Launched 25 years before The Tony Awards, The Drama League Awards are the oldest theatrical honors in North America. While it has garnered a reputation as being quite long (year after year nominees joke with one another that they need to bring snacks), the event is a class act with definite star power. Like the old MGM luncheons where the likes of Garland, Gable and Astaire hobnobbed with one another on a dais, Broadway royalty similarly donned the stage at the 74th annual Drama League Awards on Friday, held in the Broadway Ballroom in the Marriott Marquis Hotel.
For Broadway fans such as ourselves, the sightseeing and mingling was more than worth the price of admission. It was just downright fun to be there amongst the likes of Patti LuPone, James Earl Jones, Marian Seldes, Patrick Stewart, Laura Linney, Sutton Foster, Lois Smith, Harriet Harris, Rufus Sewell, Christine Baranski, Laurence Fishburne, Peter Gallagher, Tom Wopat, Chazz Palminteri, Martha Plimpton, Faith Prince, Laura Benanti, Bobby Cannavale, James Snyder, Julie White, Anika Noni Rose, Amy Morton, Deanna Dunagan, Ben Daniels, Elizabeth Franz, Cheyenne Jackson, Kerry Butler, Brian d’Arcy James, Jenna Russell, Daniel Evans, Christine Ebersole and Rosie Perez to name a few.
The well-liked, well-known, friend-to-all, Harvey Fierstein hosted the event. He introduced the more than 50 nominees for Outstanding Performer of the 2007-2008 Season one by one. Each was given the opportunity to say a few words; some were quite clever, while others were emotionally overwhelmed just to be there.
Chazz Palminteri told a great story about his early days on the Great White Way. In 1982 he was the understudy in a play when a couple of his wise guy boyhood friends came to the show. After he explained to his pals that being an understudy meant not going on “unless something happens to the lead guy,” his friend asked, “So, do you want to go on?” Palminteri realized what his buddies had in mind and tried to nix the plan. They told him, “Don’t worry, we’ll make it look like a mugging.” After convincing them to leave the star unharmed, Palmenteri said he went over to that actor, who Palminteri admitted he was not particularly fond of, and told him, “You don’t know how lucky you are!”
Rosie Perez had a similar neighborhood story during her debut in Frankie & Johnnie in the Clair de Lune. When the lights went down following a scene, her friends in the mezzanine thought the play was over and started shouting to the rest of the theatergoers to “Stand the F*** up yo, she was good.” Perez then got emotional and explained to the Drama League crowd, “I’m usually tough and witty, but I’m just overwhelmed” being here among such greats of the stage. “I’m so glad there’s nobody up here I don’t like because it’s hard for me to be phony.”
Patrick Stewart observed that being up on that dais “is the closest I have ever gotten to dinner theater.”
Tom Wopat, remarking on the progression of his career from a “Dukes of Hazzard” dude to his current role as a father in A Catered Affair, told the crowd, “I used to be an action hero, now I’m a dad.”
Faith Prince spoke seriously about her time away from the New York stage. “I feel like Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz – sometimes you have to go away and see how special this is…..it’s what my heart needed.”
Following the program we spoke with James Snyder of Cry Baby about the difficulty of performing in a show which is constantly undergoing numerous revisions. “I have a recurring nightmare I am going to forget my lines,” he told us.
A quick chat with Rufus Sewell did not turn up any news, other than the fact that he is quite handsome and charming.
The outstanding performer award went to Patti LuPone for her turn in Gypsy. She was clearly favored to win and seemed genuinely touched by the honor. A Catered Affair took home the prize for Distinguished Production of a Play; South Pacific won for Distinguished Revival of a Musical. August: Osage County took home the award for Best Production of a Play, while Best Revival of a Play went to Macbeth.
Ellen Stewart, founder and director of the LaMaMa Theater Company was honored for her unique contribution to the theatre. Award-winning musical director Paul Gemignani was given the award for distinguished achievement in musical theatre, while Bartlett Sher, director of the current Lincoln Center revival of South Pacific, took home the award for Excellence in Directing.
For a full list of nominees, check out http://www.dramaleague.org/.
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