Tuesday, May 24, 2011

56th Annual Drama Desk Awards - winners


Last night, the Drama Desk Awards were held at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan Center. The Awards honour all of the New York theatre scene -- Broadway, Off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway and legitimate not-for-profit theatres.

The winners for the night were led by The Book of Mormon and Anything Goes which received five awards apiece. The Book of Mormon was received awards for Oustanding Musical, Director of a Musical, Music, Lyrics and Orchestrations. Anything Goes captured prizes for Outstanding Revival of a Musical, Actress in a Musical (Sutton Foster), Choreography, Set Design and Sound Design in a Musical.

The award for Outstanding Play went to War Horse by Nick Stafford. The honour for Outstanding Revival of a Play was given to The Normal Heart.

Those receiving acting awards included Bobby Cannavale (The Motherf**ker With the Hat), Frances McDormand (Good People), Brian Bedford (The Importance of Being Earnest), Edie Falco (The House of Blue Leaves), John Larroquette (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) and John Leguizamo (Ghetto Klown).

While the Tony Awards are for Broadway and the Obie Awards are for Off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway, the Drama Desk Awards cover the entire New York theatre scene. The 2011 Tony Awards take place on June 12.

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New York, May 23, 2011 – The 56th Annual Drama Desk Awards for excellence in New York theater were presented tonight at a gala awards ceremony at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan Center, hosted by Harvey Fierstein, and the results reflected the diversity and excellence of this past year’s New York theater scene.

The Book of Mormon
and Anything Goes each won five Drama Desk Awards to lead the parade of winners, followed by The Normal Heart and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo which won two awards each. Cast members of The Normal Heart also took home special non-competitive Outstanding Ensemble Awards which were bestowed earlier by the Drama Desk nominating committee. No other production won more than one award.

War Horse
by Nick Stafford and The Book of Norman with music and lyrics by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone were voted Outstanding Play and Outstanding Musical, respectively, and The Normal Heart and Anything Goes won as Outstanding Play and Musical Revivals. The team of Parker, Lopez and Stone also won the Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Music and Outstanding Lyrics for their collaboration on The Book of Mormon.

Bobby Cannavale
(The Motherf**ker With the Hat) and Frances McDormand (Good People) were chosen as Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress in a Play, and Norbert Leo Butz (Catch Me If You Can) and Sutton Foster (Anything Goes) won as Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress in a Musical.  The Outstanding Featured Actor and Featured Actress in a Play awards went to Brian Bedford (The Importance of Being Earnest) and Edie Falco (The House of Blue Leaves), and the Outstanding Featured Actor and Actress in a Musical awards were won by John Larroquette (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) and Laura Benanti (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown).
The Outstanding Direction winners were Joel Grey and George C. Wolfe (The Normal Heart) and Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker (The Book of Mormon); and the Outstanding Choreography award was given to Kathleen Marshall (Anything Goes). Adam Mathias (See Rock City & Other Business) won for Outstanding Book of a Musical. Larry Hochman and Stephen Oremus (The Book of Mormon) won for Outstanding Orchestrations and Wayne Barker (Peter and the Starcatcher) won forOutstanding Music in a Play.

The Drama Desk for Outstanding Revue was given to Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles on Broadway. John Leguizamo won the Drama Desk for his Outstanding Solo Performance (Ghetto Klown). The Unique Theatrical Experience award was presented to Sleep No More.

Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo
won two Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Lighting Design (David Lander) and Outstanding Sound Design (Acme Sound Partners and Cricket S. Myers). Derek McLane (Anything Goes) won for Outstanding Set Design and Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner (Priscilla Queen of the Desert: The Musical) won the Outstanding Costume Design award.
Each year the Drama Desk votes special awards to recognize excellence and significant contributions to the theater. The following awards were voted by the nominating committee and were presented by the Drama Desk at tonight’s awards ceremony:

Outstanding Ensemble Performances
This year the nominators chose to bestow special ensemble awards for acting to
the casts of two shows. Therefore, individual cast members for these shows were not
eligible for acting awards in the competitive categories.
  • In Transit
  • The Normal Heart
Special Awards

Each year, the Drama Desk votes special awards to recognize excellence and
significant contributions to the theater. For 2010-2011, these awards are:
  • To A.R. Gurney for his enduring, keenly observed portraits of American life over
    a prolific four-decade-long career.
  • To Reed Birney for his versatile and finely nuanced performances over the past
    thirty-five years, and for his exceptional work this season in Tigers Be Still, A Small Fire and The Dream of the Burning Boy.
  • To The New Group and Artistic Director Scott Elliott for presenting contemporary
    new voices, and for uncompromisingly raw and powerful productions.
  • To The Pearl Theatre Company for notable productions of classic plays and
    nurturing a stalwart resident company of actors.                                                                        
  • To the creative team of War Horse for thrilling stagecraft: Paule Constable,
    Marianne Elliott, 59 Productions, Adrian Kohler with Basil Jones for Handspring
    Puppet Company, Tom Morris, Rae Smith, Christopher Shutt, Toby Sedgwick,
    Adrian Sutton and John Tams.
Presenters at the 56th Annual Drama Desk Awards ceremony included (in alphabetical order): Ellen Barkin, T.V. Carpio, Tyne Daly, Jennifer Damiano, Montego Glover, Jonathan Groff, Katie Holmes, Cheyenne Jackson, Larry Kramer, Marsha Mason,  Karen Olivo, David Hyde Pierce, Colin Quinn, Daniel Radcliffe, Liev Schreiber,  Annabella Sciorra, Christian Siriano,  Holland Taylor and Tom Wopat.

2010/2011 DRAMA DESK AWARD WINNERS

Outstanding Play: War Horse  by Nick Stafford
Outstanding Musical: The Book of Mormon
Outstanding Revival of a Play: The Normal Heart
Outstanding Revival of a Musical:    Anything Goes
Outstanding Actor in a Play Bobby Cannavale (The Motherf**ker With the Hat)
Outstanding Actress in a Play: Frances McDormand (Good People)
Outstanding Actor in a Musical: Norbert Leo Butz  (Catch Me If You Can)
Outstanding Actress in a Musical: Sutton Foster (Anything Goes)
Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play: Brian Bedford (The Importance of Being Earnest)
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play: Edie Falco (The House of Blue Leaves)
Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical: John Larroquette (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying)
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical: Laura Benanti (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown)
Outstanding Director of a Play: Joel Grey and George C. Wolfe (The Normal Heart)
Outstanding Director of a Musical: Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker (The Book of Mormon)
Outstanding Choreography: Kathleen Marshall (Anything Goes)
Outstanding Music: Trey Parker, Robert Lopez & Matt Stone (The Book of Mormon)
Outstanding Lyrics: Trey Parker, Robert Lopez & Matt Stone (The Book of Mormon)
Outstanding Book of a Musical Adam Mathias (See Rock City & Other Destinations)
Outstanding Orchestrations: Larry Hochman & Stephen Oremus (The Book of Mormon)
Outstanding Musical Revue: Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles on Broadway
Outstanding Music in a Play: Wayne Barker (Peter and the Starcatcher)
Outstanding Set Design: Derek McLane  (Anything Goes)
Outstanding Costume Design: Tim Chappel & Lizzy Gardiner (Priscilla Queen of the Desert: The Musical)
Outstanding Lighting Design: David Lander (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo)
Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical:        Brian Ronan (Anything Goes)
Outstanding Sound Design in a Play:             Acme Sound Partners and Cricket S. Myers (Bengal Tiger at Baghdad Zoo)
Outstanding Solo Performance: John Leguizamo (Ghetto Klown)
Unique Theatrical Experience: Sleep No More

Non-Competitive Awards

Outstanding Ensemble Performances
This year the nominators chose to bestow special ensemble awards for acting to the casts of two shows. Therefore, individual cast members for these shows were not eligible for acting awards in the competitive categories.
  • In Transit
  • The Normal Heart
Special Awards
For 2010-2011, these awards are:
  • To A.R. Gurney for his enduring, keenly observed portraits of American life over a prolific four-decade-long career.
  • To Reed Birney for his versatile and finely nuanced performances over the past thirty-five years, and for his exceptional work this season in Tigers Be Still, A Small Fire and The Dream of the Burning Boy.
  • To The New Group and Artistic Director Scott Elliott for presenting contemporary new voices, and for uncompromisingly raw and powerful productions.
  • To The Pearl Theatre Company for notable productions of classic plays and nurturing a stalwart resident company of actors.                                                                                
  • To the creative team of War Horse for thrilling stagecraft: Paule Constable, Marianne Elliott, 59 Productions, Adrian Kohler with Basil Jones for Handspring Puppet Company, Tom Morris, Rae Smith, Christopher Shutt, Toby Sedgwick, Adrian Sutton and John Tams.
The Drama Desk (www.dramadesk.org) 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 in the same categories.

Members of the 2010-2011 Nominating Committee for the Drama Desk Awards include: Barbara Siegel (Chairperson) TalkinBroadway.com, TheaterMania.com; Jason Clark, Slant Magazine, Anita Gates, Freelance, The New York Times, theatergossip.com; Lawrence Harbison, Senior Editor & Columnist for Smith & Kraus, Inc.; Gerard Raymond, Back Stage; Richard Ridge, Broadway Beat TV; and Douglas Strassler, Show Business Magazine,
OffOffOnline.com.

The Board of Directors of the Drama Desk is composed of Isa Goldberg, President;Leslie (Hoban) Blake, Vice President; Charles Wright, Treasurer and 2nd Vice President;Richard Ridge, Secretary, Arlene Epstein, Elysa Gardner, Randy Gener, John Istel, David Kaufman, Sam Norkin and William Wolf.

The 56th Annual Drama Desk Awards was shot in HD and will premiere on Ovation, the only network dedicated to arts culture,  Saturday, June 4 at 9:00 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT.  The 90-minute highlight special will also be given encore presentations on Sunday, June 12 at 12:30 PM ET/9:30 AM PT and 2:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT.  The highlight special will be produced by Heflin Filmworks, with Lance Heflin serving as supervising producer and Mark Stroman as executive producer. Terry Rohnke (Saturday Night Live) is creative consultant.

Ovation.com
  streamed a special red-carpet show starting at 6:00 to 8:00 PM ET, hosted by renowned stylist/designer Phillip Bloch and Broadway Channel’s Maribel Aber, which featured arrivals and interviews with the Drama Desk nominees, presenters and celebrity guests.

The awards ceremony was presented immediately following a sit-down dinner in the elegant Hammerstein Ballroom attended by nominees, presenters, VIPs and sponsors. Guests later joined the show business luminaries in the Grand Ballroom of Manhattan Center for a joyous post-ceremony reception.

The 56th Annual Drama Desk Awards was presented by Executive Producer Robert R. Blume and Step Forward in association with Renee McCurry, TheaterMania.com and David S. Stone. The awards ceremony was directed by Jeff Kalpak; the Line Producer was Rich Bittner; and the Consulting Producer was Lauren Class Schneider.

Jeremy C. Doucette designed the sets, Al Crawford did the lighting and Carl Casella and Christopher Cronin designed the sound. The Associate Director was Richard J. Hinds and the Production Manager was Peter H. Smith. Ozzie Melendez is the Music Director. Christopher Raphael is the Gala Producer. The Associate Producers are Renee McCurryJoseph Callari and Les Schecter. For the Drama Desk, Isa Goldberg is President and Randie Levine-Miller is Director of Special Events Stuart F. Margulies (SFM Management Ltd.)  is the Drama Desk Awards accountant.

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