Steven Hoggett, the Tony-nominated choreographer currently represented on Broadway by Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Angels in America, will receive the inaugural Douglas and Ethel Watt Critics' Choice Award at the 2018 Chita Rivera Awards ceremony, set to take place at NYU's Skirball Center on May 20 at 7:30pm.
"Hoggett will be honored for the poetry and punch of the movement passages in these plays, which he helped transform into enchantingly provocative physical theater," reads a press statement.
The Douglas and Ethel Watt Critics' Choice Award is bestowed by the journalists of the Chita Rivera Awards' Broadway judging committee, to recognize outstanding work that falls outside the framework of the original categories. It is named for the longtime Daily News theater critic Douglas Watt and his wife, Ethel, an original cast member of Carousel and Kiss Me, Kate who later became a producer.
The Chita Rivera Awards has also announced this year's starry lineup of presenters. They include stage greats Joel Grey (Cabaret), Ben Vereen (Pippin), Maurice Hines (Tappin' Thru Life), Lea Salonga (Once On This Island), Jessie Mueller (Carousel), Norbert Leo Butz (My Fair Lady), Gavin Creel (Hello, Dolly!), Patricia Birch (Candide), Len Cariou (Sweeney Todd), Laura Osnes (Bandstand), Robert Fairchild (An American In Paris), Karen Ziemba (Prince of Broadway) and Andy Karl (Groundhog Day).
As previously announced, actress, dancer and choreographer Carmen De Lavallade will be honored at the Chita Rivera Awards with the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award; iconic composer John Kander will receive the Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theater Award; and legendary theater director and producer Harold Prince will be presented with the SDC Director Award for Exemplary Collaboration with Choreographers.
For the full list of nominees in competitive categories, click here.