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So the Drama Desk Awards have been handed out...

YaY! to Company for the Lead Actor prize for Raul Esparza, Orchestrations to Mary-Mitchell Campbell, and top prize for the Best Revival of a Musical. :)

It was interesting to note that the original and current orchestrators of Company (Jonathon Tunick and Mary-Mitchell Campbell) shared the prize. :) That, and the two revival Roberts -- Raul Esparza (2006) and Boyd Gaines (1995) -- were taking home awards :)

Utopia and Spring Awakening Win Top Honors at Drama Desk Awards

Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia and Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater's Spring Awakening were named, respectively, Outstanding Play and Outstanding Musical at the 52nd Annual Drama Desk Awards, which were presented May 20 at the F.H. LaGuardia Concert Hall.

The Utopia trilogy, which recently ended its run at Lincoln Center, won seven awards, the most of any production of the season. Spring Awakening, which is adapted from the 1891 Frank Wedekind play about teenage sexual awakening, won four awards. Directors of both productions were honored: Jack O'Brien was named Outstanding Director of a Play for Utopia, and Michael Mayer received the Outstanding Director of a Musical prize for Spring Awakening.

John Doyle's actor-musician staging of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's Company was named Outstanding Revival of a Musical, and Journey's End, which just announced a June 10
closing date, was named Outstanding Revival of a Play. Both productions received three awards apiece.

Top acting honors went to Frank Langella (Outstanding Actor in a Play for his work as former President Richard M. Nixon in Frost/Nixon), Eve Best (Outstanding Actress in a Play for
her work as the love-starved Josie Hogan in the Kevin Spacey revival of A Moon for the Misbegotten), Raúl Esparza (Outstanding Actor in a Musical for his performance as
the perennial bachelor Bobby in the aforementioned revival of Company) and Donna Murphy and Audra McDonald, who tied for Outstanding Actress in a Musical. Murphy won for her portrayal of Lotte Lenya in LoveMusik, while McDonald won for her work as the "plain" Lizzie in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of 110 in the Shade.

Tony Award winner Vanessa Redgrave won the award for Outstanding Solo Performance for her work as and in Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking.

The complete list of 52nd Annual Drama Desk Awards winners follows (winners names are in bold with an asterisk).

Outstanding Play

David Harrower, Blackbird

Terrence McNally, Some Men

Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon

*Tom Stoppard, The Coast of Utopia

Bernard Weinraub, The Accomplices

August Wilson, Radio Golf

Outstanding Musical

Curtains

In the Heights

Legally Blonde

LoveMusik

Mary Poppins

*Spring Awakening

Outstanding Revival of a Play

The Hairy Ape

Hedda Gabler

*Journey's End

Talk Radio

The Taming of the Shrew

Woyzeck

Outstanding Revival of a Musical

110 in the Shade

The Apple Tree

*Company

Di Yam Gazlonim!

H.M.S. Pinafore

Les Misérables

Outstanding Actor in a Play

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jack Goes Boating

*Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon

Brían F. O'Byrne, The Coast of Utopia

Christopher Plummer, Inherit the Wind

Liev Schreiber, Talk Radio

Kevin Spacey, A Moon for the Misbegotten

Paul Sparks, Essential Self-Defense

Outstanding Actress in a Play

*Eve Best, A Moon for the Misbegotten

Orlagh Cassidy, The Field

Blythe Danner, Suddenly Last Summer

Jennifer Mudge, Dutchman

Sandra Oh, Satellites

Annie Parisse, The Internationalists

Meryl Streep, Mother Courage and Her Children

Outstanding Actor in a Musical

Michael Cerveris, LoveMusik

*Raul Esparza, Company

John Gallagher, Jr. Spring Awakening

Jonathan Groff, Spring Awakening

David Hyde Pierce, Curtains

Martin Short, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me

Outstanding Actress in a Musical(Tie)

Ashley Brown, Mary Poppins

Laura Bell Bundy, Legally Blonde

Kristin Chenoweth, The Apple Tree

*Audra McDonald, 110 in the Shade

Lea Michele, Spring Awakening

*Donna Murphy, LoveMusik

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play

Anthony Chisholm, Radio Golf

Billy Crudup, The Coast of Utopia

*Boyd Gaines, Journey's End

John Ortiz, Jack Goes Boating

Andrew Polk, The Accomplices

Frederick Weller, Some Men

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play

Myriam Acharki, Woyzeck

Xanthe Elbrick, Coram Boy

Sarah Nina Hayon, Rearviewmirror

Jan Maxwell, Coram Boy

*Martha Plimpton, The Coast of Utopia

Rita Wolf, The American Pilot

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical

Brooks Ashmanskas, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me

Christian Borle, Legally Blonde

Aaron Lazar, Les Miserables

*Gavin Lee, Mary Poppins

Orville Mendoza, Adrift in Macao

David Pittu, LoveMusik

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical

Linda Balgord, The Pirate Queen

Celia Keenan-Bolger, Les Miserables

*Debra Monk, Curtains

Orfeh, Legally Blonde

Barbara Walsh, Company

Karen Ziemba, Curtains

Outstanding Director of a Play

Declan Donnellan, Twelfth Night

Michael Grandage, Frost/Nixon

Doug Hughes, Inherit the Wind

*Jack O'Brien, The Coast of Utopia

Ciarán O'Reilly, The Hairy Ape

Tom Ridgely, Marco Millions (based on lies)

Outstanding Director of a Musical

John Doyle, Company

Thomas Kail, In the Heights

*Michael Mayer, Spring Awakening

Jerry Mitchell, Legally Blonde

Harold Prince, LoveMusik

Alex Timbers, Gutenberg! The Musical!

Outstanding Choreography

Patricia Birch, LoveMusik

*Andy Blankenbuehler, In the Heights

Matthew Bourne, Edward Scissorhands

Matthew Bourne and Stephen Mear, Mary Poppins

Bill T. Jones, Spring Awakening

Jerry Mitchell, Legally Blonde

Outstanding Music

John Kander, Curtains

Paul Leschen, Twist: Please, Sir, May I Have Some
More?

Peter Melnick, Adrift in Macao

Lin-Manuel Miranda, In the Heights

Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin, Legally Blonde

*Duncan Sheik, Spring Awakening

Outstanding Lyrics

Fred Ebb, with additional lyrics by Rupert Holmes and John
Kander, Curtains

Lin-Manuel Miranda, In the Heights

Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin, Legally Blonde

*Steven Sater, Spring Awakening

Bill Strauss, Elaina Newport and Mark Eaton, Capitol
Steps

Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman, Martin Short: Fame Becomes
Me

Outstanding Book of a Musical

Scott Brown and Anthony King, Gutenberg! The Musical!

Julian Fellowes, Mary Poppins

Heather Hach, Legally Blonde

*Rupert Holmes and Peter Stone, Curtains

Steven Sater, Spring Awakening

Alfred Uhry, LoveMusik

Outstanding Music for a Play

*Mark Bennett, The Coast of Utopia

Adam Cork, Frost/Nixon

Gerard McBurney, Oliver Twist

The Propeller Company, The Taming of the Shrew

Ray Rizzo, Adam Rapp and Lucas Papaelias, Essential
Self-Defense

David Van Tieghem, Inherit the Wind

Outstanding Orchestrations (Tie)

William David Brohn, Curtains

*Mary-Mitchell Campbell, Company

Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman, In the Heights

Duncan Sheik, Spring Awakening

Jonathan Tunick, The Apple Tree

*Jonathan Tunick, LoveMusik

Outstanding Set Design of a Play

*Bob Crowley and Scott Pask, The Coast of
Utopia

David Gallo, Radio Golf

David Korins, Essential Self-Defense

David Korins, Jack Goes Boating

Garin Marschall, Hell House

Scott Pask, Blackbird

Outstanding Set Design of a Musical

Beowulf Boritt, LoveMusik

*Bob Crowley, Mary Poppins

Anna Louizos, Curtains

Anna Louizos, In the Heights

David Rockwell, Legally Blonde

Kris Stone, Brundibar/But the Giraffe

Outstanding Costume Design

Mara Blumenfeld, Lookingglass Alice

Judith Dolan, LoveMusik

William Ivey Long, Curtains

Santo Loquasto, Suddenly Last Summer

Robert Morgan, Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The
Musical

*Catherine Zuber, The Coast of Utopia

Outstanding Lighting Design

Howell Binkley, LoveMusik

Maruti Evans, Blindness

Paul Gallo, Blackbird

Mark Jonathan, Prometheus Bound

*Kenneth Posner, Brian MacDevitt, Natasha Katz, The Coast
of Utopia

Japhy Weideman, Jack Goes Boating

Outstanding Sound Design

Acme Sound Partners, In the Heights

Mark Bennett, The Coast of Utopia

*Gregory Clarke, Journey's End

Duncan Robert Edwards, LoveMusik

Frank Gaeta, Dai (enough)

Richard Woodbury, Talk Radio

Outstanding Solo Performance

Iris Bahr, Dai (enough)

Ed Harris, Wrecks

Capathia Jenkins, (mis)Understanding Mammy: The Hattie
McDaniel Story

Anna Manahan, Sisters

*Vanessa Redgrave, The Year of Magical Thinking

Nilaja Sun, No Child…

Unique Theatrical Experience

Absinthe

Amajuba: Like Doves We Rise

Be

Brundibar/But the Giraffe

*Edward Scissorhands

Hell House

The following awards were announced April 26 and were also
presented at the annual ceremony:

Outstanding Ensemble Performance

The cast of In the Heights

The cast of Lebensraum

Special Awards

•John Kander and Fred Ebb for 42 years of excellence in advancing the art of the musical theatre.

•Austin Pendleton - actor, director, playwright, teacher - a Renaissance man of the American theatre.

•Transport Group for its breadth of vision and its presentation of challenging productions.

•National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene for preserving 92 consecutive seasons the cultural legacy of Yiddish speaking theatre in America.

*

The Drama Desk is an organization of theatre critics, writers and editors that honors all areas of New York theatre, including Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway.

For more information visit www.dramadesk.com.