If you see a bunch of people milling around the Warner Theater tonight in evening dress, no, it's not prom; tonight, the D.C. theater community gets its chance to shine at the Helen Hayes Awards, our city's version of the Tonys.

Along with winners in 24 categories, the Helen Hayes Awards will give out a few special honors. Planned are a special tribute to British stage actor Sir Derek Jacobi, a The Washington Post Award for Innovative Leadership in the Theatre Community for in-transition Arena Stage, a new John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company for the Taffety Punk Theater company, and a Governor's Award for dedicated audience members Bob Davis and Henry Schalizki.

DCist will report on the winners tomorrow morning. As per our tradition, we like to avoid projecting winners for every category, since as busy critics with day jobs, we don't make it to every performance. Still, we'd like to give a shout out to a few of the performances we're excited about, and would like to see recognized tonight.

In its second year, one of our favorite categories recognizes Best Ensemble. We'd be happy to see the talented dancers from Synetic Theater get a nod for their silent Hamlet, but we're generally rooting for Theater Alliance, nominated for Insurrection: A Holding History, not just for that show, but for their consistent ensemble work as of late.

Speaking of Synetic, choreographer Irina Tsikurishvili has no less than three of the nominations in the choreography category. Hopefully the votes won't be too split to grant her a win; we'd say it should be for her mansion that literally came alive in The Fall of The House of Usher.

We didn't see Nancy Robinette in Studio's Souvenir, but from what we hear, she may be a shoe-in for best lead actress in a play. In the meantime, our allegiance is with Rorschach Theater's Gabriela Fernandez Coffey in References To Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, the anchoring performance in one of the season's steamy surprises.

It's hard not to assume area leading man Will Gartshore will take home the trophy for Best Actor In A Musical for his fine work in Merrily We Roll Along, but we've got to give it to Marc Kudish for his slippery Satan in the show-stopping The Witches Of Eastwick, which we'd like to see clean up in general.

It's not our first love letter to Kate Eastwood Norris, but her comedic performance in She Stoops To Comedy was the kind that gives you a cramp in your side. And there's no forgetting Sarah Marshall, who might just steal the trophy for her turn as a Shakespearean fool.

The out-of-town categories tend to be a little anticlimactic (half the nominees don't even show up for the awards). Bill Irwin and Cherry Jones probably have them sewn up for their respective work in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Doubt.

Kathie Lee Gifford's Saving Aimee was kind of a disaster, but Carolee Carmello alone deserves an award for almost making it worth watching.

Who are you rooting for tonight? Any names conspicuously missing from the list of nominees?