You had to be there: Company, Matt Doyle receive GLAAD Award onstage

GLAAD presented Company with this year’s GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Broadway Production onstage after curtain call. Tony nominee Matt Doyle and LGBTQ members of the cast accepted the award. 

GLAAD’s Rich Ferraro and Wilson Cruz presented Company with its GLAAD Media Award onstage during curtain call on Tuesday.  Tony nominee and out actor Matt Doyle gave a great acceptance speech where he spoke about what the gay characters in this production meant to Sondheim and called for action against the Supreme Court. 

This year’s GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Broadway Production, which recognizes productions that opened last calendar year 2021, went to both Company and Thoughts of A Colored Man. Nominees for the 33rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards were announced in January 2022 and the Outstanding Broadway Production category included Chicken & Biscuits, Company, and Thoughts of a Colored Man. The GLAAD Media Awards recognize outstanding LGBTQ images across more than 30 categories of media and complement GLAAD’s work to tell culture-changing LGBTQ stories in the media. 

The GLAAD Media Award was presented to Company by Rich Ferraro, GLAAD’s Chief Communications Officer and an Executive Producer of the GLAAD Media Awards, as well as actor and activist Wilson Cruz. Cruz received GLAAD’s Vito Russo Award for his LGBTQ advocacy at the GLAAD Media Awards ceremony in New York City earlier this month.

Wilson Cruz said: “This production of Company, along with GLAAD’s other Broadway winner, Thoughts of A Colored Man, are changing the game for LGBTQ representation and storytelling on Broadway. Matt Doyle, your unforgettable ‘Getting Married Today’ and Jamie’s love for Paul will leave a mark on theater history forever. 

Company’s GLAAD win also marks the first for a Stephen Sondheim show. What is striking about Company and many Sondheim’s shows is not just genius music and lyrics, but the chosen family that the characters form. It’s why so many LGBTQ folks identify with and idolize Sondheim shows, especially Company. Thank you Mr. Sondheim, for showing all of us the power of community and theater. We love you and we miss you.” 

Tony nominee Matt Doyle said: “I’m also, and I know the cast is as well, incredibly grateful to Stephen Sondheim for allowing this work to evolve, and allowing this story of Amy and Paul to become the story of Jamie and Paul. I know that he, as a gay man himself, was incredibly moved by this production and by what we are doing on this stage. 

The last time Company was revived was 2006 and gay marriage was not legal yet. Chris Harper and Marianne Elliott recognized the importance of telling the story now as we regress in this country and as terrifying legislation is passed every single day and as we hear frightening language from our Supreme Court that threatens the rights that we earned. Thank you so much for coming out and please continue to support Broadway shows and colorful and diverse stories. Listen and learn from them. And please recognize that everyone is deserving of the right to love.”