Drama League Announces 2007 Noms; Gary Beach to Host Awards

The Drama League has announced the nominees for its 2006-2007 awards, to be awarded at the 73rd Annual Drama League Awards Ceremony and Luncheon on May 11 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel. The event will be hosted by Gary Beach, currently playing Thenardier in the Broadway revival of Les Misérables.

The nominees in four major production award categories are as follows:

Distinguished Production of a Musical
Curtains
In the Heights
Kiki & Herb: Alive on Broadway
Legally Blonde
Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me
Mary Poppins
Spring Awakening

Distinguished Production of a Play
Blackbird
Coram Boy
Frost/Nixon
No Child
Radio Golf
The Coast of Utopia
The Scene
The Year of Magical Thinking

Distinguished Revival of a Musical
110 in the Shade
A Chorus Line
Company
Les Misérables
The Fantasticks

Distinguished Revival of a Play
Inherit the Wind
Journey's End
Mother Courage and Her Children
Seven Guitars
Talk Radio
The Hairy Ape
The Merchant of Venice
Translations

Grey Gardens and The Little Dog Laughed were nominated for Drama League Awards during their earlier off-Broadway runs in 2006, and are thus ineligible this season. The production of Deuce has removed itself from consideration for this year's awards, and will be considered next season. The cut-off date for this season's Drama League Awards was April 22.

The Drama League also pays tribute to the season's best performers by including the nominees for the 2006-2007 Distinguished Performance Award on a dais. This season's 78-member dais includes the following performers, one of whom will be honored with the Distinguished Performance Award:

F. Murray Abraham, The Jew of Malta and The Merchant of Venice
Heidi Armbruster, Tea and Sympathy
Christine Baranski, Regrets Only
Gary Beach, Les Misérables
Daniel Beaty, Emergence-See!
Eve Best, A Moon for the Misbegotten
Stephanie J. Block, The Pirate Queen
Justin Bond, Kiki & Herb: Alive on Broadway
Christian Borle, Legally Blonde
Ashley Brown, Mary Poppins
Laura Bell Bundy, Legally Blonde
Kate Burton, The Water's Edge
Michael Cerveris, King Lear and LoveMusik
Kristin Chenoweth, The Apple Tree
Anthony Chisholm, Radio Golf
Jill Clayburgh, The Clean House and The Busy World Is Hushed
Jennifer Cody, Henry and Mudge
Billy Crudup, The Coast of Utopia
Michael Cumpsty, Richard II
Charlotte D'Amboise, A Chorus Line
Hugh Dancy, Journey's End
Jeff Daniels, Blackbird
Brian Dennehy, Inherit the Wind
Gregory Derelian, The Hairy Ape
Ensemble, Columbinus collective award; members of the company may be represented on the dais
Ensemble, Coram Boy collective award; members of the company may be represented on the dais
Raúl Esparza, Company
Gerald Finnigan, The Hairy Ape
John Fugelsang, All the Wrong Reasons
Boyd Gaines, Journey's End
John Gallagher Jr., Spring Awakening
Alexander Gemignani, Les Misérables
Piper Goodeve, Anne of Green Gables
Logan Marshall-Green, King Lear and Pig Farm
David Greenspan, Some Men
George Grizzard, Regrets Only
Jonathan Groff, Spring Awakening
Ed Harris, Wrecks
Ethan Hawke, The Coast of Utopia
Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Jack Goes Boating
Jayne Houdyshell, The Pain and the Itch
Stephen Kunken, A Very Common Procedure and Frost/Nixon
Nathan Lane, Butley
Gavin Lee, Mary Poppins
Harry Lennix, Radio Golf
Norm Lewis, Les Misérables
Hamish Linklater, The Busy World Is Hushed
John Mahoney, Prelude to a Kiss
Dylan McDermott, The Treatment
Audra McDonald, 110 in the Shade
Lin-Manuel Miranda, In the Heights
Alfred Molina, Howard Katz
Debra Monk, Curtains
Kate Mulgrew, Our Leading Lady
Donna Murphy, LoveMusik
Kristine Nielsen, Our Leading Lady
Bill Nighy, The Vertical Hour
Brian F. O'Byrne, Shining City and The Coast of Utopia
Denis O'Hare, Inherit the Wind and A Spanish Play
Sandra Oh, Satellites
Thaddeus Phillips, El Conquistador!
David Hyde Pierce, Curtains
Allison Pill, Blackbird
Oliver Platt, Shining City
Michelle Ragusa, Adrift in Macao
Vanessa Redgrave, The Year of Magical Thinking
Liev Schreiber, Macbeth and Talk Radio
Pablo Schreiber, Dying City
Andrew Scott, The Vertical Hour
Michael Sheen, Frost/Nixon
Martin Short, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me
Meryl Streep, Mother Courage and Her Children
Michael Stuhlbarg, The Voysey Inheritance
Nilaja Sun, No Child
Alan Tudyk, Prelude to a Kiss
Barbara Walsh, Company

In addition, five past recipients of the Distinguished Performance Award will be honored on this dais for their work this season but are ineligible this year's award, which can only be won once: Zoe Caldwell A Spanish Play, Kathleen Chalfant Great Expectations and Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell, Christine Ebersole Grey Gardens, Frank Langella Frost/Nixon and Christopher Plummer Inherit the Wind.

Earlier this month, The Drama League announced the recipients of its three annual specialty awards: John Kander and Fred Ebb posthumously will receive the Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre Award, Michael Mayer "Spring Awakening" will be honored with the Julia Hansen Award for Excellence in Directing, and the not-for-profit charity organization Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS will receive the Unique Contribution to the Theatre Award.

Bernadette Peters, Chita Rivera, Christine Ebersole, Tony Kushner, Liev Schreiber, Audra McDonald, Ashley Brown and Jonathan Groff are among the confirmed presenters at this year's awards ceremony.

The Drama League was founded in 1916 as an association of theater professionals and patrons dedicated to encouraging the finest in professional theater, and has since developed into one of the theater's premiere service organization.