Drama Desk Nominations Announced

The nominations for this year's Drama Desk Awards were announced this morning. The Drama Desk is the organization of critics, reporters, and editors who regularly cover the New York theatre. The awards are unique in that they take in shows from Broadway, Off Broadway, and Off Off Broadway in each category.

In the set design category, the nominees are Jon Driscoll, Rob Howell, and Paul Kieve, for Ghost The Musical, currently running on Broadway; David Gallo, for The Mountaintop, the limited-run Broadway drama about Martin Luther King; Roger Hanna, for A Little Journey, a rediscovered vintage American drama staged at Off Broadway's Mint Theatre; David Korins, for David Henry Hwang's cross-cultural comedy Chinglish, which ran on Broadway earlier in the season; and Derek McLane for the Broadway revival of Follies (which transfers to Los Angeles Ahmanson Theatre soon).

Lighting design nominees are Kevin Adams, for the Off Broadway revival of the notorious Broadway musical flop Carrie, produced by MCC; Neil Austin, for the current Broadway revival of Evita; David Lander, for One Arm, a staged version of an unfilmed Tenneesse Williams screenplay, staged by Off Broadway's The New Group; Brian MacDevitt, for the smash hit Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman; Kenneth Posner, for Death Takes a Holiday, the new musical staged at Roundabout Theatre's Off Broadway space last summer; and Paul Pyant, for the Kevin Spacey revival of Richard III at Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Nominees for sound design of a musical are Acme Sound Partners, for The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, now on Broadway; Jonathan Deans, for Carrie; Clive Goodwin, for Once, which moved from New York Theatre Workshop to Broadway this spring; Kai Harada, for Follies; Steve Canyon Kennedy, for the current Broadway revival of Jesus Christ Superstar, which originated at the Stratford Festival in Canada and also played La Jolla Playhouse; and Jon Weston, for Death Takes a Holiday.

Nominees for sound design of a play are Quentin Chiappetta/mediaNoise for The Navigator, produced by WorkShop Theatre Company; Gregory Clarke, for Misterman, produced at Brooklyn's St. Ann's Warehouse; Gareth Fry, for Richard III; John Gromada, for the current Broadway revival of Gore Vidal's political drama The Best Man; Stowe Nelson, for Samuel and Alasdair: A Personal History of the Robot War, seen at the New Ohio Theatre, and Shane Rettig, for She Kills Monsters, at the Flea Theatre.

The costume design nominees are Gregg Barnes, for Follies; ESosa, for By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, at Off Broadway's Second Stage Theatre; William Ivey Long, for the flop Off Broadway musical Lucky Guy; Jessica Pabst, for She Kills Monsters; Martin Pakledinaz, for the "new" Gershwin Broadway musical Nice Work If You Can Get It, and Catherine Zuber, for Death Takes a Holiday.

Leading the nominations were Follies and Death Takes a Holiday, with ten apiece, followed by Nice Work If You Can Get It with eight and By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, the musicals Leap of Faith and Queen of the Mist, and Richard III, with six each.

The awards ceremony will take place June 3 at Town Hall in Manhattan.

For the full list of nominees, go to the URL listed below.