Ziemba and Duncan Will Announce Outer Critics Circle Nominations April 21

By Andrew Gans
April 21, 2008

Tony Award winner Karen Ziemba and stage and screen star Sandy Duncan will announce nominees for the 58th annual Outer Critics Circle Awards April 21 at 11 AM ET at the Algonquin Hotel on West 44th Street.

Nominations in 23 categories will be revealed. The cut-off date to qualify for the awards was April 19.

Winners of the 2007-2008 Outer Critics Circle Awards will be announced the morning of May 12. Winners will be celebrated with an awards dinner May 22 at Sardi's Restaurant.

The Outer Critics Circle Awards are decided upon by a group of writers "covering New York theatre for out-of town newspapers, national publications and other media beyond Broadway."

Sandy Duncan received Tony Award nominations for her performances in Canterbury Tales, The Boy Friend and Peter Pan. Her other Broadway credits include Love Is a Time of Day, My One and Only and Chicago. Also a star of television and film, Duncan was nominated for Emmy Awards for her performances in "Funny Face" and "Roots."

Karen Ziemba won a Tony Award portraying the Wife in Susan Stroman's Contact and was also Tony-nominated for her current role in Curtains. She has also starred on Broadway in Never Gonna Dance (Tony nomination), Chicago, Steel Pier (Tony nomination), Crazy for You and 42nd Street, and her Off-Broadway work includes a Drama Desk Award-winning performance in And the World Goes 'Round as well as roles in I Do! I Do!, 110 in the Shade and The Most Happy Fella. She also headlined the City Center Encores! presentation of Pajama Game.

Winners of the 2006-2007 Outer Critics Circle Awards follow (winners names are in bold with an asterisk).

Outstanding New Broadway Play
*The Coast of Utopia
Coram Boy
Frost/Nixon
Radio Golf

Outstanding New Broadway Musical
Curtains
LoveMusik
Mary Poppins
*Spring Awakening

Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play
Exits and Entrances
*Indian Blood
The Pain and the Itch
The Scene

Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical
*In the Heights
Evil Dead: The Musical
Floyd and Clea: Under the Western Sky
Gutenberg! The Musical!

Outstanding New Score (Broadway or Off Broadway)
Curtains
In the Heights
Mary Poppins
*Spring Awakening

Outstanding Revival of a Play
Inherit the Wind
*Journey's End
Talk Radio
The Voysey Inheritance

Outstanding Revival of a Musical
The Apple Tree
A Chorus Line
*Company
110 in the Shade

Outstanding Director of a Play (Lucille Lortel Award)
Michael Grandage, Frost/Nixon
David Grindley, Journe's End
Melly Still, Coram Boy
*Jack O'Brien, The Coast of Utopia

Outstanding Director of a Musical
John Doyle, Company
Richard Eyre & Matthew Bourne, Mary Poppins
Thomas Kail, In the Heights
*Michael Mayer, Spring Awakening

Outstanding Choreography
Rob Ashford, Curtains
*Andy Blankenbuehler, In the Heights
Matthew Bourne & Stephen Mear, Mary Poppins
Carol Leavy Joyce & Graciela Daniele, The Pirate Queen

Outstanding Set Design
*Bob Crowley & Scott Pask, The Coast of Utopia
Bob Crowley, Mary Poppins
Ti Green & Melly Still, Coram Boy
Derek McLane, The Voysey Inheritance

Outstanding Costume Design
Bob Crowley, Mary Poppins
Judith Dolan, LoveMusik
Martin Pakledinaz, The Pirate Queen
*Catherine Zuber, The Coast of Utopia

Outstanding Lighting Design
Neil Austin, Frost/Nixon
Paule Constable, Coram Boy
Howard Harrison, Mary Poppins
*Brian MacDevitt/ Kenneth Posner/ Natasha Katz, The Coast of Utopia

Outstanding Actor in a Play
*Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Brían F. O'Byrne, The Coast of Utopia
Christopher Plummer, Inherit the Wind
Liev Schreiber, Talk Radio

Outstanding Actress in a Play
*Eve Best, A Moon for the Misbegotten
Jennifer Ehle, The Coast of Utopia
Carla Gugino, Suddenly Last Summer
Alison Pill, Blackbird

Outstanding Actor in a Musical
Michael Cerveris, LoveMusik
*Raúl Esparza, Company
Gavin Lee, Mary Poppins
David Hyde Pierce, Curtains

Outstanding Actress in a Musical
Ashley Brown, Mary Poppins
Kristin Chenoweth, The Apple Tree
Audra McDonald, 110 in the Shade
*Donna Murphy, LoveMusik

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play
Billy Crudup, The Coast of Utopia
*Boyd Gaines, Journey's End
David Greenspan, Some Men
Stephen Kunken, Frost/Nixon

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play
Robin Bartlett, Prelude to a Kiss
Jill Clayburgh, The Clean House
*Martha Plimpton, The Coast of Utopia
Lily Rabe, Heartbreak House

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical
Jason Danieley, Curtains
Daniel Jenkins, Mary Poppins
*David Pittu , LoveMusik
Bobby Steggert, 110 in the Shade

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical
Charlotte d'Amboise, A Chorus Line
Rebecca Luker, Mary Poppins
Orfeh, Legally Blonde
*Karen Ziemba, Curtains

Outstanding Solo Performance
Daniel Beatty, Emergence-See
Ed Harris, Wrecks
Jay Johnson, The Two and Only
*Nilaja Sun, No Child...

John Gassner Award
(Presented for an American play, preferably by a new playwright)
Daisy Foote, Bhutan
Bob Glaudini, Jack Goes Boating
Bruce Norris, The Pain and the Itch
*Nilaja Sun, No Child...

For more information visit www.outercritics.org.