50th Drama Desk Awards Announce Presenters and Performances

By: May. 16, 2005
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The telecast of the 50th annual Drama Desk Awards will feature over a dozen theatre luminaries are presenters, as well as performances from some of this season's nominated musicals.

The ceremony, which will be hosted by Fiddler on the Roof's Harvey Fierstein on Sunday, May 22nd at Lincoln Center's LaGuardia Concert Hall, will see appearances from presenters Alan Alda, Hank Azaria, Christina Applegate, Delta Burke, Sutton Foster, Jeff Goldblum, Robert Goulet, Ethan Hawke, Patti LuPone, David Hyde Pierce, Rue McClanahan, Maureen McGovern, Lynn Redgrave, Liev Schreiber, Tommy Tune, Kathleen Turner and the cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. In addition, the cast of Altar Boyz, The Light in the Piazza's Victoria Clark, Dirty Rotten Scoundrel's Sherie René Scott and Little Women's Maureen McGovern are scheduled to perform; all three women are Drama Desk nominees.

After the Tonys, the Drama Desks is the oldest award ceremony to honor excellence in the theatre. Unlike the Tonys, however, the Drama Desk Awards celebrate outstanding achievement throughout the New York theatre scene, and encompass Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway and legitimate not-for-profit theatre.

This year, Spamalot, The Light in the Piazza and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels topped the list of nominees, with 12, 11 and 10 nominations respectively. Altar Boyz, Play Without Words, Dessa Rose, Doubt and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee also scored multiple nods.

The Drama Desk Awards will be both taped and broadcast. A two hour version of the ceremony will air on NYC TV Channel 25 on Wednesday, May 25, and Friday, May 27, at 8 PM each night, as well as on Thirteen/WNET on Sunday, May 29, at 12 Noon. A number of PBS stations around the country will also broadcast the Drama Desk Awards at later dates. The following stations have confirmed dates and times:

WEAO TV (Akron, Ohio) Friday, May 27, at 10 PM
WNEO TV Alliance (Ohio) Friday, May 27, at 10 PM
WQED TV Pittsburgh (PA) Sunday, May 29, at 3 PM
WHYY TV Philadelphia Thursday, June 2, at 10 PM
KTCI TV Channel 17 Thursday, June 2, at 8 PM
WKNO TV Memphis (TN) Sunday, June 12, at 10 PM
KQED TV San Francisco (CA) Sunday, June 12, at 6 PM
WPBT TV Channel 2 Miami FL Sunday, June 26, at 4 PM


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