Nominations for the 52nd Annual Drama Desk Awards were announced this morning at The New York Friars Club by previous winners James Naughton and Beth Leavel, at a press conference for journalists and theater professionals. They were joined for the announcement by Drama Desk President William Wolf; Barbara Siegel, Chairperson of the Drama Desk nominating committee; Robert R. Blume, Executive Producer of the Drama Desk Awards and Randie Levine-Miller, Director of Special Events for the Drama Desk and a member of the New York Friars Club Board of Governors.
The awards will be presented on Sunday, May 20, 2007 at 9:00 PM, at the F.H. LaGuardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center, 100 Amsterdam Avenue. Past Drama Desk winner Kristin Chenoweth—currently nominated for her performance in The Apple Tree—will host the ceremony, which will also be taped for television and subsequently broadcast nationwide as a two-hour special on PBS stations. In New York, the program will be shown on Thirteen/WNET on Sunday, May 27, from 12:30 P.M. to 2:30 P.M. NYC TV 25 will broadcast the awards twice: Thursday May 24, at 8:00 PM and Saturday May 26, at 10:00 PM. For the fifth year in a row, the awards will be webcast live by TheaterMania.com. The awards ceremony will also be broadcast live -- for the first time -- by XM Satellite Radio's theater channel – XM-28 On Broadway.
In keeping with the Drama Desk's unique mission, the nominators considered theatrical events that opened on Broadway, off Broadway and off-off Broadway during the 2006/2007 season in the same competitive categories. Deliberations by the nominators culminated in a marathon weekend session at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, which ended Monday afternoon, April 23. The nominators included: Chairperson Barbara Siegel, TalkinBroadway.com and TheaterMania.com; Glenda Frank, Plays International and nytheatre-wire.com; Tony Phillips, New York Press; Andrew Propst, Americantheaterweb.com and XM Satellite Radio; Richard Ridge, Broadway Beat TV; and Drama Desk President William Wolf, Wolfentertainmentguide.com.
Outstanding Play:
David Harrower, Blackbird
Terrence McNally, Some Men
Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon
Tom Stoppard, The Coast of Utopia
Bernard Weinraub, The Accomplices
August Wilson, Radio Golf
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