Theater News

Trophy Time

As awards season begins, David Finkle offers a guide to the various New York theatrical honors.

Left to right: the Tony, Theatre World, and Drama Desk awards
Left to right: the Tony, Theatre World, and Drama Desk awards

During the next six weeks, scads of plaques, citations, sculptures, etc. will be showered upon a slew of giddy recipients in humming auditoriums and at buzzing parties throughout New York City. Indeed, so many prizes will be doled out by so many organizations that it’s hard to remember a time existed when people toiling in what is known today as “live theater” believed that their own work (and the audience’s applause) was its own reward.

Every major city with a sizable theater presence has its own awards; there are the Ovations in Los Angeles, the Joseph Jeffersons in Chicago, the Barrymores in Philadelphia, and the Helen Hayes Awards in Washington, D.C. to name only a few. And there’s the most prestigious honor of all: The Pulitzer Prize for Drama. On April 17, this year’s committee decided that no American play was worthy of the nearly 90-year-old prize, leaving finalists Adam Rapp, Rolin Jones, and Christopher Durang — not to mention numerous other hopefuls — empty-handed.

The first trophies of the 2006 season in NYC will be handed out tonight when the Lucille Lortel Awards are bestowed at New World Stages. Named after the beloved actress and producer, the Lortels were established in 1985 by the League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers, and they concentrate exclusively on Off-Broadway shows. (For the record, 97 Off-Broadway productions opened this season, and more than 100 such shows are anticipated next season.) The Lucille Lortel Foundation picks a committee of 16 highly knowledgeable individuals who annually chose the nominees and then vote for the winners of these prestigious honors.

The very first Drama League Award went to the great actress Katharine Cornell in 1935. Today, one performer per season gets the League’s Distinguished Performance Award but many, many more get to sit on the dais at the league’s annual luncheon, which will be held this year on Friday, May 5 at the Marriot Marquis. Nearly 3,000 league members across the country, most of whom are not theater professionals but simply theater lovers, vote on who will receive this acknowledgment as well as the League’s awards for Best Play, Best Musical, Best Revival of a Play, and Best Revival of a Musical. (The finalists in those categories have been chosen by the 30 members of the nominating committee.) In addition, the Drama League bestows a number of special awards for career achievement; Patti LuPone, Des McAnuff, and Marian Seldes are this year’s worthy recipients.

The New York Drama Critics’ Circle began giving out its awards in the 1935-1936 season. Today, the group consists of 19 writers for the city’s newspapers, magazines, and wire services who consider but don’t always bestow honors for Best Play, Best Foreign Play, and Best Musical, along with occasional special awards and citations — e.g., to Barbara Cook, David Hare, and the City Center Encores! series. This year’s announcement will be made on May 11.

In 1955, Jerry Tallmer, a writer for The Village Voice (then a new publication), decided that the rapidly growing Off-Broadway scene needed special recognition. So the newspaper, which had designated downtown activities for priority coverage, established The Village Voice Obie Awards. Honoring Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway productions, the awards are voted by a small committee of the paper’s critics and a few additional theater mavens. Unlike most other theatrical honors, there are no nominees; instead, the judges give credit wherever they feel credit is due. This year’s ceremony will be held on Monday, May 15 at one of downtown’s newest venues, NYU’s Skirball Center.

The year 1955 also saw the inauguration of the Drama Desk Awards, which cover the broadest possible range of shows in considering Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway. Each year, the seven members of the nominating committee see literally hundreds of productions and come up with a slate of up to six nominees in more than 30 categories. Then the organization’s 123 voting members — most of whom are writers, editors, and television personalities who cover theater in the New York metropolitan area — cast their ballots for the winners. The 2006 awards ceremony will be held on Sunday, May 21 at the LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, with Harvey Fierstein returning as host for the third consecutive year.

Critics who cover theater for media outlets based outside of NYC vote for the Outer Critics Circle Awards, which will be given out at the legendary watering hole Sardi’s on Thursday, May 25. (The winners will be announced on May 15.) The group’s members — now 100 strong — include writers from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Ohio, Florida, and even one from Arizona. The awards cover both Broadway and Off-Broadway, and the nominees are chosen by a relatively small committee of the group’s members.

While all of the aforementioned ceremonies are sure to have many cheerful moments, the happiest jubilee may occur on June 6, when the Theatre World Awards are bestowed. Established in 1944 by Daniel Blum and John Willis, the awards go to the 12 outstanding theater newcomers of the season; they are now voted on by a panel of seven major critics, including TheaterMania’s own Peter Filichia. In the first two years alone, Judy Holliday, John Raitt, Barbara Bel Geddes, Marlon Brando, and Burt Lancaster took home Theatre World trophies, while last year’s winners included Christina Applegate, Dan Fogler, and Cheyenne Jackson. One major reason why the Theatre World Awards are so entertaining is that those being acknowledged are called to the stage by former awardees who reminisce about their own wins. Being there is a chance to see both history and history in the making.

Last chronologically, but by no means least, are the most famous honors for achievement in the theater: the 60-years-young Tony Awards, which recognize the best of Broadway. Named for actress-director-producer Antoinette Perry, the Tonys were founded in response to her belief that theater professionals deserved to be noticed for their contributions to this unique art form. There were only 15 categories in the 1946-1947 season, with Ingrid Bergman, Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan, Agnes de Mille, and Patricia Neal among those who received trophies during what was then a private event. Today, 24 individuals from various theater-related fields pick the nearly 100 nominees. The winners, to be announced on Sunday, June 11 in a ceremony to be televised live from Radio City Music Hall, are determined by approximately 750 voters, including actors, directors, choreographers, composers and lyricists, designers, agents, casting agents, general managers — and even journalists.