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Robert R. Blume with TheaterMania.com
In Association with
Stone & Magnanini and Merlin Productions
Present:
The 55th Annual
Drama Desk Awards
(Drama Desk Website)
(TheaterMania.com Website)
William Wolf, Drama Desk President
At
Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School
of Music & Art
Pre-Party at LaGuardia High School
Hosted by Mind the Art Entertainment
(Mind the Art Entertainment Website)
After-Party at 48 Lounge
(48 Lounge Website)
Travel on Gray Line NY Sightseeing
Hosted by Patti LuPone
(Patti LuPone Bio)
Executive Producer: Robert R. Blume
Set Designer: Jeremy C. Doucette
Lighting Designer: Peter H. Smith
Sound Designer: Ed Chapman
Musical Director: Michael Holland
General Manager: Felicia M. Lopes
Press: L.S. Public Relations
Special Events Director: Randie Levine-Miller, Drama Desk
Producer: Lauren Class Schneider
Assoc. Producers: Les Schecter, Corine Dana Cohen,
Joseph Callari, Ellis Nassour
Director: Jeff Kalpak
Dr. Roberta E. Zlokower
May 23, 2010
(See the 2009, 54th Annual Drama Desk Awards Review)
(See the May 3, 2010 Friars Club Reception and Nominee Announcements)
(See the May 6, 2010 Pre-Awards, Nominees Reception at Churrascaria Plataforma)
(See a List of All Drama Desk Winners)
William Wolf, Drama Desk President, and his Annual Awards event team, listed above, again presented a richly entertaining evening with renowned guests and speakers. The evening began right in the lobby of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art, where nominees and guests were greeted with a special red carpet. The Pre-Party was hosted by Mind the Art Entertainment, and a live band kept the crowd buoyant. There were cold soft drinks and cheese platters, but people were busy taking photos, milling about, and anticipating the main event.
On May 3, 2010, at 8:45 AM, Nominations for the 55th Annual Drama Desk Awards
Had been announced at the Friars Club by Brian Stokes Mitchell and Cady Huffman, who both won Drama Desk Awards in the past. Also greeting the press and invited guests were William Wolf, Drama Desk President, Barbara Siegel, Chairperson of the Drama Desk Nominating Committee, Robert R. Blume, Executive Producer of the Drama Desk Awards events, and Randie Levine-Miller, Special Events Director for the Drama Desk. On May 6, the 2009-2010 Nominees received their Nomination Certificates at Churrascaria Plataforma, in a large, busy, and media-blitz Reception. Click links above this article to see Photo-Essays of both the Friars Club and Churrascaria Plataforma Pre-Award Receptions.
The 2009/2010 Nominating Committee for the Drama Desk Awards included: Barbara Siegel (TalkinBroadway.com and TheaterMania.com), Chairperson; Christopher Byrne (Gay City News); Patrick Christiano (TheaterLife.com and Dan’s Papers); David Kaufman (Freelance and Author); Gerard Raymond (Back Stage and The Advocate), Richard Ridge (Broadway Beat TV) and Paulanne Simmons (CurtainUp.com, NY Theatre-wire.com. (Courtesy, Drama Desk Awards Press)
Patti LuPone was an effervescent Host, and I kept waiting for her to break into “Everything’s Coming Up Roses”. Joining Ms. LuPone in solo and ensemble Award presentations were Broadway icons, like Edward Albee, Boyd Gaines, Mitzi Gaynor, Angela Lansbury, Cheyenne Jackson, Martha Plimpton, Brooke Shields, and the fast-rising Bobby Steggert. The Drama Desk Awards, founded in 1949, presented its first awards in 1955. They support ongoing theatrical development and are the only critics’ awards that compete Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off Broadway shows in the same categories. William Wolf, as always, graciously entertained the Drama Desk Awards guests with gusto, and this year most of the recipients were in the house. The air was thick with excitement.
Highlights of tonight’s 2010 Drama Desk Awards winners (Click Here To See a List of All Drama Desk Winners) were COURTESY OF DRAMA DESK AWARDS WEBSITE:
Memphis won four Drama Desk Awards, with Fences, La Cage Aux Folles and Red winning with three Awards each. A View from the Bridge won two. Remarkably, Catherine Zeta Jones, elegant star of Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, and Montego Glover, ebullient star of Memphis, were both tied for Outstanding Actress in a Musical. Remarkably again, A View From The Bridge and Fences were tied for Outstanding Revival of a Play.
Memphis had a big night, also winning Awards for Outstanding New Musical, Outstanding Music, and Outstanding Orchestrations. Red, the Mark Rothko art studio-drama, won for Outstanding Play, Outstanding Director, and Outstanding Lighting Design. Fences also won for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (Viola Davis) and Outstanding Music in a Play (Branford Marsalis). La Cage Aux Folles won for Outstanding Revival of a Musical, Outstanding Actor in a Musical (Douglas Hodge), and Outstanding Costume Design.
A few non-competitive Awards are voted and publicized in advance, so recipients can personally join the presenters onstage. Outstanding Ensemble Awards were won this year by The Temperamentals and Circle Mirror Transformation. In addition, the cast, creative team, and producers of Horton Foote’s The Orphans’ Home Cycle won a Special Award for vision, direction, performances, sets, lighting, costumes, music, and sound, for their nine-hour, three-play production at Signature Theatre Company. Jerry Herman, composer and lyricist, also won a Special Award, as did the Godlight Theatre Company, for originality, dramatization, and vibrant theatricality. Ma-Yi Theater Company won this year’s fourth Special Award for decades of excellence and for nurturing Asian-American voices in engaging theater.
Following the Awards presentations and show, many of the guests climbed into the large, Gray Line NY Sightseeing coaches for the trip to Lounge 48, where the After-Party, mobbed with enthusiastic revelers, ensued. Kudos to all the nominees and winners, and kudos to William Wolf and his 55th Annual Drama Desk Awards team.
Mind the Art Entertainment Band
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Drama Desk Awards Pre-Party
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Drama Desk Awards Pre-Party
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Drama Desk Awards Pre-Party
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
William Wolf, President,
Drama Desk Awards,
and Lillian Wolf
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Scott Siegel with Barbara Siegel,
Chairperson, Drama Desk
Nominating Committee
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Drama Desk Awards Pre-Party
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Drama Desk Awards Pre-Party
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Drama Desk Awards Pre-Party
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Drama Desk Awards Pre-Party
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Glenda Frank, Drama Desk,
and Playwright
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Roberta at the Drama Desk Awards
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Drama Desk Awards Pre-Party
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Angela Lansbury, Drama Desk Award
Nominee, and Robert Callely
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
David Kaufman, Drama Desk Board
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Kevin Chamberlin,
Drama Desk Award Nominee
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Drama Desk Awards Pre-Party
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Drama Desk Awards Post-Party
at 48 Lounge
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Harrison Harvey, The Clockwork Theatre,
and Drama Desk Award Winners
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Drama Desk Awards Post-Party
at 48 Lounge
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
Cast of "The Temperamentals",
Drama Desk Award Winners
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
"The Temperamentals Team",
Drama Desk Award Winners
Photo Courtesy of Roberta E. Zlokower
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