It's awards season in the theater world, and Miami-raised Raúl Esparza has already won a big one. On Sunday night at the 49th annual Drama Desk Awards, New York critics named Esparza best featured actor in a musical for his performance as flamboyant promoter Philip Sallon in the now-closed Taboo, the Rosie O'Donnell-produced show about Boy George and London club life in the 1980s. On June 6, the actor will find out whether he's also taking home the Tony Award in that category.

While he's waiting, though, Esparza (who's giving a magnetic lead performance eight times a week in the Off-Broadway revival of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart) used his Monday night off to co-host a different 49th annual awards ceremony with fellow Tony nominee Swoosie Kurtz.

Winners of the Village Voice-sponsored Obie Awards honoring Off-Broadway's best work include actors Viola Davis (Intimate Apparel), Sarah Jones (Bridge & Tunnel), Lili Taylor (Aunt Dan and Lemon) and Tony nominees Jefferson Mays (I Am My Own Wife), Brían F. O'Byrne (Frozen) and Tonya Pinkins (Caroline, or Change); directors Lee Breuer (Mabou Mines' dollHouse) and Moisés Kaufman (I Am My Own Wife); and playwright Craig Lucas (Small Tragedy). Among the Obies' special citations, two went to the playwright-composer team of Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori (Caroline, or Change) and to the show's director, George C. Wolfe, for his work as artistic director of the Public Theater.