Photo Coverage: Drama Desk Reception Drawing Table

A cocktail reception for this year's Drama Desk Award nominees was held at Arte Cafe Restaurant on May 1st.  During the evening, the nominees each were given paper and drawing utensils to create illustrations for their shows.

Nominations for the 52nd Annual Drama Desk Awards were announced April 26th at The New York Friars Club by previous winners James Naughton and Beth Leavel.  The awards will be presented on Sunday, May 20, 2007 at 9:00 PM, at the F.H. LaGuardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center, 100 Amsterdam Avenue.

Past Drama Desk winner Kristin Chenoweth—currently nominated for her performance in The Apple Tree—will host the ceremony, which will also be taped for television and subsequently broadcast nationwide as a two-hour special on PBS stations. In New York, the program will be shown on Thirteen/WNET on Sunday, May 27, from 12:30 P.M. to 2:30 P.M. NYC TV 25 will broadcast the awards twice: Thursday May 24, at 8:00 PM and Saturday May 26, at 10:00 PM. For the fifth year in a row, the awards will be webcast live by TheaterMania.com. The awards ceremony will also be broadcast live  -- for the first time -- by XM Satellite Radio's theater channel – XM-28 On Broadway. In keeping with the Drama Desk's unique mission, the nominators considered theatrical events that opened on Broadway, off Broadway and off-off Broadway during the 2006/2007 season in the same competitive categories. Deliberations by the nominators culminated in a marathon weekend session at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, which ended Monday afternoon, April 23.

The nominators included: Chairperson Barbara Siegel, TalkinBroadway.com and TheaterMania.com; Glenda Frank, Plays International and nytheatre-wire.com; Tony Phillips, New York Press; Andrew Propst, Americantheaterweb.com and XM Satellite Radio; Richard Ridge, Broadway Beat TV; and Drama Desk President William Wolf, Wolfentertainmentguide.com.

Visit www.dramadesk.org for more information.

Photos by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

Eve Best (A Moon for the Misbegotten)

Christian Borle (Legally Blonde)

Martha Plimpton (The Coast of Utopia)

Martha Plimpton

Lin-Manuel Miranda (In the Heights)

Kristin Chenoweth 

Michael Mayer

Kristin Chenoweth and Michael Mayer

Kristin Chenoweth

Kristin Chenoweth 

Kristin Chenoweth and Laura Bell Bundy (Legally Blonde)

Kristin Chenoweth and Laura Bell Bundy

Tamara Tunie

Raul Esparza

Raul Esparza and Mary-Mitchell Campbell

Raul Esparza

Raul Esparza

Lea Michele (Spring Awakening)

Lea Michele

Jonathan Groff, Lea Michele and John Gallagher Jr.

John Gallagher Jr.

John Gallagher Jr.

Lea Michele, John Gallagher Jr. and Jonathan Groff

Lea Michele, John Gallagher, Jr. and Jonathan Groff

Jonathan Groff

Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon)

Frederic Weller

Frederic Weller

Kevin Spacey (A Moon for the Misbegotten)

Kevin Spacey

Michael Cerveris' LoveMusik illustration

Journey's End illustration

Gavin Lee's Mary Poppins illustration