The Elliot Norton Awards celebrated their 20th birthday Monday night in a new home, the Stuart Street Playhouse. Highlights included the appearance of guest of honor Julie Harris; a 20th-anniversary award presented to departing American Repertory Theatre artistic director Robert Brustein; a slide-show photo backdrop of the winning productions; entertainment worthy of the name from Maryann Zschau and Steven Bergman; and the appearance of Elliot Norton, the dean of Boston theater critics, who turned 99 this past May 17.

This year’s award winners were likewise an impressive lot. Honors for Outstanding Production by a Visiting Company went to Hartford Stage’s The Glass Menagerie as hosted by the American Repertory Theatre. Outstanding Production by a Large Resident Company was garnered by Trinity Repertory’s staging of Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul. Commonwealth Shakespeare Company took home the Outstanding Production by a Small Resident Company award for its spiffy outdoor Twelfth Night, and Boston Theatre Works had the Outstanding Production by a Local Fringe Company, for the second year running, with Moisés Kaufman’s The Laramie Project.

The Norton for Outstanding Solo Performance went to Catherine Samie for her appearance in The Last Letter, at the Market Theater. Outstanding Musical Production by a Large Company was Contact, which Broadway in Boston brought to the Colonial Theatre. Outstanding Musical Production by a Small Company, given this year in memory of the late and beloved theater critic Arthur Friedman, went to the Lyric Stage’s Sunday in the Park with George.

Directing honors in the Large Company division went to the Huntington Theatre Company’s Nicholas Martin for Betty’s Summer Vacation. The Small Company award was, again for the second year running, taken home by Súgán Theatre’s Carmel O’Reilly for The Lonesome West and Bailegangaire. Outstanding Set Design went to Alexander Dodge for his Commonwealth Twelfth Night and his Huntington Heartbreak House; Outstanding Costume Design was given to Gail Astrid Buckley for the Lyric’s The Curse of the Bambino, the Publick Theatre’s Much Ado About Nothing, the Commonwealth’s Twelfth Night, and the Market’s Shel’s Shorts.

Andrea Martin was honored as Outstanding Actress, Large Company for her Mrs. Siezmagraff in Betty’s Summer Vacation; Outstanding Actress, Small Company went to Nancy E. Carroll for her Mommo in Bailegangaire. Simon Russell Beale’s Hamlet at the Wilbur Theatre landed him the Outstanding Actor, Large Company prize; Robert Pemberton took the Small Company award for Benedick in the Publick’s Much Ado, Bill in the Lyric’s Lobby Hero, and seven characters in Shel’s Shorts.

A special citation was given to young actress Eliza Rose Fichter for her portrayal of children in a quartet of productions, including the Lyric’s The Miracle Worker. And the Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence went to Trinity Repertory’s Barbara Meek, "an actress of extraordinary range and dignity who has indelibly graced New England stages for 34 years." I was left wishing only that the selection committee had cited Commonwealth director Steve Maler’s dog Zoe as Outstanding Animal Actor for her Method turn as Crab in the Commonwealth Young Company’s outdoor Two Gentlemen of Verona last summer.