"Party" Time at Pre-Tony Tuneup
Considered one of the key pre-Tony tuneups, the Drama Desks honor the best in New York theater (both on- and off-Broadway fare), and if number of nominations are any indication, Gotham's best show isn't even on Broadway. As a matter of fact, is isn't anywhere.
The off-Broadway version of The Wild Party, which opened to lukewarm notices, failed to make its planned jump to Broadway and closed after a blink-and-you-missed-it run, scored a field-best 13 nominations, including best musical, best actor , best actress, best director, and best music and lyrics.
Ironically, the failed Wild Party did better than the other version of Wild Party, a bigger-budget Broadway affair based on the same hithtero obscure Jazz Age poem. The Broadway Wild Party (which just opened) picked up three noms for its name stars Mandy Patinkin, Toni Collette and Eartha Kitt. That means that both actresses who played the flapper Queenie (Collette and Julia Murney) and both actors who play her brutal paramour Burrs (Patinkin and Brian D'Arcy James ) will compete for an award, a first.
Meanwhile, showing the dearth of new talent on the Great White Way, two revivals also scored key nominations. The critically adored Kiss Me, Kate, starring Ragtime alums Brian Stokes Mitchell and Marin Mazzie, netted 10 noms, including best revival, best director, best actor and best actress, while the still-in-previews Music Man (it opens Thursday) grabbed eight nods, including revival, director, actor and actress. The two revivals also dominated the Outer Critics Circle Award nominations, another Tony precursor, announced earlier this month.
In the Drama Desk's most schizophrenic battle, Music Man director and Broadway buzz-magnet Susan Stroman will be competing against herself in the director and choreography categories, having picked up nominations for both Music Man and Contact, which also nabbed eight noms.
Contact is also competing against The Wild Party in the best musical category, along with The Dead, Saturday Night and Swing!
You'll notice that the ballyhooed Elton John-Disney musical Aida isn't on the list. The $20 million spin on Verdi was among the biggest Drama Desk disses, scoring only one nod, for Princess Aida herself, the ovation-worthy Heather Headley. Other notable omissions: the hyped Amadeus revival and actor John C. Reilly, one-half of the revolving leads in the much-loved True West (Reilly's tag-team partner, Philip Seymour Hoffman, did pick up a best actor nod).
Best play nominees: Contact with the Enemy by Frank D. Gilroy; Copenhagen by Michael Frayn; Dinner with Friends by Donald Margulies; Dirty Blonde by Claudia Shear; Jitney by August Wilson; and The Tale of the Allergist's Wife by Charles Busch.
The Drama Desk, an organization of theater journalists and critics, will announce winners May 14. Meanwhile, nominations for the Tonys, Broadway's biggest prize, will be announced May 8.
complete list of nominees
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