The Musicals
The night’s biggest winner was Kiss Me Kate, which racked up an impressive six awards, including Outstanding Revival of a Musical and honors for its director, Michael Blakemore, and its leading man, Brian Stokes Mitchell. The show also won awards for set design, costume design, and orchestrations. Getting the kiss-off was The Music Man: That show began the evening as Kate’s only competition, with eight nominations, but it went home without so much as a single Shipoopi.
The next biggest winner, Contact, danced off with four awards, including Choreography (Susan Stroman), Featured Actress in a Musical (Karen Ziemba), Lighting Design (Peter Kaczorowski), and Outstanding Musical. There were plenty of raised eyebrows, however, when Lincoln Center’s Andre Bishop–upon accepting this last award–said, “This has been a wonderful year for new musicals.” Many would argue that Contact doesn’t really belong in that group; it has no original music, no live orchestra, and no singing.
Manhattan Theatre Club’s The Wild Party, on the other hand, had all of that and more–including 13 Drama Desk nominations, the most of any show. It won just one award, for Andrew Lippa’s Outstanding Music. The show with which it had been so closely compared, the Broadway version of The Wild Party, didn’t win in any of the three acting categories in which it was nominated. Both shows, however, had the chance to showcase themselves with a song, and both chose wisely: DD nominated Alix Korey sang her song about “an old-fashioned, lesbian love story” from the MTC Wild Party and stopped the show, just as she did during every performance of the musical Off-Broadway. (Will somebody please write a Broadway show for Korey?) Later, Eartha Kitt sang Michael John LaChiusa’s “When It Ends” from the Broadway Wild Party and the audience responded by giving her a standing ovation. If that doesn’t sell some tickets, nothing will.
Surprises, Double Winners, Great Speeches
The most eyebrow-arching award of the night went to Stephen Sondheim for Outstanding Lyrics (for his first show, Saturday Night). The win was surprising not because Sondheim’s work wasn’t worthy, but because a substantial number of Drama Desk voters simply could not get in to see the show. (Press seats were unavailable for this hot-ticket limited run at Second Stage.) Conversely, there was little doubt that David Gallo’s extraordinary set for Jitney (also at Second Stage) would cop the Set Design Award.
and Michael Cumpsty in Copenhagen
There were two big winners among the Broadway straight plays. Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing copped two awards, including Outstanding Revival and Outstanding Actor (Stephen Dillane). Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen took home the Outstanding Play prize. In a stunning display of versatility, director Michael Blakemore won awards for his work on that show and for his direction of the musical Kiss Me, Kate. Off-Off-Broadway’s Charlie Victor Romeo–“the plane crash play”–took off with two awards, including one for Unique Theatrical Experience and Sound Design (Jamie Mereness).
There were no other multiple winners, which suggests that Drama Desk voters did not have a pack mentality. For instance, though Aida was largely dismissed by the critics, the Drama Desk separated the mediocre show from Heather Headley’s star-making performance in the title role. Nominated for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, Headley performed at the DD ceremony and instantly took command of the stage with her rendition of Aida’s “Easy as Life.” Later, she won the award in one of the night’s most competitive categories.
Another notable winner was Eileen Heckart (The Waverly Gallery) for Outstanding Actress in a Play. After receiving a standing ovation from the audience, she proceeded to give a particularly memorable speech, remarkable both for its brevity and pithiness: “An extraordinary woman, Eleanor Roosevelt, once said, ‘Awards are frivolous.’ I’m an ordinary woman, and I think they’re terrific.” Heckart then turned and walked off the stage, Drama Desk in hand.
Stephen Spinella won the DD for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical (James Joyce’s The Dead), and he gave the classiest speech of the night. “This is so improbable,” Spinella said, “that I should be getting an award in which singing and dancing are part of the job description.” Among those he thanked were the show’s gallant producers who, in Spinella’s view, “lost their shirts but saved their souls” by backing the show.
Then, of course, there was Barry Humphries, who won for outstanding Solo Performance for Dame Edna: The Royal Tour. He accepted the award from the well-prepared presenter Bruce Vilanch, who whipped off his outer T-shirt to reveal a Dame Edna T-shirt underneath. Later, when asked what he would have done had Dame Edna not won, Vilanch–presently starring Off-Broadway in his own one man show–said, “I had other T-shirts on beneath that one; I was ready for anything.”
