The Drama League (Jano Herbosch, President; Gabriel Shanks, Executive Director) has announced this year's honorary co-chairs for The 76th Annual Drama League Awards Ceremony and Luncheon.
This year's nine-member honorary co-chair roster includes
Norbert Leo Butz (Enron),
Kathleen Chalfant (Family Week),
Colman Domingo (The Scottsboro Boys),
John Gallagher Jr. (American Idiot),
Valerie Harper (Looped),
Sean Hayes (Promises, Promises),
Judith Ivey (The Glass Menagerie),
Linda Lavin (Collected Stories) and
Alfred Molina (Red).
The 76th Annual Drama League Awards Ceremony and Luncheon is set for Friday, May 21, 2010 (noon) in the Grand Ballroom of the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square (1535 Broadway).
As previously announced, the event will be co-hosted by
Vanessa Williams (Broadway's Sondheim on Sondheim) and her "Ugly Betty" co-star
Michael Urie (Off-Broadway's The Temperamentals).
Long considered the theatre season's most festive award ceremony, The Drama League Awards pays tribute to the season's best performers by including the nominees of The Distinguished Performance Award on a dais. The 76th Annual Drama League Awards dais will feature approximately 60 stars from the 2009-10 Broadway and Off-Broadway season.
The Drama League's 3,000+ members vote on five other annual awards: Distinguished Production of a Play, Distinguished Production of a Musical, Distinguished Revival of a Play, Distinguished Revival of a Musical and The Distinguished Performance Award. Nominations for these five awards will be announced live from Sardi's on Tuesday, April 20 at 11:00 a.m.
Tickets for The 76th Annual Drama League Awards Ceremony and Luncheon are now available by calling 212-244-9494 ext 5.
For more information, visit
www.dramaleague.org.
Last season, Drama League Awards were presented to
Geoffrey Rush (Distinguished Performance), God of Carnage (Distinguished Production of a Play), Billy Elliot (Distinguished Production of a Musical), Blithe Spirit (Distinguished Revival of a Play) and Hair (Distinguished Revival of a Musical).
The Drama League's first Distinguished Performance 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,
James Earl Jones,
John Lithgow,
Stockard Channing,
Glenn Close,
Bebe Neuwirth,
Cherry Jones,
Mary-Louise Parker,
Liam Neeson,
Harvey Fierstein,
Norbert Leo Butz,
Christine Ebersole,
Liev Schreiber and
Patti LuPone, among others.
The Drama League was founded in 1916 as an association of theatre professionals and patrons dedicated to encouraging the finest in professional theatre. 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.
