The Obies are coming!

The Obie Awards are The Village Voice's answer to Broadway's Tony Awards, honoring the best that off-Broadway (and off-off-Broadway) has to offer. This year, for the first time, the general public will be able to buy tickets to the star-studded event.

Admission includes the awards show with live music performances, as well as the after-party with more live music and art celebrating this year's honorees. These are both held in Webster Hall, and there are free alcoholic drinks during the awards, sure to enhance the night.

The 55^th Annual Obies will be co-hosted by Anika Noni Rose, from the "Dreamgirls" film and Broadway's recent revival of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," and Michael Cerveris of "LoveMusik," "Assassins," and most recently "In the Next Room (or the vibrator play)."

There will be two performances by the cast and band of the Broadway hit "Fela!" and the awards will be presented by actors Sam Rockwell, Kerry Washington, Viola Davis, Jennifer Westfeldt, Marin Ireland, Linda Lavin, Michael Shannon, and J. Smith Cameron.

The Obies are unlike other award shows in that there are no yearly fixed official categories, or nominees announced prior to the show. They annually honor the best people, groups, and productions in theater, with the Lifetime Achievement and Best New American Play awards being the only two there every year.

I hope that stellar productions "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson," "A Lie of the Mind," "The Understudy," "Clybourne Park," and "In the Next Room (or the vibrator play)" are recognized, along with their impeccable casts.

The winners are picked by critics from The Village Voice and elsewhere, as well as other New York theater experts, this year also including actress Martha Plimpton.

Past winners include NYU alumni such as Alec Baldwin and Felcitiy Huffman, as well as famed actors Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Al Pacino, Denzel Washington, Edward Norton, Robert Duvall, Morgan Freeman, Nathan Lane, Sigourney Weaver, Kevin Bacon, Kathy Bates, James Earl Jones, Joan Cusack, and Harvey Fierstein, and many more.

The Obies also benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, and will give its annual theater grants at the ceremony, which shows that both charity and art are a key priority for this very unique and exciting event that's sure to be more fun and loose than the ceremonies that were recently held at NYU's own liquor-free Skirball Center.

The Obies will be on May 17 at Webster Hall (125 E. 11^th St.) at 8:00 p.m. Tickets ($25, for those 21 and over) are available at www.brownpapertickets.com.