Anthony Warlow wins Helen Hayes Award

At a ceremony earlier this week in Washington DC, it was announced that Australian musical theatre favourite Anthony Warlow has been awarded the prestigious 2016 Helen Hayes Award for Lead Actor in a Musical. Awarded for his performance in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of Man of La Mancha, the accolade denotes professional theatre of excellence in the Washington, DC area.

40 judges select nominees and recipients of the awards named in tribute to the woman known as the First Lady of American theatre. The Helen Hayes awards are presented by Theatre Washington (formerly known as the Helen Hayes Awards organization), which has been the unified voice of Washington theatre since the 1980s.

In its review of the production, The Washington Post said, “The charismatic Warlow leads the charge in one of those cases when a role just flat-out fits. Warlow’s silky baritone unwinds in long, confident phrases that shower the chivalric Dulcinea with tender romanticism and makes ‘The Impossible Dream’ rewardingly heroic. He also plainly relishes playing the whimsical Cervantes of writer Dale Wasserman’s imagination”. Theatremania claimed that, “Warlow is excellent as Cervantes and Don Quixote, both in the way his rich baritone does justice to the musical’s most familiar numbers and in his ability to transform himself quickly from Cervantes to Quixana to Quixote”, while TheatreBloom said, “It is Warlow’s transformation and his charismatic leadership that makes this tale of impossible hope amid stark misery so very compelling in the role that made Richard Kiley a star in 1965. With a few strokes of greasepaint, addition of a beard and wig, and all the theatrical craftsmanship of extraordinary talent, he becomes Don Quixote in every conceivable way.”

We congratulate Warlow on bringing his unique stage charm so successfully to American audiences. Click here for a list of further recipients of this years Helen Hayes Awards.