Tony Winner Laura Benanti to Host the Drama Desk Awards

Tony and Drama Desk award winner Laura Benanti will host the 59^th Annual Drama Desk Awards on June 1 at The Town Hall. Nominations will be announced on April 25.

"I am thrilled to bring my particular brand of idiocy to what is usually a very classy affair,” said The Sound of Music Live! star in a statement, adding, “#ForThePeopleByThePeople."

Benanti received both the Tony and Drama Desk award for her performance in Gypsy and a second Drama Desk award for Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Her additional Broadway credits include The Sound of Music, Swing!, Into the Woods, Nine, The Wedding Singer and In the Next Room. Her screen credits also include Nurse Jackie, Go On, The Playboy Club, Starved, The Big C, Law & Order: SVU, Elementary and Life On Mars.

The Drama Desk, founded in 1949, brings together writers and critics to support the ongoing development of theater in New York. The Drama Desk Awards were first presented in 1955, and includes Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway shows in the same categories.