Victors were I Am My Own Wife for Distinguished Production of a Play, Wicked for Distinguished Production of a Musical, Henry IV as Distinguished Production of a Revival—Play, and Assassins as Distinguished Production of a Revival—Musical.
Hugh Jackman was given the Distinguished Performance Award, the New York theatre's oldest acting honor, which predates the Tony Award by 12 years. This honor was bestowed by the thousands of Drama League members. They also cast their votes for the Distinguished Production Awards for Play, Musical, Revival of a Play, and — for the first time this year—Revival of a Musical.
The nominations for the Drama League Awards (with winners in boldface) were:
Distinguished Production of a Play
Addicted
Bridge and Tunnel
Frozen
I Am My Own Wife
Intimate Apparel
The Retreat From Moscow
Distinguished Production of a Musical
Bombay Dreams
Caroline, or Change
Johnny Guitar
Never Gonna Dance
Taboo
Wicked Distinguished Production of a Revival - Play
A Raisin in the Sun
Beckett/Albee
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Henry IV
Jumpers
The Normal Heart
Distinguished Production of a Revival – Musical
Assassins
Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Fiddler on the Roof
Finian's Rainbow
Little Shop of Horrors
Wonderful Town
Kristin Chenoweth of Wicked hosted the event.
Appearing as guests and honorees were Alec Baldwin (Twentieth Century), Simon Russell Beale (Jumpers), Ned Beatty (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), Justin Bond (Kiki and Herb: Coup de Theatre), Brian F. O'Byrne (Frozen), Catherine Byrne (Eden), Kristin Chenoweth (Wicked), Viola Davis (Intimate Apparel), Richard Dreyfuss (Sly Fox), Melissa Errico (Finian's Rainbow), Raul Esparza (Taboo, The Normal Heart), Peter Frechette (Valhalla), Sriram Ganesan (Bombay Dreams), Aiden Gillen (The Caretaker), Joanna Gleason (The Normal Heart), Randy Graff (Fiddler on the Roof, The Long Christmas Ride Home), Mark Harelik (The Beard of Avon), Neil Patrick Harris (Assassins), Anne Heche (Twentieth Century), Judd Hirsch (Sixteen Wounded), John Michael Higgins (Big Bill), Bill Irwin (The Harlequin Studies, Mr. Fox: A Rumination), Judith Ivey (Women on Fire), Hugh Jackman (The Boy From Oz), Sarah Jones (Bridge and Tunnel), John Kani (Nothing But The Truth), Isabel Keating (The Boy From Oz), Kevin Kline (Henry IV), Swoosie Kurtz (Frozen), Nathan Lane (Trumbo), Ray Liotta (Match), Mark Lundholm (Addicted), Jefferson Mays (I Am My Own Wife), Audra McDonald (Henry IV, A Raisin in the Sun), Judy McLane (Johnny Guitar), Idina Menzel (Wicked), Omar Metwally (Sixteen Wounded), Alfred Molina (Fiddler on the Roof ), Euan Morton (Taboo), Donna Murphy (Wonderful Town), Brian Murray (Beckett/Albee), Manu Narayan (Bombay Dreams), Denis O'Hare (Assassins), Tonya Pinkins (Caroline, or Change), Will Power (Flow), Phylicia Rashad (A Raisin in the Sun, The Story), Daphne Rubin-Vega (Anna in the Tropics, Between Us), Marian Seldes (Beckett/Albee), Michael Shannon (Bug), Douglas Sills (Little Shop of Horrors), Jennifer Simard (The Thing About Men), Lili Taylor (Aunt Dan and Lemon), Richard Thomas (The Stendhal Syndrome), Billy Warlock (The Normal Heart), Jennifer Westfeldt (Wonderful Town), and Karen Ziemba (Never Gonna Dance).
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Avenue Q and Golda's Balcony, both of which transferred to Broadway this season, were originally honored last year by The Drama League for their Off Broadway incarnations (in the categories of Distinguished Production of a Musical and Play, respectively). Both productions were therefore ineligible for awards consideration this season.
The Broadway production of Prymate and the Off Broadway musical Bare will be considered for next season's awards, as the nominating committee was not able to see these shows prior to the eligibility cut-off date.
As previously announced, The Drama League will bestow three special awards this year. The Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre Award will be given to Donna Murphy, The Julia Hansen Award for Excellence in Directing will go to George C. Wolfe, and the Unique Contribution to the Theatre Award will be given to City Center Encores!
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Since 1916, the Drama League has served the artist and audience communities with programs and initiatives. Its Directors Project, founded in 1984, has grown to be the leading career development program for emerging directors in the country. Many prominent directors working in New York today are alumni of The Project including Christopher Ashley (Rocky Horror Show), Mark Brokaw (How I Learned to Drive), Michael Mayer (Thoroughly Modern Millie), Diane Paulus (The Donkey Show), John Rando (Urinetown) and Dexter Bullard (Bug). The recently launched Audience Project works to build educated audiences for quality theatre through Directors Dialogues, workshops and tickets to performances that widen the scope of traditional theatergoing habits.
Membership in The Drama League is open to all. For more information about membership, please call (212) 244 9494, ext. 3 or visit online at www.dramaleague.org.
