Faye Dunaway is guest of honor at Norton awards

BOSTON - Academy Award-winning actress Faye Dunaway will be the guest of honor at the 37th annual Elliot Norton Awards ceremony to be held at 7 p.m. Monday, May 20, at the Huntington Avenue Theatre.

The awards – Boston’s equivalent of Broadway’s Tony Awards – honor this region’s finest actors and theater productions. They are named for Boston’s dean of American drama critics, Elliot Norton, who died in 2003 at the age of 100. Joyce Kulhawik, president of the Boston Theater Critics Association, will be master of ceremonies.

Patriot Ledger theater critic Iris Fanger is among the 10 members of the awards committee.

Dunaway is a graduate of Boston University. She will portray Katharine Hepburn in Matthew Lombardo’s one-woman play “Tea at Five,” which chronicles Hepburn’s turbulent childhood, her unlikely rise to stardom, and her heart-breaking romance with Spencer Tracy. The play’s only pre-Broadway engagement will be at Boston’s Huntington Avenue Theatre June 21-July 7.

Dunaway last appeared on Broadway in 1982’s “The Curse of the Aching Heart.” Dunaway is best known for her screen work in “Bonnie & Clyde,” “Chinatown” and “Network. She was nominated for Oscars for all three films, picking up the statue for “Network.”

The Elliot Norton Awards are produced by the Boston Theater Critics Association. Tickets are $25 until May 10 using the code NORTIES10, $35 thereafter. Tickets are available at the Boston Theatre Scene Box Office or by calling 617-933-8600 or ElliotNortonAwards.com.

The Huntington Avenue Theatre is at 264 Huntington Ave., Boston.

 Dana Barbuto may be reached at dbarbuto@patriotledger.com or follow her on Twitter @dbarbuto_Ledger.