Niko Moon earned his first SESAC songwriter of the year award at this year’s SESAC Nashville Music Awards, in celebration of his breakthrough hit “Good Time,” which topped Billboard’s Country Airplay chart earlier this year. The song marks his first No. 1 hit as an artist. Moon also penned the Dierks Bentley-recorded “Gone,” which reached the top five on Country Airplay.

Lee Brice’s hit “One of Them Girls,” published by Warner Chappell Music, was named song of the year. Warner Chappell Music also earned the publisher of the year honor.

This year’s SESAC Nashville Music Awards introduced a new accolade: the sync song of the year. The inaugural winner was Walker Hayes’ “Fancy Like,” which has spent 18 weeks atop Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. “Fancy Like” was co-written by SESAC affiliate Josh Jenkins and published by SMACK Songs and Kobalt.

Each of this year’s winners were announced via a digital format, featured on SESAC’s website and social media platforms.

“Songwriting and music publishing are at the very core of the music business, and we at SESAC love that we get to honor those contributions,” said Scott Jungmichel, president and chief operating officer, SESAC PRO. “We are happy to celebrate our top performed songs over the past year.”

“We are very proud of the songs we awarded this year,” said Shannan Hatch, vice president of Creative Services. “Our Nashville creative team worked hard to come up with creative, cozy, and safe gatherings to celebrate the successes of our SESAC songwriter and publisher family who won awards. We all look forward to the future when we can safely celebrate with everyone in person.”

A full list of this year’s SESAC Nashville Music Awards winners is available at SESAC.com.

For all the suspicious minds wondering how Austin Butler will fare as Elvis Presley in the new biopic, by the looks of a new teaser, he’s nailed the performance.

Filmmaker Baz Luhrmann (The Great Gatsby), who’s helming the biopic, gave fans a first look at Butler’s portrayal of The King of Rock & Roll on what he called “Elvis Monday” (Nov. 15). “Made a little something to let you good people know we are taking care of business on June 24, 2022,” he captioned the 21-second snippet on Instagram while highlighting the King’s “taking care of business” mantra.

In the clip, the 30-year-old actor is seen, only from behind, with his perfectly slicked-back black hair walking backstage in his classic black leather jacket in one shot and white suit in another while his 1969 Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Suspicious Minds” plays in the background.

Some musicians are ready for the film based on Luhrmann’s comments section, where Yola wrote “YEEESSSSSS!!!” followed by fire emojis and Ben Wells chimed in with, “Cannot. Wait!!”

The yet-untitled Elvis biopic is set to be released in theaters on June 24, 2022. The release date has been pushed back many times throughout the last year due to COVID, including after Tom Hanks — who will play Elvis’ manager Colonel Tom Parker in the film — contracted the virus in Australia, where he was filming the biopic, along with his wife Rita Wilson.

Watch Luhrmann’s biopic snippet below.

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Fifteen years ago, Spring Awakening — the musical that transformed singer/songwriter Duncan Sheik into an in-demand theater composer and actors like Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff into Hollywood-bound stars — began its revolutionary run on Broadway. And on Monday night, the groundbreaking musical — along with its entire original Broadway cast — returned for one night only to celebrate its enduring legacy.

The Spring Awakening 15th-anniversary reunion show took place at Broadway’s Imperial Theater, currently home to the hit Ain’t Too Proud. The performance, produced by cast members Groff and Lauren Pritchard along with Tom Hulce and Ira Pittelman and helmed by the show’s original director Michael Mayer, also served as a benefit for The Actors Fund, the nonprofit that offers financial assistance and services to entertainment professionals.

Lines of eager fans stretched down and around a busy 45th Street in Manhattan, which was also the site that evening of the New York premiere for Lin Manuel-Miranda’s Netflix adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s 2001 musical Tick, Tick … Boom!, as well as the long-awaited return of the revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Company for previews.

While some concertgoers were left waiting an extra hour outside due to ticketing delays at the Imperial, the sold-out show eventually went on, with the original cast performing a full concert version of the rebellious 2006 musical. With a full band onstage and the entire cast seated in a line of black chairs, the performance brought the story of teenagers in turn-of-the-century Germany discovering their sexuality and learning firsthand the consequences of shame and stigma back to life — and had audience members on their feet and cheering more often than not.

Those who couldn’t snag tickets to the near-immediately-sold-out performance are in luck: On Monday morning, HBO announced that a documentary surrounding the anniversary show — featuring behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage, exclusive interviews, archival footage from the original production and filmed performances from Monday’s benefit — will premiere and be available for streaming on HBO Max in 2022. But for now, here are the highlights of a night that will go down in musical theater fan history.

The OBC OG’s return

There have been numerous Spring Awakening iterations around the world — including a 2015 Broadway revival featuring deaf and hearing cast members performing in American Sign Language and English, and this December the first London revival — but Monday evening’s performance was all about the original production, with every single original Broadway cast member present to reprise their roles, including the star trio of Michele as Wendla Bergmann, Groff as Melchior Gabor, and John Gallagher Jr. in his Tony-winning role as Moritz Stiefel.

In addition, cast members from other productions of the show were scattered throughout the audience. Even after the show, Groff still found himself dumbstruck at the mega-reunion that had occurred. “Every single cast member, and every single original band member is here onstage tonight,” he said. “That’s so incredibly special.”

Part concert, part re-enactment

If some audience members weren’t entirely sure how much of the musical would actually be performed during Monday’s concert, they were delightfully surprised when the cast performed the original show in its entirety, at times breaking from the concert format to re-enact key scenes in the show (such as Wendla and Melchior’s sex sequence during Act I closer “I Believe”). Some performances featured full choreography (such as the energetic “The Bitch of Living”), while others offered a more pared-down experience (like the moving “The Dark I Know Well”).

“Touch Me” strikes a chord

While big numbers like “The Bitch of Living” and “My Junk” certainly earned their ovations , the mid-Act I number “Touch Me” stood out as particularly moving. As ensemble members Krysta Rodriguez, Jennifer Damiano, Robi Hager and Gerard Canonico finally appeared on the stage during the stirring song, the audience instantly cheered, knowing that the full cast was finally performing together again. With the use of the show’s original, sensual choreography, expert lighting, and a fantastic band led by conductor and keyboardist Kimberly Grigsby, “Touch Me” quickly became a standout of the evening.

The full “Spring Awakening” 15th anniversary reunion concert cast on Monday, Nov. 15, at New York’s Imperial Theater.

The cast gets interactive on “Totally Fucked”

In the whole of Spring Awakening, there is likely no song quite as cathartic as “Totally Fucked.” Just as the characters in the show are finally letting all of their pent-up frustration loose, the actors decided that they would let their internal excitement boil over for this number. It began when Groff decided to get face-to-face with some very eager audience members in the front row, kneeling down and singing directly to one lucky concertgoer who squealed with glee as he serenaded her. After that, for the song’s explosive finish, the entire cast got out of their seats and began jumping, headbanging, dancing and skittering around the stage, all of them beaming and hugging each other as they sang the classic “blah blah blah” refrain.

A touching tribute to the show

After the cast took their bows at curtain call, Groff took a moment to thank the audience for coming, spread the word about The Actors Fund supporting struggling actors throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and give a few rounds of applause to the sponsors, producers and venue employees for helping put on the show. Then, Groff decided to have the audience participate in a “little exercise,” as he called on members of the original production’s creative team in the audience (including writer Steven Sater, composer Sheik, director Mayer and many more) to stand and be recognized by the adoring crowd. “This has been such an extraordinary experience for us,” Groff said, choking up. “We couldn’t wait to tell this story in front of an audience again, in honor of The Actors Fund. Thank you so much, all of you for being here tonight and making our dreams come true.”