Glee star Darren Criss donned his Broadway alum hat in order to host this year’s Broadway.com Audience Choice Awards in New York City this past Sunday. Darren was also nominated in the ‘Best Replacement’ category for his three-week turn (replacing Daniel Radcliffe) as J. Pierrepont Finch, the leading man in How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Darren picked up the prize, quite an achievement as his fellow nominees included Nick Jonas, who replaced Darren himself, How To Succeed co-star Beau Bridges, and Broadway superstar veteran Adam Pascal. When he accepted his award, Darren spoke about his fan support and his own fannishness, and said he would be back on Broadway “whenever they let me.”

Check out Darren being interviewed on the red carpet here:

As host of the show, which took place in the glass-walled Allen Room, in the Time Warner Center overlooking Central Park, Darren stated that he wasn’t “programmed to host things” so instead fell back into his comfort zone of playing a few musical numbers, including two comic songs written by Dan Lipton and David Rossmer especially for the event.

You can watch the first, which lampshades Darren’s very short Broadway run, here:

After the show, Darren weighed in on the evening and his How To Succeed memories to Broadway.com:

Looking back on his Broadway musical debut, Criss’ favorite memories are “the little things: walking to work every day and realizing that I get to do this. For me, walking into an empty theater is a majestic, kind of religious experience, and to have that on a daily basis was my favorite moment. During breaks, when no one was around, I would take my guitar out and sit on the lip of the stage [of the Al Hirschfeld Theatre] and just sing out to nobody. It’s a very dear thing to me that I got to do that.”

Check out some pics from the red carpet, the event itself, and after-show photobooth:

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Congratulations to Darren for his win! Did you cast your vote?