Nominees will receive their nomination certificate at a private ceremony May 1 at 4 PM at IL Bastardo Ristorante. The 54th Annual Drama Desk Awards, hosted by Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein, will be held May 17 at the F.H. LaGuardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center in Manhattan. The ceremony will begin at 9 PM.

The Drama Desk is an organization of theatre critics, writers and editors that honors excellence in all areas of New York theatre: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway and not-for-profit.

The 2008-2009 Drama Desk nominating committee comprises Barbara Siegel (Chairperson) TalkinBroadway.com, TheaterMania.com; Dan Bacalzo, TheaterMania.com; Christopher Byrne, Gay City News; Patrick Christiano, TheaterLife.com, Dan's Papers; Jason Clark, Entertainment Weekly, TheaterOnline.com; Gerard Raymond, Back Stage, The Advocate; and Richard Ridge, Broadway Beat TV.

Robert R. Blume is executive producer of the 54th Annual Drama Desk Awards.

The Drama Desk, organized in 1949, presented its first awards in 1955.

Faith Prince, back on Broadway as Ursula in The Little Mermaid, won a Tony Award for her performance as Adelaide in the Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls and starred Off-Broadway in the Lincoln Center production of A Man of No Importance. Her numerous Broadway credits include A Catered Affair, Noises Off, Bells Are Ringing, James Joyce's The Dead, Little Me, The King and I, What's Wrong with This Picture?, Nick & Nora and Jerome Robbins' Broadway. Her solo recording, "Leap of Faith," was recorded live at Joe's Pub and is available from DRG Records.

Jim Dale won Tony and Drama Desk awards for his work in Barnum, and was most recently seen on Broadway in the Roundabout Theatre Company's production of The Threepenny Opera for which he won the Drama Desk Award and was Tony-nominated.