From the Desk of the Drama Desk

In co-announcing (with the fabulous Michele Lee) this year’s Drama Desk Award nominees, Dick Cavett suggested that Urinetown might alternatively be pronounced “You’re in town.” Well, however you say it, that Off-Broadway show came up roses with the Drama Desk folk; it will compete for awards in nine categories, not very far behind DD favorites The Producers (14 nomination) and The Full Monty (12 nominations) and well ahead of such other high-profile musicals as 42nd Street and The Rocky Horror Show (each with five nominations).

The Drama Desk nominating committee–consisting of TheaterMania’s own David Finkle and Barbara & Scott Siegel along with Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter, Harry Haun of Playbill, Jonathan Kalb of New York Press, Edward Karam of The Times of London, and David Sheward of Back Stage–also smiled particularly widely on such non-musicals as The Invention of Love, The Unexpected Man (each with five nominations), King Hedley II, Comic Potential, and Richard II (each with four). The nominees for achievement on and Off-Broadway were announced this morning at the Friars’ Club; the winners will be named on Sunday, May 20 in a ceremony in the auditorium of the F.H. LaGuardia High School near Lincoln Center. Following is a complete list of nominees:

Outstanding Play:
Boy Gets Girl, by Rebecca Gilman
Comic Potential, by Alan Ayckbourn

The Invention of Love, by Tom Stoppard
Lobby Hero, by Kenneth Lonergan
Proof, by David Auburn
The Unexpected Man, by Yasmina Reza

Outstanding Musical:

Bat Boy The Musical
The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin
The Full Monty
The Producers
Urinetown

Outstanding Musical Revue:

American Rhapsody
Forbidden Broadway 2001: A Spoof Odyssey
newyorkers

Outstanding Revival of a Play:

Betrayal
Gore Vidal’s The Best Man
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Richard II
The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe
Tiny Alice

Outstanding Revival of a Musical:

Bells Are Ringing
Follies
42nd Street
The Rocky Horror Show

Outstanding Actor in a Play:

Alan Bates (The Unexpected Man)
Richard Easton (The Invention of Love)
Ralph Fiennes (Richard II)
Brian Stokes Mitchell (King Hedley II)
John Ortiz (Jesus Hopped the A Train)
Liev Schreiber (Betrayal)

Outstanding Actress in a Play:

Eileen Atkins (The Unexpected Man)
Janie Dee (Comic Potential)
Mary Beth Fisher (Boy Gets Girl)
Mary-Louise Parker (Proof)
Marian Seldes (The Play About the Baby)
Lili Taylor (The Dead Eye Boy)

Outstanding Actor in a Musical:

Matthew Broderick (The Producers)
Kevin Chamberlin (Seussical the Musical)
Nathan Lane (The Producers)
Tom Hewitt (The Rocky Horror Show)
Deven May (Bat Boy The Musical)
Patrick Wilson (The Full Monty)

Outstanding Actress in a Musical:

Christine Ebersole (42nd Street)
Kaitlin Hopkins (Bat Boy The Musical)
La Chanze (The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin)
Sally Mayes (Pete n Keely)
Faith Prince (Bells Are Ringing)
Marla Schaffel (Jane Eyre)

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play:

Charles Brown (King Hedley II)
Oliver Ford Davies (Richard II)
Aaron Himelstein (The Dead Eye Boy)
Justin Kirk (Ten Unknowns)
Maximilian Schell (Judgment at Nuremberg)
Lewis J. Stadlen (The Man Who Came to Dinner)

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play:

Viola Davis (King Hedley II)
Anita Durst (The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant)
Barbara Jefford (Coriolanus)
Marthe Keller (Judgment at Nuremberg)
Marian Seldes (The Butterfly Collection)
Robin Weigert (Madame Melville)

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical:

Roger Bart (The Producers)
Gary Beach (The Producers)
John Ellison Conlee (The Full Monty)
Andre De Shields (The Full Monty)
Mark Jacoby (Enter the Guardsman)
Jeff McCarthy (Urinetown)

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical:

Polly Bergen (Follies)
Kathleen Freeman (The Full Monty)
Randy Graff (A Class Act)
Cady Huffman (The Producers)
Spencer Kayden (Urinetown)
Janine LaManna (Seussical the Musical)

Outstanding Director of a Play:

Mark Brokaw (Lobby Hero)
Michael Greif (Dogeaters)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Jesus Hopped the A Train)
Jonathan Kent (Richard II)
Jack O’Brien (The Invention of Love)
Matthew Warchus (The Unexpected Man)

Outstanding Director of a Musical:

Christopher Ashley (The Rocky Horror Show)
Wilfredo Medina (The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin)
Jack O’Brien (The Full Monty)
John Rando (Urinetown)
Scott Schwartz (Bat Boy The Musical)
Susan Stroman (The Producers)

Outstanding Choreography:

John Carrafa (Urinetown)
Jerry Mitchell (The Full Monty)
Jerry Mitchell (The Rocky Horror Show)
Randy Skinner (42nd Street)
Susan Stroman (The Producers)

Outstanding Book of a Musical:

Mel Brooks, Thomas Meehan (The Producers)
Kirsten Childs (The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin)
Keythe Farley, Brian Flemming (Bat Boy The Musical)
Greg Kotis (Urinetown)
Terrence McNally (The Full Monty)

Outstanding Music:

Kirsten Childs (The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin)
Stephen Flaherty (Seussical the Musical)
Mark Hollman (Urinetown)
Ed Kleban (A Class Act)
Laurence O’Keefe (Bat Boy The Musical)
David Yazbek (The Full Monty)

Outstanding Lyrics:

Mel Brooks (The Producers)
Kirsten Childs (The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin)
Mark Hollman, Greg Kotis (Urinetown)
Ed Kleban (A Class Act)
Laurence O’Keefe (Bat Boy The Musical)
David Yazbek (The Full Monty)

Outstanding Orchestrations:

Doug Besterman (The Producers)
Bruce Coughlin (Urinetown)
Michael Starobin (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)
Jonathan Tunick (Follies)
Harold Wheeler (The Full Monty)

Outstanding Set Design of a Play:

John Lee Beatty (Comic Potential)
Jeff Cowie (The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant)
Bob Crowley (The Invention of Love)
David Gallo (King Hedley II)
Thomas Lynch (Old Money)
Dean Taucher (Tabletop)

Outstanding Set Design of a Musical:

Heidi Ettinger (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)
Richard Hoover, Bryan Johnson (Bat Boy The Musical)
David Rockwell (The Rocky Horror Show)
Douglas W. Schmidt (42nd Street)
Robin Wagner (The Producers)

Outstanding Costume Design:

Linda Cho (Princess Turandot)
Roger Kirk (42nd Street)
William Ivey Long (The Producers)
Bob Mackie (Pete n Keely)
Chris March, Dana Peter Porras, Richard Sanchez (Christmas with the Crawfords)
Anthony Powell (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)

Outstanding Lighting Design:

Paul Anderson (Mnemonic)
Howell Binkley (The Full Monty)
Peter Kaczorowski (The Producers)
Brian MacDevitt (The Invention of Love)
Kenneth Posner (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer)
Hugh Vanstone (The Unexpected Man)

Outstanding Sound Design:

Mark Bennett, Michael Creason (Dogeaters)
Bruce Ellman (Comic Potential)
Gregory Kostroff (Lypsinka The Boxed Set)
Mic Pool, David Bullard (The Unexpected Man)
Christopher Shutt (Mnemonic)
Jerry Yager (Up Against the Wind)

Outstanding Solo Performance:

Eric Bogosian (Wake Up and Smell the Coffee)
Bette Bourne (Resident Alien)
Brian d’Arcy James (The Good Thief)
Pamela Gien (The Syringa Tree)
Sarah Jones (Surface Transit)
Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Lackawanna Blues)

Unique Theatrical Experience:

And God Created Great Whales
The Laramie Project
Mnemonic

Special Awards:
-Sean Campion and Conleth Hill for their performances in Stones in His Pockets;
-Reba McEntire for her performance in Annie Get Your Gun;
-The casts of Cobb (Michael Cullen, Clark Jackson, Matthew Mabe, Michael Sabatino) and Tabletop (Rob Bartlett, Harvy Blanks, Jack Koenig, Dean Nolen, Elizabeth Hanly Rice, Jeremy Webb) for Outstanding Ensemble Performance.