The 7 PM May 2 ceremony at midtown's Dodger Stages will include performances from nominated shows Altar Boyz Junie B. Jones, Lone Star Love and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee , plus (in honor of The Lortel Awards' 20th) premieres of new short works from Lortel Award-winning writers Charles Busch, Mark Hollmann & Greg Kotis and Anna Deavere Smith.

Another highlight will be a special performance by the cast of Forbidden Broadway .

The late writer-performer-director Charles Ludlam to be inducted onto Playwrights Sidewalk, located in front of the Lucille Lortel Theatre in Greenwich Village, considered by many to be the epicenter of the Off-Broadway movement.

The Lortel Awards were created in 1985 by resolution of The League of Off-Broadway Theatres & Producers, to recognize outstanding achievement on Off-Broadway stages. They are named for the late actress-producer and arts advocate who embraced new and foreign voices in the mid-20th century (and into the 1990s).

Dodger Stages is at 340 W. 50th Street. A late night supper will follow at Ruth's Chris Steak House at 148 W. 51st Street. A limited number of tickets, for the ceremony only, are on sale to the public at $65 each through the Dodger Stages box office and Telecharge.com at (212) 239-6200).

For more information, Visit www.LortelAwards.com.

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As previously reported, Doubt, Hurlyburly and Intimate Apparel top the list of shows with multiple nominations, receiving five each; Altar Boyz and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee follow with four nominations each; Hedda Gabler, Nine Parts of Desire and Shockheaded Peter each received three.

The 2005 Lucille Lortel Awards nominating/voting committee is appointed by the League of Off-Broadway Theatres & Producers, the Lucille Lortel Foundation, Actors' Equity Association, Society of Stage Directors & Choreographers, and also includes journalists, educators, and other artistic contributors to Off-Broadway.