Nominees for the 67th annual Drama League Awards for excellence on and off Broadway were announced April 19. There are nineteen nominees in three categories, according to Awards spokespersons at CMB Communications. The Awards ceremony will take place at a May 11 luncheon in the Grand Hyatt Hotel.
Here are the 2001 Drama League nominees:
DISTINGUISHED PRODUCTION OF A PLAY:
Jitney, Judgment At Nuremberg, Proof, Stones In His Pockets, The Invention of Love, The Play About The Baby, The Syringa Tree.
DISTINGUISHED PRODUCTION OF A MUSICAL:
Bat Boy, Seussical, Suburb, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Full Monty, The Producers
DISTINGUISHED PRODUCTION OF A REVIVAL
Blithe Spirit, 42nd Street, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Saved, The Rocky Horror Show, Tiny Alice. Among the shows overlooked for honors are revivals of The Man Who Came to Dinner, Betrayal, Bells Are Ringing, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, Design for Living and OB's Passion Play; the plays Ten Unknowns, The Dinner Party and Lobby Hero, and the musicals A Class Act, Jane Eyre and Newyorkers.
At the Drama League luncheon, The Dinner Party's Henry Winkler will host 60 theatre luminaries at a long dais, presiding over seven traditional Drama League award presentations. In all, three respective awards will go to a play, a musical and a revival, with three others saluting distinguished achievement in musical theatre, unique contribution to the theatre and distinguished excellence in direction. The seventh award, for Distinguished Performance, happens to be theatre’s oldest honor, predating the Tony’s by 11 years. Past recipients include Frances Sternhagen, Eileen Heckart, Cherry Jones and Kathleen Chalfant.
As for the directing award, it's named for Julia Hansen, who founded and presides over the Drama League’s Director’s Project. All proceeds from the luncheon benefit the 17-year-old Director’s Project, a “premiere apprenticeship for directors.”
Lily Tomlin (The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe) and Alan Cumming (Design for Living) will present two of the awards honoring “excellence in American Theatre.”
A Drama League spokesperson said that there are seats for the luncheon available to the public. For information and reservations contact Gretta Rothman at (212) 302-2100.
—By David Lefkowitz
and Murdoch McBride
