The 2001 Drama Desk awards ceremony will take place May 20 at 9 PM at the F.H. LaGuardia High School Concert Hall at Lincoln Center in Manhattan. The entire two-hour event will be broadcast live in its entirety on NY1. On May 25 at 9 PM, public television station Channel 13/WNET will air the awards program. NY1 will also repeat its broadcast on May 26, giving local television viewers a total of three opportunities to see the show.

Lily Tomlin, who took home a Drama Desk Award for Best Actress for the original, 1986 mounting of The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, will host this year's event. Search ends its successful repeat run on Broadway May 20, hours before the Drama Desk ceremony.

Playbill On-Line will post the winners of the awards immediately following the ceremony.

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 Producers racked up 14 nominations for the 2001 Drama Desk Awards, announced May 1 at a press conference at the Friar's Club in Manhattan. Dick Cavett, co-star of The Rocky Horror Show, and Michele Lee, co-star of The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, read off the nominees. Here are the 2001 Drama Desk Award nominations:

PLAY:
Boy Gets Girl by Rebecca Gilman
Comic Potential by Alan Ayckbourn
The Invention Of Love by Tom Stoppard
Lobby Hero by Kenneth Lonergan
Proof by David Auburn
The Unexpected Man by Yasmina Reza

MUSICAL:
Bat Boy: The Musical
The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin
The Full Monty
The Producers
Urinetown!

REVUE
American Rhapsody
Forbidden Broadway 2001
Newyorkers

REVIVAL (PLAY):
Betrayal
The Best Man
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Richard II (BAM)
The Search For Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe
Tiny Alice

REVIVAL (MUSICAL):
Bells Are Ringing
Follies
42nd Street
The Rocky Horror Show

ACTOR (PLAY):
Alan Bates (The Unexpected Man)
Richard Easton (The Invention of Love)
Ralph Fiennes (Richard II)
Brian Stokes Mitchell (King Hedley II)
John Ortiz (Jesus Hopped the A Train)
Liev Schreiber (Betrayal)

ACTRESS (PLAY):
Eileen Atkins (The Unexpected Man)
Jamie Dee (Comic Potential)
Mary Beth Fisher (Boy Gets Girl)
Mary-Louise Parker (Proof)
Marian Seldes (The Play About the Baby)
Lili Taylor (Dead Eye Boy)

ACTOR (MUSICAL):
Matthew Broderick (The Producers)
Nathan Lane (The Producers)
Kevin Chamberlin (Seussical)
Tom Hewitt (The Rocky Horror Show)
Deven May (Bat Boy)
Patrick Wilson (The Full Monty)

ACTRESS (MUSICAL):
Christine Ebersole (42nd Street)
Kaitlin Hopkins (Bat Boy)
La Chanze (The Bubbly Black Girl...)
Sally Mayes (Pete n' Keely)
Faith Prince (Bells)
Marla Schaffel (Jane Eyre)

FEATURED ACTOR (PLAY):
Charles Brown (King Hedley II)
Oliver Ford Davies (Richard II)
Aaron Himmelstein (Dead Eye Boy)
Justin Kirk (Ten Unknowns)
Maximilian Schell (Judgment at Nuremberg)
Lewis J. Stadlen (The Man Who Came To Dinner)

FEATURED ACTRESS (PLAY):
Viola Davis (King Hedley II)
Anita Durst (The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant)
Barbara Jefford (Coriolanus at BAM)
Marthe Keller (Judgment at Nuremberg)
Marian Seldes (The Butterfly Collection)
Robin Weigert (Madam Melville)

FEATURED ACTOR (MUSICAL):
Roger Bart (Producers)
Gary Beach (The Producers)
John Ellison Conlee (The Full Monty)
Andre de Shields (The Full Monty)
Mark Jacoby (Enter the Guardsman)
Jeff McCarthy (Urinetown!)

FEATURED ACTRESS (MUSICAL):
Polly Bergen (Follies)
Kathleen Freeman (The Full Monty)
Randy Graff (A Class Act)
Cady Huffman (The Producers)
Spencer Kayden (Urinetown!)
Janine LaManna (Seussical)

DIRECTOR (PLAY):
Mark Brokaw (Lobby Hero)
Michael Greif (Dogeaters)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Jesus Hopped the A Train)
Jonathan Kent (Richard II)
Jack O'Brien (The Invention of Love)
Matthew Warchus (The Unexpected Man)

DIRECTOR (MUSICAL):
Christopher Ashley (The Rocky Horror Show)
Wilfredo Medina (The Bubbly Black Girl...)
Jack O'Brien (The Full Monty)
John Rando (Urinetown!)
Scott Schwartz (Bat Boy)
Susan Stroman (The Producers)

CHOREOGRAPHY:
John Carrafa (Urinetown!)
Jerry Mitchell (The Full Monty
Jerry Mitchell (The Rocky Horror Show)
Randy Skinner (42nd Street)
Susan Stroman (The Producers)

BOOK
Mel Brooks & Thomas Meehan (The Producers)
Kirsten Childs (The Bubby Black Girl...)
Keythe Farley & Brian Flemming (Bat Boy)
Greg Kotis (Urintown!)
Terrence McNally (The Full Monty)

MUSIC:
Kirsten Childs (The Bubbly Black Girl...)
Stephen Flaherty (Seussical)
Mark Hollman (Urinetown!)
Ed Kleban (A Class Act)
Laurence O'Keefe (Bat Boy)
David Yazbek (The Full Monty)

LYRICS:
Mel Brooks (The Producers)
Kirsten Childs (Bubbly Black Girl)
Mark Hollman & Greg Kotis (Urinetown!)
Ed Kleban (A Class Act)
Laurence O'Keefe (Bat Boy)
David Yazbek (The Full Monty)

SOLO PERFORMANCE:
Eric Bogosian (Wake Up and Smell the Coffee)
Betty Bourne (Resident Alien)
Brian d'Arcy James (The Good Thief)
Pamela Gien (The Syringa Tree)
Sarah Jones (Surface Transit)
Ruben Santiago Hudson (Lackawanna Blues)

UNIQUE THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE:
And God Created Great Whales (Rinde Eckert)
The Laramie Project (Moises Kaufman & Tectonic Theatre Project)
Mnemonic (Simon McBurney)

SPECIAL AWARDS:
Sean Campion & Conleth Hilll (Stones in His Pockets)
Reba McEntire (Annie Get Your Gun)
Entire casts of Cobb and Tabletop

ORCHESTRATIONS:
Doug Besterman (The Producers)
Bruce Coughlin (Urinetown!)
Michael Starobin (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)
Jonathan Tunick (Follies) Harold Wheeler (The Full Monty)

SET DESIGN (PLAY):
John Lee Beatty (Comic Potential)
Jeff Cowie (The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant)
Bob Crowley (The Invention of Love)
David Gallo (King Hedley II)
Thomas Lynch (Old Money)
Dean Taucher (Tabletop)

SET DESIGN (MUSICAL):
Heidi Ettinger (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)
Richard Hoover & Bryan Johnson (Bat Boy)
David Rockwell (The Rocky Horror Show)
Douglas W. Schmidt (42nd Street)
Robin Wagner (The Producers)

COSTUME DESIGN:
Linda Cho (Princess Turandot)
Roger Kirk (42nd Street)
William Ivey Long (The Producers)
Bob Mackie (Pete n' Keely)
Chris March, Dana Peter Porras & Richard Sanchez (Christmas with the Crawfords)
Anthony Powell (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)

LIGHTING DESIGN:
Paul Anderson (Mnemonic)
Howell Binkley (The Full Monty)
Peter Kaczorowski (The Producers)
Brian MacDevitt (The Invention of Love)
Kenneth Posner (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)
Hugh Vanstone (The Unexpected Man)

SOUND DESIGN:
Mark Bennett & Michael Creason (Dogeaters)
Bruce Ellman (Comic Potential)
Gregory Kostroff (Lypsinka: The Boxed Set)
Mic Pool & David Bullard (The Unexpected Man)
Christopher Shutt (Mnemonic)
Jerry Yager (Up Against the Wind)

Leading Nominees:

The Producers 14
The Full Monty 12
Urinetown! 9
Bat Boy 8
The Bubbly Black Girl 6

—By Robert Simonson