62nd Annual Outer Critics Circle Award Nominations Announced; Nice Work Receives Nine Nods

By Andrew Gans
April 23, 2012

Tony Award nominee Lily Rabe (The Merchant of Venice, Seminar) and Outer Critics Circle nominee Richard Thomas (The Stendhal Syndrome, Race) announced the 62nd annual Outer Critics Circle Award nominations April 23 at the Friars' Club in Manhattan. (The announcement ceremony was underwritten by Mark D. Friedman, SVP at Halstead Property LLC at Manhattan’s Friars Club.)

Outer Critics Circle Awards honor the best of Broadway and Off-Broadway.

The new Gershwin musical Nice Work If You Can Get It received nine nominations, the most of any production of the season. The new musicals Newsies and Once each received seven nominations.

Nominations follow:

OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY PLAY
The Lyons
One Man, Two Guvnors
Seminar
Stick Fly

OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY MUSICAL
Bonnie & Clyde
Newsies
Once
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY PLAY
Blood and Gifts
The School for Lies
Sons of the Prophet
Tribes

OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY MUSICAL
Death Takes a Holiday
Lucky Guy
Play It Cool
Queen of the Mist

OUTSTANDING BOOK OF A MUSICAL (Broadway or Off-Broadway)
Newsies
Nice Work If You Can Get It
Once
Queen of the Mist

OUTSTANDING NEW SCORE (Broadway or Off-Broadway)
Bonnie & Clyde
Death Takes a Holiday
Newsies
Queen of the Mist

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A PLAY (Broadway or Off-Broadway)
The Best Man
Death of a Salesman
The Lady From Dubuque
Private Lives

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL (Broadway or Off-Broadway)
Carrie
Evita
Follies
Porgy and Bess

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR OF A PLAY
Mark Brokaw The Lyons
David Cromer Tribes
Nicholas Hytner One Man, Two Guvnors
Mike Nichols Death of a Salesman

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR OF A MUSICAL
Jeff Calhoun Newsies
Michael Grandage Evita
Kathleen Marshall Nice Work If You Can Get It
John Tiffany Once

OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHER
Rob Ashford Evita
Christopher Gattelli Newsies
Steven Hoggett Once
Kathleen Marshall Nice Work If You Can Get It

OUTSTANDING SET DESIGN
(Play or Musical)
Bob Crowley Once
Derek McLane Nice Work If You Can Get It
Christopher Oram Evita
George Tsypin Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN
(Play or Musical)
Gregg Barnes Follies
Eiko Ishioka Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
William Ivey Long Don’t Dress for Dinner
Martin Pakledinaz Nice Work If You Can Get It

OUTSTANDING LIGHTING DESIGN
(Play or Musical)
Neil Austin Evita
Donald Holder Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
Brian MacDevitt Death of a Salesman
Hugh Vanstone Ghost: The Musical

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A PLAY
James Corden One Man, Two Guvnors
Santino Fontana Sons of the Prophet
Russell Harvard Tribes
Philip Seymour Hoffman Death of a Salesman
Hamish Linklater The School for Lies

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A PLAY
Tracie Bennett End of the Rainbow
Tyne Daly Master Class
Linda Lavin The Lyons
Nicole Ari Parker A Streetcar Named Desire
Laila Robins The Lady From Dubuque

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
Danny Burstein Follies
Raúl Esparza Leap of Faith
Jeremy Jordan Newsies
Steve Kazee Once
Norm Lewis Porgy and Bess

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Jan Maxwell Follies
Marin Mazzie Carrie
Audra McDonald Porgy and Bess
Cristin Milioti Once
Kelli O’Hara Nice Work If You Can Get It

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY
Will Brill Tribes
Tom Edden One Man, Two Guvnors
Andrew Garfield Death of a Salesman
James Earl Jones The Best Man
Jefferson Mays Blood and Gifts

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY
Joanna Gleason Sons of the Prophet
Spencer Kayden Don’t Dress for Dinner
Angela Lansbury The Best Man
Judith Light Other Desert Cities
Daphne Rubin-Vega A Streetcar Named Desire

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
Phillip Boykin Porgy and Bess
Andrew Keenan-Bolger Newsies
Michael McGrath Nice Work If You Can Get It
Patrick Page Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
Chris Sullivan Nice Work If You Can Get It

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Jayne Houdyshell Follies
Judy Kaye Nice Work If You Can Get It
Rebecca Luker Death Takes a Holiday
Da’Vine Joy Randolph Ghost: The Musical
Melissa Van Der Schyff Bonnie & Clyde

OUTSTANDING SOLO PERFORMANCE
Judy Gold My Life as a Sitcom
David Greenspan The Patsy
Denis O’Hare An Iliad
Stephen Spinella An Iliad

JOHN GASSNER AWARD
(Presented for an American play, preferably by a new playwright)
Robert Askins Hand to God
Gabe McKinley CQ/CX
Erika Sheffer Russian Transport
Jeff Talbott The Submission

Nominations talley for 3 or more: 9 - Nice Work If You Can Get It; 7 - Newsies, Once; 5 – Follies, Death of a Salesman, Evita, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark; 4 - One Man, Two Guvnors, Porgy and Bess, Tribes; 3 - The Best Man, Bonnie & Clyde, Death Takes a Holiday, The Lyons, Queen of the Mist, Sons of the Prophet

The Nominating Committee attended all of this season’s Broadway productions prior to the OCC Award cut-off date. Venus in Fur, Clybourne Park, Peter and the Starcatcher and Other Desert Cities were considered in previous seasons, but new cast members were taken into consideration for this season.

The 2011-12 Outer Critics Circle Executive / Nominating Committee comprised Simon Saltzman (President); Mario Fratti (Vice-President); Patrick Hoffman (Corresponding Secretary); Stanley L. Cohen (Treasurer); Glenn Loney (Historian & Member-at-Large); Rosalind Friedman (Recording Secretary); and Aubrey Reuben, Thomás Gentile & Harry Haun (Members-at-Large).

Winners in the 23 categories will be announced May 14, and the annual awards ceremony will be held May 24 at 4 PM at Sardi's Restaurant.

Outer Critics will present an honorary award to The Public Theater on its 50th anniversary presenting free theatre at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, alumni of Shakespeare in the Park and Public Theater productions, will present the special award to Public artistic director Oskar Eustis and executive director Patrick Willingham.

Outer Critics Circle is the organization of writers covering New York theatre for out-of-town newspapers, national publications and other media beyond Broadway. Celebrating its 62nd season, the members of the Outer Critics Circle are affiliated with more than 90 newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, and theatre publications in America and abroad.