I knew one of these awards bodies had to go all in for The Hairy Ape. A tremendous production. The only surprise for me was The Hairy Ape not making the cut for Original Music in a Play. The music added so much to the production and really set up the dance and fight choreography beautifully.
Surprised that A Doll's House, Part Two didn't get nominated for Best Play.
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.
The Hairy Ape nominations are well deserved - it was among the top two or three shows (of the 30 or so) I've seen this season. Othello deserved a nomination for best revival (and certainly more than The Front Page), but I'm glad Daniel Craig is getting recognition for his outstanding performance.
castlestreet said: "I'll echo everyone who has said these seem a bit off. The two ladies from War Paint are missing...not really sure what to make of these at all."
Not true. Both Christine Ebersole and Patti LuPone were nominated.
"Oh look at the time, three more intelligent plays just closed and THE ADDAMS FAMILY made another million dollars" -Jackie Hoffman, Broadway.com Audience Awards
Why do we have to go through this every year? All the award shows except the Tonys always have super random nominees, hence why they're such bad predictors. The Drama Desks are the awards that didn't even nominate eventual Tony winners Kelli O'Hara and Leslie Odom Jr (and probable eventual Tony winner Ben Platt when he was eligible either).
I'm not sure why people have trouble understanding this, but the Drama Desk nominators don't make nominations to predict the Tonys. It's 8 journalists (such Peter Filichia) who do it, and they can have idiosyncratic and opinionated notions about what's best. If you chose, say, 8 members of this BWW message board to make award nominations, I bet their choices wouldn't be universally praised either. They could be equally as ''weird.'' Awards are so subjective. There's no way nominations ever make everyone happy.
For the record, the Drama Desk actually DID nominate Leslie Odom, Jr., for ''Hamilton,'' but for Featured Actor in a Musical, and he lost to Christian Borle in ''Something Rotten.''
Loving the Falsettos love! That show was so brilliant, it should still be running. Sadly, Christian had to go and be in an awful musical...... boo. I hope they win everything!
I agree that it is important to note that the Drama Desk committee is made up of only EIGHT people (I thought it was seven, perhaps I was wrong). The Drama Desk Awards are not only completely irrelevant to what might happen with the Tonys, but since it's such a small committee, why should we care what they think anyway?
The Distinctive Baritone said: "I agree that it is important to note that the Drama Desk committee is made up of only EIGHT people (I thought it was seven, perhaps I was wrong). The Drama Desk Awards are not only completely irrelevant to what might happen with the Tonys, but since it's such a small committee, why should we care what they think anyway?
"True...Do the Drama Desk Awards really matter? No, just the TONYS!
"Anything you do, let it it come from you--then it will be new."
Sunday in the Park with George
Just to be clear: Only 8 Drama Desk members of the nominating committee made the nominations, but the general membership (which numbers more than 100) votes on the winners.
Their tastes are pretty mainstream, so expect about 85%-90% of the winners to come from Broadway shows (which is pretty average).
If you think the Drama Desk Awards are ''irrelevant,'' so be it. But they're not irrelevant to the nominees, as you can tell by the number of celebs who've announced they'll be attending. Among them: Bette Midler, Cate Blanchett, Daniel Craig, Kevin Kline, Andy Karl, Laura Linney, Laurie Metcalf, Cynthia Nixon, Christine Ebersole, Patti LuPone, Danny DeVito, etc. They want to win, whether for personal pride, to promote their shows, or celebrate with their colleagues.
''The Band's Visit'' has been on a real winning streak, racking up victories at the Outer Critics Circle (Best Off-Broadway Musical), the Obies, the N.Y. Drama Critics Circle and the Lucille Lortel Awards (where it even beat ''Dear Evan Hansen'' ). ''The Band's Visit'' has 7 Drama Desk nominations, but its biggest real competition is ''Come From Away,'' which has 9 Drama Desk nominations. ''The Band's Visit'' very well could add the Drama Desk to its haul, but history favors ''Come From Away.'' In 42 years, the Best Musical Drama Desk has gone to a Broadway show 40 times; the two exceptions being ''Little Shop of Horrors'' and ''Hamilton'' (at the Public).
Marc Hershberg at Forbes.com makes the case that the best predictor of Tony success ''might be the Drama Desk Awards.'' He offers facts and figures for various categories as his proof.
I've only listened to part of Come From Away, and haven't seen the show, but I adore A Band's Visit and think it is totally new and unusual, but a great musical.