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Mary Poppins, Utopia Lead Outer Critics Circle Award Nominations

Ashley Brown, Alexander Scheitinger, Katherine Leigh Doherty, and Gavin Lee in Mary Poppins (© Joan Marcus)

The musical Mary Poppins and Tom Stoppard's trilogy The Coast of Utopia lead the nominations for 57th Annual Outer Critics Circle Awards. The winners will be announced on Monday, May 14, with a formal ceremony to be held at Sardi's on Thursday, May 24. The announcement was made this morning at the Algonquin Hotel by actors Victoria Clark and John Lloyd Young.

The organization also announced that Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes, the stars of Deuce, will receive special awards in recognition of their outstanding and distinguished careers in the theater. The show was deemed ineligible for any regular awards by its producers earlier this month. In addition, Grey Gardens is not eligible, since the Off-Broadway production was considered last year.

Mary Poppins received nominations in each possible category, including nods for actors Ashley Brown, Gavin Lee, Daniel Jenkins, and Rebecca Luker. In addition to being nominated for Outstanding New Broadway Play and Outstanding Director for Jack O'Brien, The Coast of Utopia earned nominations for stars Brian F. O'Byrne, Jennifer Ehle, Martha Plimpton, and Billy Crudup, as well as for Set Design, Costume Design and Lighting Design.

Curtains received six nominations, including Best New Broadway Musical, Best New Score, Best Choreography, and nods for David Hyde Pierce, Jason Danieley, and Karen Ziemba. Frost/Nixon picked up five nominations, including one for star Frank Langella and co-star Stephen Kunken, but not Michael Sheen; while LoveMusik also picked up five nominations, including Best New Musical and nods for stars Michael Cerveris, Donna Murphy, and David Pittu.

Among the most interesting facets of the many acting nominations is that mother and daughter Jill Clayburgh and Lily Rabe are both competing in the Best Featured Actress in a Play category, for The Clean House and Heartbreak House respectively. Notable omissions include Kevin Spacey, Vanessa Redgrave, Debra Monk, Laura Bell Bundy, and Hugh Dancy.

The Outer Critics Circle is comprised of journalists affiliated with more than 90 newspapers, magazines, web sites, radio stations, television stations in America and abroad. Nominations are made in 23 categories, and both Broadway and Off-Broadway shows are included. A complete list of this year's nominees follows:

********************

Outstanding New Broadway Play
The Coast of Utopia
Coram Boy
Frost/Nixon
Radio Golf

Outstanding New Broadway Musical
Curtains
LoveMusik
Mary Poppins
Spring Awakening

Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play
Exits and Entrances
Indian Blood
The Pain and the Itch
The Scene

Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical
In the Heights
Evil Dead The Musical
Floyd and Clea
Gutenberg! The Musical!

Outstanding New Score (Broadway or Off Broadway)
Curtains
In the Heights
Mary Poppins
Spring Awakening

Outstanding Revival of a Play
Inherit the Wind
Journey's End
Talk Radio
The Voysey Inheritance

Outstanding Revival of a Musical
The Apple Tree
A Chorus Line
Company
110 in the Shade

Outstanding Director of a Play (Lucille Lortel Award)
Michael Grandage, Frost/Nixon
David Grindley, Journey's End
Melly Still, Coram Boy
Jack O'Brien, The Coast of Utopia

Outstanding Director of a Musical
John Doyle, Company
Richard Eyre & Matthew Bourne, Mary Poppins
Thomas Kail, In the Heights
Michael Mayer, Spring Awakening

Outstanding Choreography
Rob Ashford, Curtains
Andy Blankenbuehler, In the Heights
Matthew Bourne & Stephen Mear, Mary Poppins
Carol Leavy Joyce & Graciela Daniele, The Pirate Queen

Outstanding Set Design
Bob Crowley & Scott Pask, The Coast of Utopia
Bob Crowley, Mary Poppins
Ti Green & Melly Still, Coram Boy
Derek McLane, The Voysey Inheritance

Outstanding Costume Design
Bob Crowley, Mary Poppins
Judith Dolan, LoveMusik
Martin Pakledinaz, The Pirate Queen
Catherine Zuber, The Coast of Utopia

Outstanding Lighting Design
Neil Austin, Frost/Nixon
Paule Constable, Coram Boy
Howard Harrison, Mary Poppins
Brian MacDevitt/ Kenneth Posner/ Natasha Katz, The Coast of Utopia

Outstanding Actor in a Play
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Brían F. O'Byrne, The Coast of Utopia
Christopher Plummer, Inherit the Wind
Liev Schreiber, Talk Radio

Outstanding Actress in a Play
Eve Best, A Moon for the Misbegotten
Jennifer Ehle, The Coast of Utopia
Carla Gugino, Suddenly Last Summer
Allison Pill, Blackbird

Outstanding Actor in a Musical
Michael Cerveris, LoveMusik
Raúl Esparza, Company
Gavin Lee, Mary Poppins
David Hyde Pierce, Curtains

Outstanding Actress in a Musical
Ashley Brown, Mary Poppins
Kristen Chenoweth, The Apple Tree
Audra McDonald, 110 in the Shade
Donna Murphy, LoveMusik

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play
Billy Crudup, The Coast of Utopia
Boyd Gaines, Journey's End
David Greenspan, Some Men
Stephen Kunken, Frost/Nixon

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play
Robin Bartlett, Prelude to a Kiss
Jill Clayburgh, The Clean House
Martha Plimpton, The Coast of Utopia
Lily Rabe, Heartbreak House

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical
Jason Danieley, Curtains
Daniel Jenkins, Mary Poppins
David Pittu, LoveMusik
Bobby Steggert, 110 in the Shade

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical
Charlotte d'Amboise, A Chorus Line
Rebecca Luker, Mary Poppins
Orfeh, Legally Blonde
Karen Ziemba, Curtains

Outstanding Solo Performance
Daniel Beatty, Emergence-See
Ed Harris, Wrecks
Jay Johnson, The Two and Only
Nilaja Sun, No Child

John Gassner Award (Presented for an American play, preferably by a new playwright)
Daisy Foote, Bhutan
Bob Glaudini, Jack Goes Boating
Bruce Norris, The Pain and the Itch
Nilaja Sun, No Child

 

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