Click for More Articles on STEPHEN SONDHEIM... 2006 Drama League Award Nominees Announced Feedback Print E-mail   Wednesday, April 19, 2006; 03:04 PM - by BWW News Desk	The Constant Wife
Carolee Carmello	Lestat
Michael Cerveris	Sweeney Todd
Staceyann Chin	Border/Clash
Harry Connick Jr.	The Pajama Game
Alan Cumming	The Threepenny Opera
Michael Cumpsty	Hamlet
Jim Dale	The Threepenny Opera
Christopher Denham	Red Light Winter
Taye Diggs	A Soldier's Play
Christine Ebersole	Grey Gardens
Carson Elrod	Based on a Totally True Story
Felicia Fields	The Color Purple
Ralph Fiennes	Faith Healer
Felicia Finley	The Wedding Singer
Sutton Foster	The Drowsy Chaperone
Maria Friedman	The Woman in White
Domnhall Gleeson	The Lieutenant of Inishmore
John Glover	The Paris Letter
Renee Elise Goldsberry	Two Gentlemen of Verona
Richard Griffiths	The History Boys
Danai Gurira	In the Continuum
Christian Hoff	Jersey Boys
Jack Holmes	RFK
Dana Ivey	Mrs. Warren's Profession
Peter Francis James	Stuff Happens
LaChanze	The Color Purple
Nathan Lane	Dedication, or the Stuff of Dreams; The Odd Couple
Cyndi Lauper	The Threepeny Opera

( * The ensemble casts of History Boys, Stuff Happens and [title of show] will be honored on the dais. The producers of each of these shows may appoint one or two cast members to appear on the dais on behalf of the show's entire ensemble.)

This year's honorary Drama League Award Luncheon co-chairs Broadway luminaries LaChanze (The Color Purple), Cyndi Lauper (The Threepenny Opera), Cynthia Nixon (Rabbit Hole), Paul Rudd (Three Days of Rain), David Schwimmer (The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial) and Jersey Boys' Christian Hoff, Daniel Reichard, J. Robert Spencer and John Lloyd Young.

Tickets for the 72nd Annual Drama League Awards Ceremony and Luncheon are now available. Tickets are $150-$450. For more information, please call The Drama League at 212-244-9494 ext. 5 or visit www.dramaleague.org.

In addition, The Drama League will present three annual specialty awards. This season's previously announced specialty award recipients include Patti LuPone (Sweeney Todd), who will receive the Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre Award, Des McAnuff (Jersey Boys), who will be honored with the Julia Hansen Award for Excellence in Directing, and Marian Seldes (Dedication, or the Stuff of Dreams), who will receive the Unique Contribution to the Theatre Award.

Legendary theater composer Stephen Sondheim will be on-hand to present the Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre Award to Patti LuPone. Ms. LuPone is currently appearing as Mrs. Lovett in the Broadway revival of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre.

Emmy and Golden Globe Award winner Aaron Sorkin will present the Julia Hansen Award for Excellence in Directing to Des McAnuff. McAnuff, currently represented on Broadway with the musical Jersey Boys, is slated to direct Sorkin's new stage drama, The Farnsworth Invention, at La Jolla Playhouse in 2007.

Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally will present the Unique Contribution to the Theatre Award to Marian Seldes. Ms. Seldes appeared in McNally's Dedication, or the Stuff of Dreams at Primary Stages earlier this season.

The first Drama League Award was presented to actress Katharine Cornell in 1935, making it the oldest National Theatre honor, predating the Tony Awards by twelve years. In recent years, the Distinguished Performance Award has been accorded to a roster of theatre legends such as RoseMary Harris, Christopher Plummer, Sir Ian McKellen, Bernadette Peters, ames Earl Jones, John Lithgow, Stockard Channing, Glenn Close, Bebe Neuwirth, Cherry Jones, Mary-Louise Parker, Liam Neeson, Harvey Fierstein, and last season's winner, Norbert Leo Butz, among others.

THE DRAMA LEAGUE

THE DRAMA LEAGUE was founded in 1916 as an association of theatre professionals and patrons dedicated to encouraging the finest in professional theatre and has since then developed into the theatre's premiere service organization. The Drama League provides an unparalleled training program for emerging theatre artists through The Directors Project, which encourages and trains young talents while providing much-needed exposure and essential connections to the professional theatrical community. The Drama League's Audience Project is dedicated to building strong, passionate audiences for the American theatre, providing discounted tickets for its members to the best Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional productions across the United States while enhancing the theatergoer's understanding and experience of live theatre through its informative panels, luncheons and discussions with leading figures in the field.