65th Annual Obie Awards Rescheduled for July 14

The previously postponed Obie Awards will now take place on July 14 at 8PM ET. The 65th annual celebration of off and off-off Broadway theater was originally scheduled to take place on June 4. The prerecorded ceremony, which will be available to view on the American Theatre Wing's YouTube channel, will be hosted by comedian, actor and writer Cole Escola (Difficult People, Mozart in the Jungle), who will also perform with surprise special guests.

Before the show, Saycon Sengbloh, N’Kenge, LaChanze, Celia Rose Gooding and Marie's Crisis accompanists Adam Michael Tilford and Kenney M. Green will join the American Theatre Wing in raising a glass to the theater season with a sing-a-long. The pre-show fundraiser, sponsored by Art Lab, will support the Wing’s efforts to sustain the theater community in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more and reserve your sing-a-long spot here.

During the virtual ceremony, which was originally scheduled to be held on May 18 at Terminal 5, awards will be handed out for shows that opened between May 1, 2019 and March 12, 2020, in addition to shining a light on the productions that were in rehearsal and performance at the time the theaters closed.

The show will feature special guest presenters Cynthia Erivo, LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Heidi Schreck, among others, as well as an encore presentation from the Obie Award-winning production of Fela!, featuring Obie Award-winner Sengbloh and Sahr Ngaujah. Playwright Michael R. Jackson will share a special performance of “Memory Song” from A Strange Loop. In celebration of the 25th anniversary of its Obie Award wins, members of the York Theatre revival of Merrily We Roll Along will be joined by members of the original Broadway and 2019 Fiasco Theater revival casts for a special performance of “Our Time.” Songwriter and performer Shaina Taub will perform during the In Memoriam segment.