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.