Gwen Verdon came to the podium Friday afternoon, May 7, to accept the Best Musical Award for Fosse from the Drama League at its annual gala. The revuesical that compiles dances from shows directed and/or choreographed by the late Bob Fosse beat out such contenders as nine-time Tony nominee Parade, A New Brain, Captain's Courageous, The Civil War, Footloose and It Ain't Nothing But The Blues.

Moments before producer David Richenthal and director Robert Falls accepted for Death of a Salesman. Other contenders in the strong field included Annie Get Your Gun, Electra, The Iceman Cometh, Swan Lake, This Is Our Youth and Twelfth Night.

Wit, Margaret Edson's drama of a haughty professor brought low by ovarian cancer, won the Best Play Award. Kathleen Chalfant was also given a special Distinguished Performance Award. Wit ran against Amy's View, The Cider House Rules Part I: Here in St. Cloud's, Far East, The Lonesome West, Side Man, and Stop Kiss.

The 1999 Drama League Awards were announced at a May 7 ceremony in the Grand Ballroom of NY's Grand Hyatt Hotel. Glenn Close served as presenter. Among the celebs scheduled to attend the luncheon were Natasha Richardson (Closer), Bernadette Peters (Annie Get Your Gun), Judi Dench (Amy's View), Brian Dennehy (Death of a Salesman), Matthew Broderick (Night Must Fall), David Hare (Via Dolorosa), Swoosie Kurtz (The Mineola Twins), Cathy Rigby (Peter Pan), Kevin Spacey (The Iceman Cometh) and Kathleen Chalfant (Wit).

For more than eighty years, The Drama League has supported American theater on and Off-Broadway. Along with their annual award ceremony, The Drama League are nationally recognized for their Directors Project, a career development program for young directors.