Theater News

50th Annual Grammy Award Nominations Are Announced

Nominations for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards were announced today in Los Angeles. The ceremony will take place on February 10 at L.A.’s Staples Center and be broadcast live on CBS-TV.

The nominees for Musical Show Album are A Chorus Line, Company, Grey Gardens, Spring Awakening, and Decca Broadway’s new recording of West Side Story starring Hayley Westenra and Vittorio Grigolo.

The nominees for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Film/TV/Visual Media are Across the Universe, Dreamgirls, Hairspray, Love (used in the Cirque du Soleil show), and Once. In addition, “I Love You I Do,” written for Dreamgirls by Henry Kreiger and Siedah Garrett, and performed by Jennifer Hudson, is up for Best Song Written for Film/TV/Visual Media.

The nominees for Traditional Pop Album are Michael Buble (Call Me Irresponsible), Bette Midler (Cool Yule), Queen Latifah (Travelin’ Light), Barbra Streisand (Live in Concert 2006), and James Taylor (James Taylor at Christmas). Buble is also nominated for Best Pop Male Vocal Performance for the cut “Everything.” Tony Bennett earned a nomination for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for “Steppin’ Out” with Christina Aguilera.

Color Purple star Fantasia earned nominations for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for “When I See U” — which also earned a Best R&B song nod — while the album Fantasia was nominated for Best Contemporary R&B Album. Meanwhile, the two upcoming stars of the musical — Chaka Khan and Bebe Winans, who play Sofia and Harpo as of January 9 — also received Grammy nominations. Khan got nods for Best R&B Album for Funk This amd Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for Disrespectful, while Winans was honored in the Best Traditional Gospel Album for Cherch.

Nominees for Best Jazz Vocal Album are Patti Austin (Avant Gershwin), Dee Dee Bridgewater (Red Earth-A Malian Journey), Freddy Cole (Music Maestro Please), Kurt Elling (Nightmoves), and Tierney Sutton (On the Other Side).

In the Spoken Word categories, Jim Dale is up for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, as are Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci for The One and Only Shrek. Meanwhile, Alan Alda is nominated in the general Spoken Word category for Things I Overheard While I Was Talking to Myself; his fellow nominees are Barack Obama, Maya Angelou, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter.

For a complete list of nominations, visit www.grammys.org.