Theater Fans to Honor Best of Broadway Season at First-Ever Broadway.com Audience Choice Awards Ceremony

Get ready for the best party in town, Broadway! The 12th annual Broadway.com Audience Choice Awards will be presented live at a star-filled event on Sunday, May 15, at the Allen Room, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center. The only major theatrical prize awarded solely by votes cast from theater fans online, the Audience Choice Awards is moving from online to in-person with this special celebration.

"We're thrilled to be able to expand upon the Broadway Audience Choice Awards with our very first live ceremony," said John Gore, CEO and owner of Key Brand Entertainment Inc. "Broadway has an enormous base of loyal and supportive fans around the world, and it's paramount that their voices are heard. We're proud to be committed to that goal and to take the next step of giving the Audience Choice Awards the live ceremony it deserves."

The 2011 Broadway.com Audience Choice Awards will honor the best of the 2010-2011 Broadway season with a variety of traditional and unique categories including Favorite New Broadway Musical, Favorite Diva Performance, Favorite Onstage Pair, Favorite Replacement, Favorite Breakthrough Performance and more. This year, the awards will add a category to honor national tours of Broadway favorites.

Beginning Friday, April 29, fans will be able to choose nominees from lists of every possibility in each category. On Thursday, May 5, the nominees will be announced on the site and voting will begin. The winners will be announced live at the ceremony on Sunday, May 15.

In the ten-year history of the awards (formerly known as the Broadway.com Audience Awards), theater fans have honored countless stars for their contributions to the stage. Among past winners are Clay Aiken, Antonio Banderas, Matthew Broderick, Norbert Leo Butz, Kristin Chenoweth, Harry Connick Jr., Harvey Fierstein, Jane Fonda, Sutton Foster, Ethan Hawke, Sean Hayes, Hugh Jackman, Cheyenne Jackson, Jane Krakowski, Nathan Lane, Patti LuPone, Idina Menzel, Lea Michele, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mary-Louise Parker, Daniel Radcliffe, Sara Ramirez, Vanessa Redgrave, Julia Roberts, Liev Schreiber, Elaine Stritch, Patrick Wilson and Marissa Jaret Winokur.

For a complete list of past winners by year, click here.