73rd Annual Drama League Award Nominees Announced

By Andrew Gans
April 25, 2007

Nominees for the 2006-2007 Drama League Awards, which will be held May 11 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, were revealed April 25. Nominees were announced in four categories: Distinguished Production of a Musical, Play, Revival of a Musical and Revival of a Play.

The nominees for the 73rd Annual Drama League Awards follow:

Distinguished Production of a Musical
Curtains
In the Heights
Kiki & Herb: Alive on Broadway
Legally Blonde
Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me
Mary Poppins
Spring Awakening

Distinguished Production of a Play
Blackbird
Coram Boy
Frost/Nixon
No Child
Radio Golf
The Coast of Utopia
The Scene
The Year of Magical Thinking

Distinguished Revival of a Musical
110 in the Shade
A Chorus Line
Company
Les Misιrables
The Fantasticks

Distinguished Revival of a Play
Inherit the Wind
Journey's End
Mother Courage and Her Children
Seven Guitars
Talk Radio
The Hairy Ape
The Merchant of Venice
Translations

(Grey Gardens and The Little Dog Laughed were previously nominated for Drama League Awards during their original Off-Broadway runs and are therefore ineligible this season. Deuce, the new Terrence McNally play, has removed itself from consideration for this year's awards and will be considered next season.)

The Drama League Awards, according to press notes, "pay tribute to the season's best performers by honoring the nominees of The Distinguished Performance Award on a dais. The 73rd Annual Drama League Awards dais will feature approximately 60 performers from the 2006-07 Broadway and Off-Broadway season, including the honorary co-chairs." Co-chairs include Michael Cerveris, Billy Crudup, Ethan Hawke, Audra McDonald, Brian F. O'Byrne and David Hyde Pierce.

This season's 78-member dais follows. One of these performers will be presented with the Distinguished Performance Award at the May 11 event.

F. Murray Abraham — The Jew of Malta, The Merchant of Venice
Heidi Armbruster — Tea and Sympathy
Christine Baranski — Regrets Only
Gary Beach — Les Misιrables
Daniel Beaty — Emergence-See!
Eve Best — A Moon for the Misbegotten
Stephanie J. Block — The Pirate Queen
Justin Bond — Kiki & Herb: Alive on Broadway
Christian Borle — Legally Blonde
Ashley Brown — Mary Poppins
Laura Bell Bundy — Legally Blonde
Kate Burton — The Water’s Edge
Michael Cerveris — King Lear, LoveMusik
Kristin Chenoweth — The Apple Tree
Anthony Chisholm — Radio Golf
Jill Clayburgh — The Clean House, The Busy World Is Hushed
Jennifer Cody — Henry and Mudge
Billy Crudup — The Coast of Utopia
Michael Cumpsty — Richard II
Charlotte D'Amboise — A Chorus Line
Hugh Dancy — Journey's End
Jeff Daniels — Blackbird
Brian Dennehy — Inherit the Wind
Gregory Derelian — The Hairy Ape
*Ensemble — Columbinus
*Ensemble — Coram Boy
Raϊl Esparza — Company
Gerald Finnigan — The Hairy Ape
John Fugelsang — All the Wrong Reasons
Boyd Gaines — Journey's End
John Gallagher Jr. — Spring Awakening
Alexander Gemignani — Les Misιrables
Piper Goodeve — Anne of Green Gables
Logan Marshall-Green — King Lear, Pig Farm
David Greenspan — Some Men
George Grizzard — Regrets Only
Jonathan Groff — Spring Awakening
Ed Harris — Wrecks
Ethan Hawke — The Coast of Utopia
Phillip Seymour Hoffman — Jack Goes Boating
Jayne Houdyshell — The Pain and the Itch
Stephen Kunken — A Very Common Procedure, Frost/Nixon
Nathan Lane — Butley
Gavin Lee — Mary Poppins
Harry Lennix — Radio Golf
Norm Lewis — Les Misιrables
Hamish Linklater — The Busy World Is Hushed
John Mahoney — Prelude to a Kiss
Dylan McDermott — The Treatment
Audra McDonald — 110 in the Shade
Lin-Manuel Miranda — In the Heights
Alfred Molina — Howard Katz
Debra Monk — Curtains
Kate Mulgrew — Our Leading Lady
Donna Murphy — LoveMusik
Kristine Nielsen — Our Leading Lady
Bill Nighy — The Vertical Hour
Brian F. O'Byrne — Shining City, The Coast of Utopia
Denis O'Hare — Inherit the Wind, A Spanish Play
Sandra Oh — Satellites
Thaddeus Phillips — El Conquistador!
David Hyde Pierce — Curtains
Allison Pill — Blackbird
Oliver Platt — Shining City
Michelle Ragusa — Adrift in Macao
Vanessa Redgrave — The Year of Magical Thinking
Liev Schreiber — Macbeth, Talk Radio
Pablo Schreiber — Dying City
Andrew Scott — The Vertical Hour
Michael Sheen — Frost/Nixon
Martin Short — Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me
Meryl Streep — Mother Courage and Her Children
Michael Stuhlbarg — The Voysey Inheritance
Nilaja Sun — No Child
Alan Tudyk — Prelude to a Kiss
Barbara Walsh — Company

(*The ensemble casts of Columbinus and Coram Boy will be honored collectively on the dais. The producers of these shows may appoint one or two cast members to appear on behalf of the show's entire ensemble.)

Five past recipients of the Distinguished Performance Award will also be honored on the dais for their work this past season. They are, however, ineligible for award consideration, as the Distinguished Performance Award is a one-time honor. The past honorees include Zoe Caldwell (A Spanish Play), Kathleen Chalfant (Great Expectations, Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell), Christine Ebersole (Grey Gardens), Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon) and Christopher Plummer (Inherit the Wind).

As previously announced, the upcoming event in the Grand Ballroom of the Marriott Marquis Hotel will also honor Michael Mayer, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and John Kander and the late Fred Ebb with special awards.

Kander and Ebb, the composing duo currently represented on Broadway with the new musical Curtains (as well as the long-running Chicago revival), will be honored with The Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre Award. Mayer, director of the acclaimed new musical Spring Awakening, will receive the Julia Hansen Award for Excellence in Directing. And, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the nation's largest industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organization, will be presented with the Unique Contribution to the Theatre Award.

Gary Beach, currently on Broadway in the revival of Les Misιrables, will host the annual luncheon, which will begin at noon. Those scheduled to present awards include Tony Award winners Bernadette Peters, Chita Rivera, Christine Ebersole, Tony Kushner, Liev Schreiber and Audra McDonald as well as Mary Poppins' Ashley Brown and Spring Awakening's Jonathan Groff.

Tickets for the 73rd Annual Drama League Awards Ceremony and Luncheon, priced $150-$450 (tables of ten range from $1,500-$4,500), are now available by calling (212) 244-9494 ext. 5 or by visiting www.dramaleague.org.

*

Founded in 1916, the Drama League is an association of theatre professionals and patrons dedicated to "encouraging the finest in professional theatre and has since then developed into the theatre’s premiere service organization."

Last season, Drama League Awards were presented to Christine Ebersole (Distinguished Performance), History Boys (Distinguished Production of a Play), Jersey Boys (Distinguished Production of a Musical), Awake and Sing! (Distinguished Revival of a Play), Sweeney Todd (Distinguished Revival of a Musical), Patti LuPone (Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre), Marian Seldes (Unique Contribution to the Theatre) and Des McAnuff (The Julia Hansen Award for Excellence in Directing).