WIN OR LOSE, WE LAUGH: The Host with the most sits down to boast ... of the Wilmington Theater Awards
- Chase Harrison
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
This Wednesday night ushers in the biggest party of the year for the Cape Fear’s theater community: the 13th Wilmington Theater Awards!
The show, held on March 25 at Thalian Hall, will recognize and reward the best of the best for the 2025 theatrical season. While the curtains have closed and the bows have been taken, there is one last piece of business to take care of... to hand out the prestigious star-topped awards to the stars of the Wilmington stages.
This being the 13th ceremony, some people could see that as ominous sign. However, for this year’s host, Erin Sullivan (whose personality burns as bright as a star itself), it's another day at the office. Sullivan was kind enough to sit down with me to discuss the upcoming awards, her history with the community, and what she hopes that community will take away from the one night of the year where the entertainers are the entertained.
Between teaching at her self-owned and operated performance academy, rehearsing for the awards show, and just maintaining an everyday life, Sullivan ran a few minutes late to our meeting. Upon arriving I was met with a barrage of apologies and the phrase, “Struggle Bus Sullivan, that’s me!”
After laughter, introductions (and letting her know I had only just arrived myself), before I could ask my first question compliments begin to fly. “Can I just say you have an amazing speaking voice?” This host already knows how to win over her audience—even if just an audience of one.
Sullivan, who was not living in Wilmington 13 years ago when this award show began, let her true feelings of missing out on the opening years be known.
“Oh God, let me just say I was SO jealous! Because when they first did [the Wilmington Theater Awards] the first year was 2012, I wasn’t living here at the time and I just thought it was brilliant," she begins. "It’s a party of love, it’s a lovefest. So, every year they were held and I was not here I would just following it online! Who’s hosting, who’s nominated, who won! I would feel like a third-party, but I got to know at least what was going on."
Sullivan moved back to Wilmington in 2023, the first year the held the awards again since the Covid pandemic. "It felt very monumental to be here in person to experience the show," she says. "I’m very honored to be asked to host this little legacy of ours.”
From there, we chat about when the call came down from high, offering her the hosting duties. “I was offered the hosting gig back in October. Jeff Hidek and John Staton (two of the show’s producers and creators) sent me the cutest little text, they were like, 'Hey, would you consider hosting a little gig in March?'”
I only replied with “I’d thought you’d never ask.”
With a mischievous giggle Sullivan continues, "In my brain, prior to all of this, I would think If I got to host this is what I would do. So, I just knew I wanted to do something ridiculous, glamorous, classy, but stupid. I want the tone of the show to be everyone looking fabulous and everyone laughing all night long.”
When asked about tones and theme Sullivan is aiming to incorporate she adds “Look, I’m the first person to…” She takes a pause before answering.
“In 'Gypsy' (the musical) there is this line that Louise says to Mama Rose, 'You don’t laugh at me cause I laugh first.' I love making fun of myself because I’m a disaster, but I’m a great disaster. In a situation like this I’m getting to make fun of myself and enjoy the ridiculousness of it all.
“I still want the night to be classy though," she continues. "I can tell you that Jeff Phillips [prior host, past winner, and nominated this year] threatened me when my hosting was announced, telling me to 'please bring the glamour back!' I was like okay Dad!?! Seriously I love that man so much! But he was like, Erin, you bring back the glamor Damnit! I’m so fortunate to have him in my life, he has been one of my biggest supporters.
What really has Sullivan excited is getting to sound the horns and bring the community she grew up in together. “What has been really fun is getting to ask people to be a part of the show. Let me say this: Jeff Hidek is remarkable, because he is the mastermind producer behind of all this, and let me just tell you, this is the equivalent too…”
Sullivan leans in close to the recorder; “…To all you future hosts: The is as rough has planning a wedding! Planning a wedding!”
Nevertheless, this is certainly not the starlet’s first rodeo when it comes to award shows. And she's bringing her style of hosting for Wilmington, as she describes a shindig she had a hand in starting back in the Big Apple.
“During my time in New York I worked at the restaurant Joe Allen for years, a Mid-Town Manhattan gem for Broadway stars linger," she says. "Now during that time, a friend of mine who was a parody writer and I started something we called the Joey’s. A little send-up to the celebrity cliental, an award show for the staff of Joe Allen itself. So, for one night out of the year these celebrities celebrated us! It became like this surreal-Chirstopher Guest-like award show; we had Best Server, Best Bartender, Best Regular, Best Lunch Regular! It was this very ridiculous night that became very serious, so much so it grew a cult following in the theater world there. We had Terrence McNally announce one year, OH! Lisa Lambert, who wrote the 'Drowsy Chaperone,' was one of our biggest supporters. I mean we ended up getting featured in the New Yorker! So, right now getting to do this has really tapped into my Joe Allen experience. It’s excited, it’s nerve-racking, but it’s fun.”
Not only is Sullivan going through the stresses of hosting duties this year, she’s also nominated. In the Outstanding Supporting Actress (Musical) category, Sullivan garnered a nod for her turn as Velma Von Tussle in “Hairspray.” Produced by Opera House Theatre Company, the production house boasts the most nominations of the evening, with 11 total.
With that detail in mind, I ask Sullivan which role made her more nervous: host or nominee?
“I’m nominated every year, I’m never gonna win.” She says with a humorous sigh. though, she says she's particularly honored for the nomination for her role as Velma in "Hairspray."
"That is MY show," she gushes. "I did the Broadway national tour for three years, playing Amber Von Tussle. So, me getting to play Velma, the mother of the character I played for over 300 performances was a full-circle moment for me. And to be recognized for that, it’s pretty fortunate.”
Sullivan smiles, shaking her head, and throws her arms into the air. “You know, honestly, I’ve been so fortunate, and this does not go lightly, I have been so fortunate to be recognized, to be nominated, I have been very lucky. There are a lot of exceptional performances through the year, this year, and every year. So, any year that I do get recognized, I am humbled.”
Spoiler alert: Sullivan's humility isn't going to cost her the opportunity for a good punch line for this show. As one of the only hosts to have never won, she's like our own local version of Susan Lucci. "That will be the source of some of my self-deprecating material, cause I’m cool but I’m not that cool."
Speaking of cool, one cool mark that Sullivan has already left on the awards is the addition of nomination pins. “One idea I was glad the Arts Council took was that every person nominated will be getting a pin that will acknowledge their achievement for the evening," Sullivan explains. "A small memento for the work they did."
Aside from pins, awards, laughs, and good time, I finally ask Sullivan what else she hopes people will get from this evening at the theatre with all our community's theatre kids....
“I want people to just enjoy their time together," she simply states. "Wilmington theater is like its own Six-Degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon, and I want everyone to come together; win or lose. I want to make fun of the winning, I want to make fun of the losing. So that everyone can feel equal at the end of the night.”
On that note, off Erin went to teach the next generation of Wilmington talents how to take to the stage with confidence. Which is exactly the air she’ll bring to Wilmington theater’s big night!
Details:
The 2026 Wilmington Theater Awards
Historic Main Stage
Wed., March 25 at 7 p.m.
Tickets: $32
