Drama Desk Strikes Nominations for Ragtime's Costumes and Orchestrations

A day after the Tony Award committee withdrew Santo Loquasto’s 2010 Best Costume nomination for the Broadway revival of Ragtime, the Drama Desk Awards have followed suit. Both the Tony and Drama Dresk committees ruled that Loquasto’s work on the revival was too similar to his 1998 designs for the original show to be eligible for awards honors this season.The Drama Desk committee also struck the nomination for Ragtime's orchestrations by William David Brohn for the same reason.

A letter from the Drama Desk Awards committee stated that, “when the lead producer and nominated costume designer Santo Loquasto did not disagree with the [Tony Award committee] decision, we revisited the issue. The Drama Desk concurs that the excellent costuming was not sufficiently new to make it eligible. Therefore, the nomination will be removed from the ballot in the Outstanding Costume Design category.”

The Broadway revival also garnered Drama Desk noms in the categories of Outstanding Revival of a Musical, Outstanding Actress in a Musical (Christiane Noll), Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical (Bobby Steggert), Outstanding Director of a Musical (Marcia Milgrom Dodge), Outstanding Choreography (Dodge), Outstanding Set Design (Derek McLane) and Outstanding Sound Design (Acme Sound Partners).