Nominees for the 46th annual Drama Desk Awards, honoring excellence in New York City theatre, will be announced at a morning press conference May 1 at the Friar's Club. Television's NY1 will cover the event life from 10-10:30 AM.
A cocktail party for the nominees will be held May 3, and the winners will be announced at the awards ceremony, set for May 20 at the F.H. LaGuardia High School Concert Hall at Lincoln Center, according to event spokesperson Les Schecter. NY1 will also broadcast the 9-11:30 PM awards show.
More than 120 critics and theatre journalists comprise the Drama Desk membership, which prides itself on judging Broadway, Off and Off-Off Broadway theatre by the same standards. This year's Drama Desk nominating committee consists of Frank Scheck (the Hollywood Reporter), Jonathan Kalb (New York Press), Harry Haun (Playbill magazine), David Finkle (the Village Voice), Edward Karam (London Times), Drama Desk president David Sheward (Back Stage) and Barbara Siegel (Siegel Entertainment). The 2001 awards will have 27 categories.
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Last year (May 14, 2000), winners in the top production categories of the 45th Annual Drama Desk Awards included The Real Thing (Revival Play), Kiss Me, Kate (Revival Musical), Copenhagen (Play) and Contact (Musical). In major acting categories, Brian Stokes Mitchell was named Best Actor (Musical) for Kiss Me, Kate, Heather Headley was named Best Actress (Musical) for her work as the Nubian princess in Aida, Stephen Dillane was hailed Best Actor (Play) for essaying the rueful, intellectual writer-lover in The Real Thing and Eileen Heckart was named Best Actress (Play) for her work as the Alzheimer's-stricken grandmother in Off-Broadway's The Waverly Gallery.
Roy Dotrice took home a Best Featured Actor (Play) Drama Desk plaque for playing the New England pig farmer in A Moon for the Misbegotten and Marylouise Burke was named Best Featured Actress (Play) for her work as the speech-impaired matron in Off-Broadway's Fuddy Meers. In the Featured Actress and Actor (Musical) categories, respectively, Stephen Spinella won for playing the strained drunk who raised the roof in James Joyce's The Dead and Karen Ziemba was recognized for playing the hopeless housewife who comes alive when she dances in an Italian restaurant in Contact.
Winners in all categories are highlighted in boldface in the following list of nominees.
Bebe Neuwirth hosted the 2000 awards, selected and administered by New York City theatre critics, writers and editors. The ceremony was televised live on NY 1, 9-11:30 PM.
The awards address Broadway and Off-Broadway productions as well as special theatre-related trends, people and events. The awards are generally considered an early indicator of how Broadway's Tony Awards, presented in June, will play out.
Craig Bierko, Eric Bogosian, Betty Buckley, Olympia Dukakis, Marvin Hamlisch, Linda Lavin, Camryn Manheim, Bernadette Peters, Roger Rees, Patrick Stewart, Tom Wopat and Bruce Vilanch were among presenters. Casts from The Donkey Show, Forbidden Broadway, The Green Bird and The Bomb-Itty of Errors assisted with presentations, slinking around the stage of the F.H. LaGuardia Concert Hall.
The list of nominees and winners here is in the order presented.
CHOREOGRAPHY:
Jody J. Abrahams, Loukman Adams (Kat and the Kings)
Mark Dendy (The Wild Party--MTC)
Kathleen Marshall (Kiss Me, Kate)
Susan Stroman (Contact)
Susan Stroman (The Music Man)
Lynne Taylor-Corbett (Swing!)
DIRECTOR (PLAY):
Michael Blakemore (Copenhagen)
Thomas Hulce and Jane Jones (The Cider House Rules: Part One, Here in St. Cloud)
James Lapine (Dirty Blonde)
Marion McClinton (Jitney)
Michael Mayer (Uncle Vanya)
Daniel Sullivan (Dinner with Friends)
DIRECTOR (MUSICAL):
Gabriel Barre (The Wild Party--MTC)
Michael Blakemore (Kiss Me, Kate)
Susan Stroman (Contact)
Susan Stroman (The Music Man)
ORCHESTRATIONS:
Doug Besterman (The Music Man)
Michael Gibson (The Wild Party--MTC)
Taliep Peterson (Kat and the Kings)
Don Sebesky (Kiss Me, Kate)
Jonathan Tunick (Saturday Night)
Harold Wheeler (Swing!)
MUSIC:
Shaun Davey (The Dead)
Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party--MTC)
Stephen Sondheim (Saturday Night)
LYRICS:
Jordan Allen-Dutton, Jason Catalano, GQ, Erik Weiner (The Bomb-itty of Errors)
Boyd Graham (The Big Bang)
Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party--MTC)
Stephen Sondheim (Saturday Night)
SOLO PERFORMANCE:
Olympia Dukakis (Rose)
Spalding Gray (Morning, Noon and Night)
Barry Humphries (Dame Edna: The Royal Tour)
Mark Linn-Baker (Chesapeake)
Mark Setlock (Fully Committed)
Marc Wolf (Another American: Asking and Telling)
UNIQUE THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE:
Charlie Victor Romeo
Do You Come Here Often?
Shockheaded Peter
SOUND DESIGN:
Marc Gwinn (Coyote on a Fence)
Jamie Mereness (Charlie Victor Romeo)
Rob Milburn, Michael Bodeen (Space)
Darron L. West (Chesapeake)
Darron L. West (Y2K)
LIGHTING DESIGN:
Peter Kaczorowski (Contact)
David Lander (Dirty Blonde)
Brian MacDevitt (An Experiment with an Air Pump)
Robert Perry (The Water Engine)
Kenneth Posner (The Wild Party--MTC)
Scott Zielinski (Space)
COSTUME DESIGN:
Jonathan Bixby, Gregory A. Gale (The Country Club)
Basil De Maurier (The Big Bang)
Martin Pakledinaz (Kiss Me, Kate)
Martin Pakledinaz (The Wild Party--MTC)
Kevin Pollard (Shockheaded Peter)
William Ivey Long (The Music Man)
SET DESIGN (PLAY):
David Gallo (Jitney)
Derek McLane (East Is East)
Rob Odorosio (An Empty Plate at the Cafe du Grand Boeuf)
Neil Patel (Dinner with Friends)
Tony Walton (Uncle Vanya)
James Noone (The Time of the Cuckoo)
SET DESIGN (MUSICAL):
Julian Crouch, Graeme Gilmour (Shockheaded Peter)
David Gallo (The Wild Party--MTC)
Thomas Lynch (Contact)
Thomas Lynch (The Music Man)
Robin Wagner (Kiss Me, Kate)
FEATURED ACTRESS (PLAY):
Jillian Armenante (The Cider House Rules, Part One: Here in St. Cloud)
Marylouise Burke (Fuddy Meers)
Seana Kofoed (An Experiment with an Air Pump)
Cigdem Onat (The Time of the Cuckoo)
Phyllis Newman (The Moment When)
Amy Sedaris (The Country Club)
FEATURED ACTOR (PLAY):
Matthew Arkin (Dinner with Friends)
Roy Dotrice (A Moon for the Misbegotten)
Joel Grey (Give Me Your Answer, Do!)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Author's Voice)
Brian Murray (Uncle Vanya)
Harris Yulin (The Price)
ACTRESS (PLAY):
Sinead Cusack (Our Lady of Sligo)
Eileen Heckart (The Waverly Gallery)
Linda Lavin (The Tale of the Allergist's Wife)
Claudia Shear (Dirty Blonde)
Lynn Thigpen (Jar the Floor)
Charlyne Woodard (In the Blood)
ACTOR (PLAY):
Gabriel Byrne (A Moon for the Misbegotten)
Kevin Chamberlin (Dirty Blonde)
Stephen Dillane (The Real Thing)
Derek Jacobi (Uncle Vanya)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (True West)
Paul Sparks (Coyote on a Fence)
FEATURED ACTRESS (MUSICAL):
Nancy Anderson (Jolson and Co.)
Sally Ann Howes (The Dead)
Eartha Kitt (The Wild Party--Broadway)
Alix Korey (The Wild Party--MTC)
Idina Menzel (The Wild Party--MTC)
Karen Ziemba (Contact)
FEATURED ACTOR (MUSICAL):
Jason Antoon (Contact)
Christopher Fitzgerald (Saturday Night)
Alistair Izobell (Kat and the Kings)
Michael Mulheren (Kiss Me, Kate)
Stephen Spinella (The Dead)
Lee Wilkof (Kiss Me, Kate)
ACTRESS (MUSICAL):
Toni Collette (The Wild Party--Broadway)
Heather Headley (Aida)
Rebecca Luker (The Music Man)
Audra McDonald (Marie Christine)
Marin Mazzie (Kiss Me, Kate)
Julia Murney (The Wild Party--MTC)
ACTOR (MUSICAL):
Craig Bierko (The Music Man)
Brian D'Arcy James (The Wild Party--MTC)
Boyd Gaines (Contact)
Brian Stokes Mitchell (Kiss Me, Kate)
Mandy Patinkin (The Wild Party--Broadway)
REVIVAL (PLAY):
A Moon for the Misbegotten, by Eugene O'Neill
The Price, by Arthur Miller
The Real Thing, by Tom Stoppard
True West, by Sam Shepard
Uncle Vanya, by Anton Chekhov
Waste by Harley Granville Barker
REVIVAL (MUSICAL):
Kiss Me, Kate
The Music Man
PLAY:
Contact with the Enemy, by Frank Gilroy
Copenhagen, by Michael Frayn
Dinner with Friends, by Donald Margulies
Dirty Blonde, by Claudia Shear
Jitney, by August Wilson
The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, by Charles Busch
MUSICAL:
Contact
James Joyce's The Dead
Saturday Night
Swing!
The Wild Party (Manhattan Theatre Club)
Previously-announced honors:
SPECIAL AWARDS:
• Producer Alexander Cohen for Lifetime Achievement (posthumously)
• Barnard Hughes and Helen Stenborg for Shared Lifetime Achievement
• The ensemble of Jitney
— By David Lefkowitz
and Kenneth Jones
