2006 Drama League Award Nominees Announced

The Drama League (Jano Herbosch, President; Roger T. Danforth and Gabriel Shanks, Co-Managing Directors) proudly announces nominations for the 2005-06 Drama League Awards, to be awarded at the 72nd Annual Drama League Awards Ceremony and Luncheon on Friday, May 5, 2006 (Noon) at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square. The event will be hosted by Alan Cumming (The Threepenny Opera).

Tickets for the 72nd Annual Drama League Awards Ceremony and Luncheon are now available by calling 212-244-9494 ext. 5. This year's nominees for The Drama League's four major production award categories are as follows:

DISTINGUISHED PRODUCTION OF A MUSICAL (7)
The Color Purple
The Drowsy Chaperone
Grey Gardens
Jersey Boys
[title of show]
See What I Wanna See
The Wedding Singer

DISTINGUISHED PRODUCTION OF A PLAY (8)
Dedication, or the Stuff of Dreams
History Boys
The Lieutenant of Inishmore
Stuff Happens
Measure for Pleasure
Rabbit Hole
The Ruby Sunrise
Spirit

DISTINGUISHED REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL (5)
Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
The Pajama Game
Sweeney Todd
The Threepenny Opera
Two Gentleman of Verona

DISTINGUISHED REVIVAL OF A PLAY (9)
All's Well That Ends Well
Awake and Sing!
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
Celebration and the Room
Faith Healer
Landscape of the Body
A Soldier's Play
Three Days of Rain
The Trip to Bountiful

Three of this season's late-entry Broadway productions – Hot Feet, Shining City and Tarzan – will be considered eligible for Drama League Awards next season. Additionally, this season's Broadway productions of Bridge and Tunnel and Well were previously honored by the Drama League in their earlier Off-Broadway incarnations.

The Drama League also pays tribute to the season's best performers by including the nominees of The Distinguished Performance Award on a dais. This season's 74-member dais includes the following performers, one of whom will be honored with the Distinguished Performance Award at the awards ceremony on Friday, May 5:

( * 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.