2003 Drama Desk Awards Presented

The 48th Annual Drama Desk Awards were presented this evening at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in a star-studded ceremony hosted by Broadway legend Chita Rivera.

As expected, Hairspray proved major competition, capturing 10 awards out of its 14 nominations, including the award for Outstanding Musical. While Marissa Jaret Winokur won for her leading performance, her onstage mother, Harvey Fierstein, had to share his award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical with Antonio Banderas of Nine. While William Ivey Long won for his costume designs, the remaining design awards all went to Baz Luhrmann’s production of La Bohème. The Roundabout Theatre Company revival of Nine took home a total of three awards, including the award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical.

The revival of Long Day’s Journey Into Night took the prize for Outstanding Revival, as well as prizes for its director, Robert Falls, and star Vanessa Redgrave. Eddie Izzard won the award for Outstanding Actor in a Play for his performance in the Roundabout revival of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg.

The complete list of nominees (with the winner listed in bold) is below.

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Outstanding Choreography:
Jerry Mitchell (Hairspray)

Ken Roberson (Harlem Song)
Twyla Tharp (Movin’ Out)
Tommy Tune (Tommy Tune: White Tie and Tails)

Outstanding Orchestrations:
Luther Henderson (Little Ham)
Michel Legrand (Amour)
Harold Wheeler (Hairspray)

Outstanding Book of a Musical:
Tim Acito, Alexander Dinelaris (Zanna, Don’t!)
Terrence McNally (A Man of No Importance)
Mark O’Donnell, Thomas Meehan (Hairspray)
Jeremy Sams, Didier van Cauwelaert (Amour)
Jeff Whitty (Avenue Q)

Outstanding Director of a Play:
Robert Falls (Long Day’s Journey Into Night)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Our Lady of 121st Street)
Joe Mantello (Take Me Out)
Sam Mendes (Twelfth Night)
Sam Mendes (Uncle Vanya)
Deborah Warner (Medea)

Outstanding Director of a Musical:
James Lapine (Amour)
David Leveaux (Nine)
Baz Luhrmann (La Bohème)
Joe Mantello (A Man of No Importance)
Jack O’Brien (Hairspray)
Twyla Tharp (Movin’ Out)

Outstanding Lyrics:
Tim Acito, Alexander Dinelaris (Zanna, Don’t!)
Lynn Ahrens (A Man of No Importance)
Craig Carnelia (Imaginary Friends)
Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx (Avenue Q)
Jeremy Sams, Didier van Cauwelaert (Amour)
Scott Wittman, Marc Shaiman (Hairspray)

Outstanding Music:
Tim Acito (Zanna, Don’t!)
Stephen Flaherty (A Man of No Importance)
Michel Legrand (Amour)
Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx (Avenue Q)
Keb’ Mo’, Anderson Edwards, Keith Glover (Thunder Knocking on the Door)
Marc Shaiman (Hairspray)

Outstanding Costume Design:
Michael Bottari, Ronald Case (Shanghai Moon)
Jess Goldstein (Enchanted April)
Eiko Ishioka (Cirque du Soleil: Varekai)
William Ivey Long (Hairspray)
Catherine Martin, Angus Strathie (La Bohème)
Catherine Zuber (Dinner at Eight)

Outstanding Sound Design:
Acme Sound Partners (La Bohème)
Mark Bennett (Golda’s Balcony)
Mark Bennett (Julius Caesar)
Francois Bergeron (Cirque du Soleil: Varekai)
Janet Kalas (Take Me Out)
David Meschter, Mel Mercier (Medea)

Outstanding Lighting Design:
Kevin Adams (Take Me Out)
Russell H. Champa (Yellowman)
Donald Holder (Movin’ Out)
Donald Holder (Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Toward the Somme)
Nigel Levings (La Bohème)
Peter Mumford (Vincent in Brixton)

Outstanding Set Design of a Play:
John Lee Beatty (Dinner at Eight)
John Lee Beatty (My Old Lady)
Troy Hourie (Temporary Help)
Scott Pask (Take Me Out)
Neil Patel (Endpapers)
B.T. Whitehill (Shanghai Moon)

Outstanding Set Design of a Musical:
Riccardo Hernandez, Batwin + Robin Productions (Radiant Baby)
Catherine Martin (La Bohème)
Scott Pask (Amour)
Stephane Roy (Cirque du Soleil: Varekai)
David Rockwell (Hairspray)

Outstanding Solo Performance:
Barbara Cook (Mostly Sondheim)
Tovah Feldshuh (Golda’s Balcony)
Frank Gorshin (Say Goodnight, Gracie)
Ricky Jay (Ricky Jay: On the Stem)
Priscilla Lopez (Class Mothers ’68)
Charlayne Woodard (In Real Life)

Unique Theatrical Experience:
Cirque du Soleil: Varekai
The Exonerated
The Play What I Wrote
Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play:
Christine Ebersole (Talking Heads)
Jan Maxwell (My Old Lady)
Helen McCrory (Uncle Vanya)
Nancy Opel (Polish Joke)
Lynn Redgrave (Talking Heads)
Jeanine Serralles (Hold Please)

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play:
Simon Russell Beale (Twelfth Night)
Walter Bobbie (Polish Joke)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Long Day’s Journey Into Night)
T.R. Knight (Scattergood)
Denis O’Hare (Take Me Out)
Frederick Weller (Take Me Out)

Outstanding Actress in a Play:
Jayne Atkinson (Enchanted April)
Marylouise Burke (Kimberly Akimbo)
Clare Higgins (Vincent in Brixton)
Dael Orlandersmith (Yellowman)
Vanessa Redgrave (Long Day’s Journey Into Night)
Fiona Shaw (Medea)

Outstanding Actor in a Play:
Simon Russell Beale (Uncle Vanya)
Norbert Leo Butz (Buicks)
Jim Dale (Comedians)
Brian Dennehy (Long Day’s Journey Into Night)
Eddie Izzard (A Day in the Death of Joe Egg)
Daniel Sunjata (Take Me Out)

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical:
Kerry Butler (Hairspray)
Jane Krakowski (Nine)
Mary Stuart Masterson (Nine)
Sally Mayes (Urban Cowboy)

Chita Rivera (Nine)
Debra Walton (Cookin’ at the Cookery)

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical:
John Dossett (Gypsy)
Christopher Fitzgerald (Amour)
Charles Keating (A Man of No Importance)
Dick Latessa (Hairspray)
Steven Pasquale (A Man of No Importance)
Corey Reynolds (Hairspray)

Outstanding Actress in a Musical:
Stephanie D’Abruzzo (Avenue Q)
Ann Duquesnay (Cookin’ at the Cookery)
Wei Huang (La Bohème)
Elizabeth Parkinson (Movin’ Out)
Bernadette Peters (Gypsy)
Marissa Jaret Winokur (Hairspray)

Outstanding Actor in a Musical:
Antonio Banderas (Nine)
Harvey Fierstein (Hairspray)
Malcolm Gets (Amour)
Brian Stokes Mitchell (Man of La Mancha)
Jason Petty (Hank Williams: Lost Highway)
John Selya (Movin’ Out)

Outstanding Play:
Buicks (Julian Sheppard)
Our Lady of 121st Street (Stephen Adly Guirgis)
Peter and Vandy (Jay DiPietro)
Take Me Out (Richard Greenberg)
Talking Heads (Alan Bennett)
Yellowman (Dael Orlandersmith)

Outstanding Revival of a Play:
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
Dinner at Eight
Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Medea
Twelfth Night (Donmar Warehouse/BAM)
Uncle Vanya (Donmar Warehouse/BAM)

Outstanding Musical:
Amour
Avenue Q
Hairspray
A Man of No Importance
Movin’ Out
Zanna, Don’t!

Outstanding Revival of a Musical:
Gypsy
La Bohème
Man of La Mancha
Nine

2003 Drama Desk Scholarships for Excellence in Acting:
Sari Goldberg
David Blondell

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[Click here to view video highlights from the TheaterMania webcast of the Drama Desk Awards.]