2025 Elliot Norton Award Nominations Celebrate Boston’s Vibrant Theater Scene
Earlier this spring the Boston Theater Critics Association (BTCA) announced the nominations for the 42nd Annual Elliot Norton Awards, honoring outstanding achievements across Greater Boston’s vibrant theater landscape. This year’s celebration takes place on Monday, June 2, 2025 at 7 PM at the Huntington Theatre. Tickets are on sale now and going fast
More than 140 nominations were made across two dozen categories, recognizing excellence in acting, directing, design, choreography and more.
Leading the pack is The Huntington, which earned a leading 23 nods across multiple categories for its acclaimed productions including The Grove, Leopoldstadt, Sojourners, Toni Stone, and The Triumph of Love. The company was recognized in nearly every major category—Outstanding Play (Large), Lead and Featured Performances, Direction, and multiple design categories. Other theaters receiving multiple nominations include American Repertory Theater, lauded for its ambitious musicals Gatsby and Diary of a Tap Dancer, and Central Square Theater, whose partnerships with Front Porch Arts Collective for Next to Normal and Her Portmanteau led to several performance and production honors. SpeakEasy Stage, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, and Apollinaire Theatre Company also earned a strong showing with nominations across acting, direction and design categories. A full list of nominations can be found on the Elliot Norton Awards webpage.
The diversity of companies and co-productions recognized this year reflects the richness of Boston’s performing arts community and the collaborative spirit driving some of the season’s most powerful work. Five visiting productions are also being honored, underscoring that the richness in Boston is both home-grown and enhanced by outside entities.
A highlight of the evening will be the presentation of the 2025 Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence to acclaimed actress Kathy St. George, whose remarkable career spans stages in Boston, New York, and throughout New England.
Several theater institutions celebrating major milestones will also receive Special Citations:
- Boch Center Wang Theatre (100th Anniversary)
- Apollinaire Theatre Company (30th Anniversary)
- Greater Boston Stage Company (25th Anniversary)
- Shit-Faced Shakespeare (10th Anniversary)
The Elliot Norton Arts Education Award will go to Rehearsal for Life, whose transformative programs — Urban Improv and Freelance Players — foster social-emotional learning and creativity among young people through performance.
In making the nomination announcement, BTCA President Joyce Kulhawik said “we are now even more fiercely committed to championing our theater artists… who speak the unspoken about what it is to be human in this world in all of its glorious diversity. This is what happens on stages every night across Greater Boston. This is what we celebrate. This is what we need now more than ever.”
Named for legendary Boston theater critic Elliot Norton, the awards honor the best in local theater each year and continue Norton’s legacy of passionate arts advocacy. Over the years, the ceremony has welcomed an extraordinary array of special guests, from Al Pacino and Chita Rivera to August Wilson, Cherry Jones, and Randy Rainbow.
ArtsBoston applauds and celebrates the nominees, many of whom are our members. The show is always a vibrant blast of fun. For more details and tickets, visit The Boston Theatre Scene Norton page here. and follow the Boston Theater Critics Association (@nortonawards on Instagram).
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