trophies celebrating the best in Colorado theater in every direction.

The CTG is historically known for crowning its winners in landslide fashion, but on Monday it delivered perhaps its most evenly distributed slate of Henry Awards winners to date, with 20 member companies and an unprecedented 25 plays or musicals sharing the 41 awards.

That kind of equity actually makes it harder to say with authority what shows and companies truly stood out in the 2023-24 season. The DCTC Theatre Company again led all troupes with seven awards, compared to the 13 and nine it won the two previous seasons. The Arvada Center was next with five, followed by the resurgent Breckenridge Backstage Theatre, Miners Alley Playhouse and Performance Now with three each.

That lack of single-company dominance was all the more unexpected given that the Arvada Center came into the night with 27 nominations and the DCPA with 26.

The DCPA’s opulent Sondheim tuner “A Little Night Music” and little Thunder River Theatre Company of Carbondale ’s “Endgame” won the two biggest awards of the night – for best musical and play, respectively. “A Little Night Music” and Performance Now’s “The Music Man” won four awards each, most of any musical. In a huge statistical anomaly, “Endgame” won only one other award – honoring Brian Landis Folkins as lead actor. Last year, the winning play took home nine Henrys.

Two years ago, the Colorado Theatre Guild took the extraordinary step of splitting most every category into two tiers based on the budget size of its member companies. (The dividing line between Tier 1 and 2 is an annual budget above and below $500,000.) But two categories where everyone is still considered equally are best play and musical. And both Folkins and Artistic Director Missy Moore say seeing Thunder River split the top honor with the biggest company in the Rocky Mountain region should send a powerful message about all the little guys out there.

"I am really excited and honored to be working with an amazing group of Colorado artists in Carbondale," Moore said of her company 170 miles west of Denver. "Hopefully, this the beginning of our next chapter."

"Endgame" is considered Samuel Beckett's theatrical masterpiece, described by academics as "a triumph of raw minimalism that manages to find humor in its pure and devastating distillation of the human essence in the face of approaching death." Which may explain why no one stages the play anymore.

"Holy pizzooties. I'm the crazy one who decided to produce 'Endgame,'" Moore joked to the crowd. And Folkins is glad she did. It took guts, he said, to trust that audiences would still respond to the absurd 1957 play at a time when theater companies are struggling mightily to bring attendance back up to pre-pandemic levels. "Sometimes when you have an idea, and you see it through, magic happens," Moore added, as well as: "I don't think the tiers are actually relevant."

By number of Henry Awards, the most honored play of the season was actually Miners Alley Playhouse ’s deliciously creepy take on Stephen King’s “Misery.” It won for best lighting (Vance McKenzie), sound (John Hauser, who had audio effects coming at you from all directions) and Emma Messenger for her triumphant turn as that naughty sledge-hammerer, Annie Wilkes.

A majority of individual artists honored Monday were first-time winners, but a few favorites had their ongoing Henry Awards affairs extended. For Messenger, previously nominated for playing Annie in the Edge Theatre’s 2017 staging of “Misery,” this was her eighth nomination and fourth win.

Westword’s Juliet Wittman said Messenger was thunder and lightning as Annie – a terrifying monster. "Messenger deploys her entire, powerful arsenal as an actor to communicate Annie’s deceptive softness and the steely will behind it, her volatile mix of helplessness, vindictiveness and fear," she wrote.

But Miners Alley's production wasn’t the only “Misery” to take home a Henry on Monday. Up south, as we like to say, in Colorado Springs, Christopher L. Sheley, artistic director of the longest-named theater company in the state – the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College – won for best scenic design in a separate staging of “Misery.” For Sheley, who was nominated in scenic design every year from 2017-20, this was win No. 2.

Erin Rollman, part of a smart comedy ensemble called Buntport Theater , which for 25 years has created all of its own accessibly absurd original plays, won her sixth individual Henry Award, this time for supporting actress in “125 NOs,” a whimsical play that took audiences backstage at the filming of a Robert Mitchum-Greer Garson film, with Rollman playing a whimsical censor named Ruth.

“Rollman is a gifted comic actor who introduces several layers to Ruth, including a dizzying array of bizarre vocal and facial expressions,” Alex Miller wrote for Onstage Colorado .

Elsewhere, Jessica Hindsley won her second straight Henry for choreography, for the Arvada Center’s “Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella.” She tied with Kelly Van Oosbree , whose win for Performance Now’s “The Music Man” was her third.

Van Oosbree is also a director who achieved something astonishing this year: She directed two musicals that garnered 13 nominations for 13 individual actors. Five of them won, including Vern Moody and George Zamarripa, who shared the best supporting actor in a musical award for the Platte Valley Players ’ “Man of La Mancha” in Brighton.

2023-24 was an emergent season for the upstart Two Cent Lion , which was launched in 2022 by three University of Denver graduates to focus on LGBTQ+ issues. “Clink, Clink,” an original queer love story spanning 28 years, came in with a head-turning six nominations and won two, for lighting and sound design.

Kevin Douglas said it was humbling winning Henry Awards so soon out of the box alongside artists he grew up watching and learning from. Co-founder Izzy Chern said it was especially meaningful that the Guild would recognize a young company that focuses on telling queer stories. (Next up: "The Rocky Horror Show" from Sept. 21-Oct. 6 at the People's Building in Aurora.)

"Having this much light shined upon these stories is really, really cool," Chern said. "We started this thing with nothing 2 1/2 years ago, and we had no idea we'd be at this point. It's kind of beautiful, and we are so grateful."

The ceremony got off to a rousing start with recent Highlands Ranch High School graduate Gabi Karl singing as Janis from "Mean Girls," the role that won her the Denver Center's 2024 Bobby G Award for outstanding actress in a high school musical. Karl's remarkable journey includes being homeless for parts of her senior year .

The most adorable moment of the night, hands down, was seeing 10-year-old Ethan Hershman perform as lisping Winthrop with the cast of Performance Now's “The Music Man,” then share the special award for younger performers with rising Denver School of the Arts senior Nicole Siegler, who won for Town Hall Art Center's "All Shook Up."

Afterward, Ethan totally laid down the gauntlet on his older brother, Kyler Hershman , who won the Denver Center's 2019 Bobby G Award as the state's most outstanding high school musical theater actor on his way to quickly landing in the national touring production of “An Officer and a Gentleman.”

OK, Ethan was actually pretty cool about it.

"It means a lot to me to win this award," he said as he was met by a throng of well-wishers after the awards. "It's huge. And it it's even better because my brother won the Bobby Gs." (Though, at first, I swore he said "The Bobby cheese.")

Another crowd-pleasing moment came with the presentation of the Guild's special Lifetime Achievement Award to agent-turned-actor Sue Leiser, who has been immersed in the Denver theater community for 50 years.

"Thank you all for making wonderful memories for me," she told the crowd. Even the time she tripped over a misplaced set piece, fractured her leg and lost a tooth. More so when she cast a then 9-year-old and now Tony Award-winning Broadway actor Annaleigh Ashford to co-star with her in the late Theatre Group's production of "Ruthless the Musical."

This was also a triumphant year for the storied Breckenridge Backstage Theatre , which had all but given up on producing mainstage theater six years ago in favor of children’s programs. But it came out of the pandemic with a refreshed mission to produce year-round theater in the summer of 2021 and has been on a roll ever since.

Under the leadership of newish Producing Artistic Director Jacqueline Stone and Creative Producer Branden Smith, the company won three of the evening's most coveted Henry Awards as Backstage is celebrating its 50th year. Castmates Kent-Jameson Ehrman (actor) and Felix Mayes (supporting actor) were both honored for “Inventing Van Gogh,” and Keith J. Warren won for leading actor in a musical, for “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.”

Emily Van Fleet, recently named artistic director of the 58-year-old Creede Repertory Theatre 250 miles southwest of Denver, can now officially retire her unofficial title as the most accomplished actor never to have won a Henry. In an unusual twist, three Colorado companies staged “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” last season, and all three women who played Carole King were nominated for best actress in a musical. Van Fleet, star of the Arvada Center iteration, took the prize in her fourth nomination.

The crowd also showed its appreciation to big-time New York theater star Edward Staudenmayer , who made the trip to Denver to learn first-hand that he won best actor in a musical for his role as Fredrik Egerman in the Denver Center's "A Little Night Music."

"Honestly, I think any kind of recognition in this business should be wholly wanted and we should be grateful for," said Staudenmayer. "We worked so hard on this production. I thought it was so beautiful, and the Denver Center gave us all the tools we needed to to succeed. It was just a fantastic experience, and I'm so glad that our production is being recognized."

DCPA Artistic Director Chris Coleman, sharing one of two awards for best director of a musical, said he does not take lightly the opportunity to stage a lavish musical like "A Little Night Music."

"It's not a given that audiences are going to show up," he told the crowd. "It's not a given that you get to do something hard that challenges you. I really fell in love with it. So, I give thanks for being seen by all of you."

The Guild’s adjudicators considered 159 different productions representing 52 different companies across the state from June 2023 through May 2024.

Of course there are never enough awards to truly offer a representative look at the overall excellence of the season past. The generous spreading of the awards left some of the biggest-buzz stagings of the year under-represented or ignored.

The Arvada Center staged three of the five nominated best musicals. One was the highly ambitious “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,” which earned 11 nominations – and many believed deserved more than its two awards for costuming and musical direction.

Curious Theatre, which is equal in quality to the best off-Broadway theaters but is presently in a financial fight for its life , deserved better than its lone award, a three-way tie for best new play or musical (for “Truth Be Told”). Town Hall Arts Center, whose top-notch season included well-crafted productions of "Memphis," "Urinetown," "Raisin" and “Matilda," won only Siegler's younger-actor award for "All Shook Up."

The Henry Awards generally spread the wealth liberally to companies across the state, but this year, the only companies outside the metro earning at least one award were Thunder River (Carbondale), Breckenridge Backstage, OpenStage (Fort Collins), the Springs Ensemble Theatre and Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.

Other bigger-name companies that were left wanting this year included the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre (Grand Lake), Theatre Aspen, Denver’s disability-affirmative Phamaly Theater Company, the now-closed BDT Stage, The Catamounts, Colorado Springs TheatreWorks and Su Teatro, which in 18 years has yet to even get a nomination.

Among the companies that withdrew from 2023-24 Henry Awards consideration were Theatre SilCo (formerly Lake Dillon Theatre Company), Vintage Theatre and the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse.

About 360 attended Monday’s event at the Lone Tree Arts Center. The awards program was expertly and efficiently staged by director Lee Ann Scherlong with Music Director Heather Iris Holt, Stage Manager Wayne Breyer and many others. The well-run evening, which included performances from each of the five nominated best musicals, was over in just 2 hours and 15 minutes.

The Henry Awards are named after the late, legendary producer Henry Lowenstein.

During her remarks, Colorado Theatre Guild President Betty Hart emphasized that, after several years of tumult and controversy surrounding the Henry Awards, this year's theme was "Celebrating Our Connection." As part of that commitment, she announced a $1,000 donation from the Guild to the Denver Actors Fund , which has helped Colorado theater artists pay down their medical bills by $1.5 million since 2014 and helps the Guild to coordinate the Henry Awards' annual memoriam segment.

On Monday, Phamaly Theatre Company's Katelyn Kendrick and Sam Barrasso sang Billy Joel's “Lullaby (Goodnight My Angel)” during the video remembrance of those who have died.

Hart also announced this will be the last year the Henry Awards adopt gender-based acting categories, opting instead for 10 leading and supporting nominees with two winners, regardless of gender. It was the spiciest moment of the night, drawing equal parts cheers and boos from those gathered.

2023-24 HENRY AWARD WINNERS

See a complete list of the nominees here

OUTSTANDING PLAY

“Endgame,” Thunder River Theatre Company

OUTSTANDING MUSICAL

“A Little Night Music,” DCPA Theatre Company

OUTSTANDING NEW PLAY OR MUSICAL (tie)

• “Mountain Octopus,” Written by Beth Kander, Creede Repertory Theatre

• “Truth Be Told,” Written by William Cameron, Curious Theatre Company

• “Rubicon,” Written by Kristen Potter, DCPA Theatre Company

DIRECTOR OF A PLAY

Margot Bordelon, “The Lehman Trilogy,” DCPA Theatre Company

DIRECTOR OF A MUSICAL (tie)

• Chris Coleman, “A Little Night Music,” DCPA Theatre Company

• Lynne Collins, “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” Arvada Center

MUSICAL DIRECTION

David Nehls, “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,” Arvada Center

LEAD ACTOR IN A PLAY (large companies)

Brian Landis Folkins, “Endgame,” Thunder River Theatre Company

LEAD ACTOR IN A PLAY (small companies, tie)

Kent-Jameson Ehrman, “Inventing Van Gogh,” Breckenridge Backstage Theatre

Steve Emily, “Annapurna,” Springs Ensemble Theatre

LEAD ACTRESS IN A PLAY (large companies)

Emma Messenger, “Misery,” Miners Alley Playhouse

LEAD ACTRESS IN A PLAY (small companies)

Anne Oberbroeckling, “The Heartbeat of the Sun,” Cherry Creek Theatre

LEAD ACTOR IN A MUSICAL (large companies)

Edward Staudenmayer, “A Little Night Music,” DCPA Theatre Company

LEAD ACTOR IN A MUSICAL (small companies)

Keith J. Warren, “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” Breckenridge Backstage Theatre

LEAD ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL (large companies)

Emily Van Fleet, “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” Arvada Center

LEAD ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL (small companies)

Carolyn Lohr, “The Music Man,” Performance Now

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A PLAY (large companies)

Andrew Uhlenhopp, “Art,” Aurora Fox Arts Center

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A PLAY (small companies)

Felix Mayes, “Inventing Van Gogh,” Breckenridge Backstage Theatre

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A PLAY (large companies)

Anastasia Davidson, “Coal Country,” BETC

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A PLAY (small companies)

Erin Rollman, “125 NOs,” Buntport Theater

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MUSICAL (large companies)

Lawrence Flowers, “Dreamgirls,” Lone Tree Arts Center

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MUSICAL (small companies, tie)

• Vern Moody, “Man of La Mancha,” Platte Valley Players

• George Zamarripa, “Man of La Mancha,” Platte Valley Players

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL (large companies)

Cate Hayman, “A Little Night Music,” DCPA Theatre Company

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL (small companies)

Jennifer Burnett, “The Music Man,” Performance Now

ENSEMBLE

“The Lehman Trilogy,” DCPA Theatre Company

CHOREOGRAPHY

Jessica Hindsley, “Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella,” Arvada Center

Kelly Van Oosbree, “The Music Man,” Performance Now

COSTUME DESIGN (large companies)

Sarah M. Stark, “Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812,” Arvada Center

COSTUME DESIGN (small companies)

Rebecca Evans, “The Book of Will,” OpenStage Theatre & Company

LIGHTING DESIGN (large companies)

Vance McKenzie, “Misery,” Miners Alley Playhouse

LIGHTING DESIGN (small companies)

Maxwell O’Neill, “Clink, Clink,” Two Cent Lion Theatre Company

SCENIC DESIGN (large companies)

Christopher L. Sheley, “Misery,” Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College

SCENIC DESIGN (small companies)

Susan Crabtree, “You Enjoy Myself,” Local Theater Company

SOUND DESIGN (large companies)

John Hauser, “Misery,” Miners Alley Playhouse

SOUND DESIGN (small companies)

Kevin Douglas and Taelor Hanson, “Clink, Clink,” Two Cent Lion Theatre Company

YOUTH PERFORMER (two winners)

• Ethan Hershman, “The Music Man,” Performance Now

• Nicole Siegler, “All Shook Up,” Town Hall Arts Center

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

Actor and former agent Sue Leiser