Harvey Fierstein to Host 2009 Drama Desk Awards

Four-time Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein will host the 54th annual Drama Desk Awards ceremony on May 17 at F.H. LaGuardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center. Nominees will be announced on April 27 at the New York Friars Club.

The Drama Desk, which was organized in 1949 and presented its first awards in 1955, is the only organization of professional theater critics, writers and editors that bestows awards with Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions competing in the same categories.

Fierstein most recently appeared on Broadway in A Catered Affair, for which he wrote the book. His Broadway credits as an actor include Hairspray, Fiddler on the Roof, and his own play Torch Song Trilogy.

The 2008-2009 nominating committee for the Drama Desk Awards is composed of theater journalists Barbara Siegel, Dan Bacalzo, Christopher Byrne, Patrick Christiano, Jason Clark, Gerard Raymond and Richard Ridge.