Drama Desk Awards 2006-2007 nominations announced

Nominations for the 52nd Annual Drama Desk Awards were announced on Thu 26 Apr 2007 at The New York Friars Club by theater notables Beth Leavel and James Naughton.

The annual awards honor excellence in theater for Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway during the season. Leading the slate of distinguished nominees is LoveMusik, which received 12 nominations, followed by Curtains, Legally Blonde, Spring Awakening and The Coast of Utopia, which each received 10 nominations.

Two Broadway shows were not considered for nominations: Deuce, the new play by Terrence McNally, which stars Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes, which withdraw itself from consideration for the Drama Desk Awards, and Grey Gardens - which was eligible last season for its Off-Broadway run.

The winners of the Drama Desk Awards will be announced at the Awards ceremony to be held on the 20 May 2007 at the LaGuardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center. Kristin Chenoweth will host the ceremony.

The following awards were voted by the nominating committee and will be presented by the Drama Desk at its awards ceremony:

Outstanding Ensemble Performances:
The cast of In the Heights
The cast of Lebensraum

Special Awards:

Each year, the Drama Desk votes special awards to recognize excellence and significant contributions to the theater. For 2006/2007, these awards are presented:

• John Kander and Fred Ebb for 42 years of excellence in advancing the art of the musical theatre.
• Austin Pendleton - actor, director, playwright, teacher � a Renaissance man of the American theatre.
• Transport Group for its breadth of vision and its presentation of challenging productions.
• National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene for preserving 92 consecutive seasons the cultural legacy of Yiddish speaking theatre in America

2006 - 2007 nominations by category are

Outstanding Play:

• Blackbird: by David Harrower
• Some Men: by Terrence McNally
• Frost/Nixon: by Peter Morgan
• The Coast of Utopia: by Tom Stoppard
• The Accomplices: by Bernard Weinraub
• Radio Golf: by August Wilson

Outstanding Musical:

• Curtains
• In the Heights
• Legally Blonde
• LoveMusik
• Mary Poppins
• Spring Awakening

Outstanding Revival of a Play:

• The Hairy Ape
• Hedda Gabler
• Journey's End
• Talk Radio
• The Taming of the Shrew
• Woyzeck

Outstanding Revival of a Musical:

• 110 in the Shade
• The Apple Tree
• Company
• Di Yam Gazlonim!
• H.M.S. Pinafore
• Les Miserables

Outstanding Actor in a Play:

• Philip Seymour Hoffman: Jack Goes Boating
• Frank Langella: Frost/Nixon
• Br�an F. O'Byrne: The Coast of Utopia
• Christopher Plummer: Inherit the Wind
• Liev Schreiber: Talk Radio
• Kevin Spacey: A Moon for the Misbegotten
• Paul Sparks: Essential Self-Defense

Outstanding Actress in a Play:

• Eve Best: A Moon for the Misbegotten
• Orlagh Cassidy: The Field
• Blythe Danner: Suddenly Last Summer
• Jennifer Mudge: Dutchman
• Sandra Oh: Satellites
• Annie Parisse: The Internationalist
• Meryl Streep: Mother Courage and Her Children

Outstanding Actor in a Musical:

• Michael Cerveris: LoveMusik
• Ra�l Esparza: Company
• John Gallagher, Jr.,: Spring Awakening
• Jonathan Groff: Spring Awakening
• David Hyde Pierce: Curtains
• Martin Short: Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me

Outstanding Actress in a Musical:

• Ashley Brown: Mary Poppins
• Laura Bell Bundy: Legally Blonde
• Kristin Chenoweth: The Apple Tree
• Audra McDonald: 110 in the Shade
• Lea Michele: Spring Awakening
• Donna Murphy: LoveMusik

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play:

• Anthony Chisholm: Radio Golf
• Billy Crudup: The Coast of Utopia
• Boyd Gaines: Journey's End
• John Ortiz: Jack Goes Boating
• Andrew Polk: The Accomplices
• Frederick Weller: Some Men

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play:

• Myriam Acharki,: Woyzeck
• Xanthe Elbrick: Coram Boy
• Sarah Nina Hayon: Rearviewmirror
• Jan Maxwell: Coram Boy
• Martha Plimpton: The Coast of Utopia
• Rita Wolf: The American Pilot

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical:

• Brooks Ashmanskas: Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me
• Christian Borle: Legally Blonde
• Aaron Lazar: Les Mis�rables
• Gavin Lee: Mary Poppins
• Orville Mendoza: Adrift in Macao
• David Pittu: LoveMusik

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical:

• Linda Balgord,: The Pirate Queen
• Celia Keenan-Bolger: Les Mis�rables
• Debra Monk: Curtains
• Orfeh: Legally Blonde
• Barbara Walsh: Company
• Karen Ziemba: Curtains

Outstanding Director of a Play:

• Declan Donnellan: Twelfth Night
• Michael Grandage: Frost/Nixon
• Doug Hughes: Inherit the Wind
• Jack O'Brien: The Coast of Utopia
• Ciar�n O'Reilly: The Hairy Ape
• Tom Ridgely: Marco Millions (based on lies)

Outstanding Director of a Musical:

• John Doyle: Company
• Thomas Kail: In the Heights
• Michael Mayer: Spring Awakening
• Jerry Mitchell: Legally Blonde
• Harold Prince: LoveMusik
• Alex Timbers: Gutenberg! The Musical!

Outstanding Choreography:

• Patricia Birch: LoveMusik
• Andy Blankenbuehler: In the Heights
• Matthew Bourne: Edward Scissorhands
• Matthew Bourne and Stephen Mear: Mary Poppins
• Bill T. Jones: Spring Awakening
• Jerry Mitchell: Legally Blonde

Outstanding Music:

• John Kander: Curtains
• Paul Leschen: Twist: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More?
• Peter Melnick: Adrift in Macao
• Lin-Manuel Miranda: In the Heights
• Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin: Legally Blonde
• Duncan Sheik: Spring Awakening

Outstanding Lyrics:

• Fred Ebb with added lyrics by John Kander and Rupert Holmes: Curtains
• Lin-Manuel Miranda: In the Heights
• Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin: Legally Blonde
• Steven Sater: Spring Awakening
• Bill Strauss, Elaina Newport and Mark Eaton: Capitol Steps
• Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman: Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me

Outstanding Book of a Musical:

• Scott Brown and Anthony King: Gutenberg! The Musical!
• Julian Fellowes: Mary Poppins
• Heather Hach: Legally Blonde
• Rupert Holmes and Peter Stone: Curtains
• Steven Sater: Spring Awakening
• Alfred Uhry: LoveMusik

Outstanding Music for a Play:

• Mark Bennett: The Coast of Utopia
• Adam Cork: Frost/Nixon
• Gerard McBurney: Oliver Twist
• The Propeller Company: The Taming of the Shrew
• Ray Rizzo, Adam Rapp, and Lucas Papaelias: Essential Self-Defense
• David Van Tieghem: Inherit the Wind

Outstanding Orchestrations:

• William David Brohn: Curtains
• Mary-Mitchell Campbell: Company
• Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman: In the Heights
• Duncan Sheik: Spring Awakening
• Jonathan Tunick: The Apple Tree
• Jonathan Tunick: LoveMusik

Outstanding Set Design of a Play:

• Bob Crowley and Scott Pask: The Coast of Utopia
• David Gallo: Radio Golf
• David Korins: Essential Self-Defense
• David Korins: Jack Goes Boating
• Garin Marschall: Hell House
• Scott Pask: Blackbird

Outstanding Set Design of a Musical:

• Beowulf Boritt: LoveMusik
• Bob Crowley: Mary Poppins
• Anna Louizos: Curtains
• Anna Louizos: In the Heights
• David Rockwell: Legally Blonde
• Kris Stone: Brundibar/But the Giraffe

Outstanding Costume Design:

• Mara Blumenfeld: Lookingglass Alice
• Judith Dolan: LoveMusik
• William Ivey Long: Curtains
• Santo Loquasto: Suddenly Last Summer
• Robert Morgan: Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical
• Catherine Zuber: The Coast of Utopia

Outstanding Lighting Design:

• Howell Binkley: LoveMusik
• Maruti Evans: Blindness
• Paul Gallo: Blackbird
• Jonathan Mark: Prometheus Bound
• Kenneth Posner, Brian MacDevitt, Natasha Katz: The Coast of Utopia
• Japhy Weideman: Jack Goes Boating

Outstanding Sound Design:

• Acme Sound Partners: In the Heights
• Mark Bennett: The Coast of Utopia
• Gregory Clarke: Journey's End
• Duncan Robert Edwards: LoveMusik
• Frank Gaeta: Dai (enough)
• Richard Woodbury: Talk Radio

Outstanding Solo Performance:

• Iris Bahr: Dai (enough)
• Ed Harris: Wrecks
• Capathia Jenkins: (mis)Understanding Mammy: The Hattie McDaniel Story
• Anna Manahan: Sisters
• Vanessa Redgrave: The Year of Magical Thinking
• Nilaja Sun: No Child?

Unique Theatrical Experience:

• Absinthe
• Amajuba: Like Doves We Rise
• Be
• Brundibar/But the Giraffe
• Edward Scissorhands
• Hell House

The Drama Desk was founded in 1949 to explore key issues in the theater and to bring together critics and writers in an organization to support the ongoing development of theater in New York. The organization began presenting its awards in 1955, and it is the only critics� organization to honor achievement in the theater with competition between Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway productions.

The 2007 Drama Desk nominators included chairperson Barbara Siegel (TalkinBroadway.com and TheaterMania.com); Glenda Frank (Plays International and nytheatre-wire.com); Tony Phillips (New York Press); Andrew Propst (Americantheatreweb.com and XM Satellite Radio); Richard Ridge (Broadway Beat TV); and Drama Desk president William Wolf (Wolfentertainmentguide.com).

Productions that received multiple nominations:

The 2007 Drama Desk nominators included chairperson Barbara Siegel; Glenda Frank; Tony Phillips (New York Press); Andrew Propst (XM Satellite Radio); Richard Ridge (Broadway Beat TV); and Drama Desk president William Wolf.