December 2023

ANNOUNCING THE 2023 TOBY AWARDS

The Toby Awards have been celebrating theatrical excellence since 1997, promoting special recognition, irrespective of function, genre or geographic location within the global performing arts community based on individual impact to society.

Today, two 2023 Toby Awards honors are bestowed upon:

Marc Shaiman for his Outstanding Lifetime of Artistic Excellence side by side with Advocacy of Gay Rights:

As a composer and lyricist for films, television, and theatre, Marc Shaiman’s body of work has collectively generated in excess of an estimated USD $3.5 billion in global consumer sales, and he has received numerous accolades including an Emmy, Grammy, Tony Award as well as nominations for 7 Academy Awards, 2 BAFTA’s, 2 Golden Globes and a further 2 Tony’s, 5 Grammys and 11 Emmy’s.

Marc wrote the music and co-wrote the lyrics with Scott Wittman for Mary Poppins Returns (2018) and the NBC TV Series SMASH (2012) and the global musical franchises of Hairspray (2003), Catch Me If You Can (2011), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2013), Some Like It Hot (2023) and the upcoming SMASH (opening on Broadway in 2024)

Marc started his career in 1984 in his Emmy nominated recurring role as the Sweeney Sisters pianist, Skip, on Saturday Night Live and went on to compose such films as Misery (1990), The Addams Family (1991), City Slickers (1991), Sister Act (1992), Mr. Saturday Night (1992), A Few Good Men (1992), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), The American President (1995), The First Wives Club (1996), George of the Jungle (1997), In & Out (1997), Patch Adams (1998), The Out-of-Towners (1999), South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999), Hairspray (2007), LBJ (2016), Mary Poppins Returns (2018), Bros (2022), Team America: World Police (2004) and TV projects including Hawkeye, Only Murders in the Building, SMASH and From the Earth to the Moon.

He frequently works on films by Billy Crystal, Rob Reiner and Trey Parker, and also appeared on screen in many of these films. He became Bette Midler’s musical director and co-producer of many of her recordings, including “The Wind Beneath My Wings”, “From a Distance” and her performance on the penultimate The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. Marc has worked with other icons such as Harry Connick Jr., Neil Patrick Harris, Jack Black, Will Ferrell, Eric Clapton, Christine Ebersole, Jennifer Holiday, Jennifer Hudson, Diane Keaton, Steve Martin, Audra McDonald, Barbra Streisand, Queen Latifah, Robin Williams and Mariah Carey.

In 2008, his objection to a prominent musical theatre’s artistic director’s support of the Gay marriage ban in California’s Proposition 8 led to his online viral satirical mini-musical sensation Prop 8 The Musical which received a live Broadway premiere in 2009. Since then, his open, fun, honest and loving social media is packed with his love of his husband Louis Mirabal, and publicly voicing his normal reality, without regard to ill-placed old views on sexuality. He is leading the way for his celebrity peers to join his ideals of acceptance across the spectrum of race and gender identity.

Fired up by the recent tide of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the USA, Marc has harsh words for red-state bans. “It’s not hyperbole to say that this is very much like it was in Nazi Germany, where they start banning books and start banning this and banning that, and there are much larger forces who are really trying to change the world in some very terrible ways”.

Blame Canada?, maybe, but this busy New Jersey born Jewish gay boy’s music has been cherished globally by hundreds of millions, while using his celebrity status nurturing his connections to become a staunch and effective activist for gay human rights.

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6-qamD8qGs

and

Jim Glaub for his outstanding volunteerism in giving Santa a human voice:

Jim Glaub has worked on over 50 Broadway shows and events. He has worked for The Society of London Theatre and prior to London, Jim was at Serino/Coyne, the live-entertainment advertising agency. Jim is on the advisory committee for the American Theatre Wing.

But it’s for his moonlighting as Chief Christmas Elf that he is recognized. Along with his husband Dylan Parker, he is the co-founder of Miracle on 22nd Street, a community-based volunteer organization that responds to children’s letters to Santa with season’s greetings and gifts for kids.

They’ve replied to thousands of letters to Santa Claus mistakenly delivered to their West 22nd St, New York apartment over the past decade. Letters included heart-wrenching requests from needy children.

The couple began writing back, fulfilling requests as best they could, and recruited friends and family to help. Since then, 1,000’s have volunteered to help.

In the 2022 season alone, they answered 1,480 letters.

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Kmtb_GVbKQ

Both join an elite club, not only as shining examples of humanitarian leadership, but currently with only 53 theatrical awards having been bestowed since 1997, the awards are unique since they recognize individuals whose specific accomplishments typically would be overlooked by other global performing arts awards which have narrowly defined categories.

Throughout its 25-year history, awards have been presented at the end of each calendar year, except for 2020. Previous recipients include an eclectic mix of theatre creatives, performers, musicians, journalists, production, stage and general managers, marketing and public relations experts, logistics and production crew and more, each consistently showcasing theatrical excellence coupled with social, moral or ethical responsibility beyond their employment, coming from around the world such as Australia, Europe, UK, Canada, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa, Cuba, Argentina, Philippines, China, Russia, Poland, Indonesia and the USA.

For details, see:
https://TobySimkin.com/Toby-Awards/ 

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  Press contact: Toby Awards: theatrical@me.com