2008 Drama League Award Nominations Are Announced

Hunter Bell, Norbert Leo Butz, and Christine Ebersole have announced the nominees for the 74th Annual Drama League Awards. The group will bestow awards for Distinguished Performance, Distinguished Production of a Play, Distinguished Production of a Musical, Distinguished Revival of a Play, and Distinguished Revival of a Musical at a luncheon on Friday, May 16 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, to be hosted by Harvey Fierstein.

As previously announced, three special awards will be given out that day. Famed conductor Paul Gemignani, best known for his work with Stephen Sondheim, will receive the Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre Award; Bartlett Sher, currently represented on Broadway by Lincoln Center Theater’s revival of South Pacific, will be honored with the Julia Hansen Award for Excellence in Directing; and La MaMa E.T.C. founder Ellen Stewart will be given the Unique Contribution to Theatre Award.

This year’s honorary co-chairs are actors Bobby Cannavale, Laurence Fishburne, Peter Gallagher, Terrence Howard, Cheyenne Jackson, Laura Linney, S. Epatha Merkerson, Rosie Perez, Martha Plimpton, and Patrick Stewart.

Tickets to the event are $150-$450 and can be ordered by calling 212-244-9494, ext. 5. For more information, visit www.dramaleague.org.

A full list of nominees follows:

DISTINGUISHED PRODUCTION OF A PLAY
August: Osage County
Eurydice
The Farnsworth Invention
November
Rock ‘N’ Roll
The Seafarer
Thurgood
The 39 Steps

DISTINGUISHED PRODUCTION OF A MUSICAL
A Catered Affair
Adding Machine
Cry-Baby
Next To Normal
Passing Strange
The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island
Xanadu
Young Frankenstein

DISTINGUISHED REVIVAL OF A PLAY
Boeing-Boeing
A Bronx Tale
Gaslight
Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Macbeth
The Misanthrope
Romeo and Juliet
The Ritz

DISTINGUISHED REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL
Black Nativity
Gypsy
Seussical
South Pacific
Sunday in the Park with George

DISTINGUISHED PERFORMANCE AWARD
Lauren Ambrose, Romeo and Juliet
Hank Azaria, The Farnsworth Invention
Roger Bart, Young Frankenstein
Christine Baranski, Boeing-Boeing
Laura Benanti, Gypsy
Sierra Boggess, The Little Mermaid
Daniel Breaker, Passing Strange
Ellen Burstyn, The Little Flower of East Orange
Charles Busch, Die Mommie Die!
Kerry Butler, Xanadu
Bill Camp, The Misanthrope
Bobby Cannavale, Mauritius
Margaret Colin, Old Acquaintance
Ben Daniels, Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Andre de Shields, Black Nativity
Peter Dinklage, Things We Want
Deanna Dunagan, August: Osage County

Daniel Evans, Sunday in the Park with George
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Laurence Fishburne, Thurgood
Sutton Foster, Young Frankenstein
Elizabeth Franz, The Piano Teacher
Morgan Freeman, The Country Girl
Peter Gallagher, The Country Girl
David Greenspan, The Beebo Brinker Chronicles
Harriet Harris, Old Acquaintance, Cry-Baby
Jayne Houdyshell, The Receptionist, The New Century
Terrence Howard, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Cheyenne Jackson, Xanadu
Brian d’Arcy James, Next To Normal
Francis Jue, Yellow Face
Kevin Kline, Cyrano de Bergerac
Nathan Lane, November
Angela Lansbury, Deuce
Hoon Lee, Yellow Face
Laura Linney, Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Patti LuPone, Gypsy
Elizabeth Marvel, Top Girls
Alli Mauzey, Cry-Baby
Jefferson Mays, Pygmalion
Frances McDormand, The Country Girl
S. Epatha Merkerson, Come Back, Little Sheba
David Morse, The Seafarer
Amy Morton, August: Osage County
Jim Norton, The Seafarer
Chazz Palminteri, A Bronx Tale
Rosie Perez, The Ritz
Martha Plimpton, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Cymbeline, Top Girls
Faith Prince, A Catered Affair
Bill Pullman, Peter and Jerry
Dallas Roberts, Peter and Jerry
Anika Noni Rose, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Mark Rylance, Boeing-Boeing
Jenna Russell, Sunday in the Park with George
Tobias Segal, From Up Here
Marian Seldes, Deuce
Jeanine Serralles, The Black Eyed and The Misanthrope
Rufus Sewell, Rock ‘N’ Roll
Jimmi Simpson, The Farnsworth Invention
Lois Smith, 100 Saints You Should Know
James Snyder, Cry-Baby
David Staller, Gaslight
Bobby Steggert, The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island
Stew, Passing Strange
Patrick Stewart, Macbeth
Paulo Szot, South Pacific
Julie White, From Up Here
Dianne Wiest, The Seagull
Mare Winningham, 10 Million Miles
Tom Wopat, A Catered Affair
Previous Award Recipients who are honored for their work this season, but who are ineligible to win the Distinguished Performance Award a second time:
Norbert Leo Butz, Is He Dead?
Kathleen Chalfant, A Hard Heart, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Vita and Virginia
Harvey Fierstein, A Catered Affair
James Earl Jones, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
John Lithgow, Stories By Heart
Ian McKellen, King Lear
Mary-Louise Parker, Dead Man’s Cell Phone