Broadway, on and off.It was a great year for gay and lesbian theater in New York There are many famous theaters in New York, most notably the Broadway theatres in New York City.
The most prominent gay nominee for a Tony award this season has been dead for 16 years: Tennessee Williams is a front-runner to win Best Play for his hitherto unproduced Not About Nightingales Not about Nightingales is a play by Tennessee Williams that was written in 1938 for the Group Theatre in New York City but was rejected and remained unproduced until 1998.[1] The play is a 18-character socially-minded drama set in "a dynamite-proof, escape-proof" U.S. . Overall, the 1938 work--based on a true-life revolt by a group of prisoners against their sadistic warden--is nominated for six awards, including Best Actor (Corin Redgrave) and Best Direction (by Trevor Nunn). The winners will be announced June 6 in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. at the annual Antoinette Perry Awards, the grand finale of the 1998-99 Broadway theater season. (The ceremony will be broadcast on PBS PBS in full Public Broadcasting Service Private, nonprofit U.S. corporation of public television stations. PBS provides its member stations, which are supported by public funds and private contributions rather than by commercials, with educational, cultural, beginning at 8 P.M. Eastern, continuing at 9 P.M. Eastern on CBS; check local listings.) Several well-known living gay and lesbian playwrights were also represented in New York this season, notably Paula Vogel (The Mineola Twins), Christopher Durang (Betty's Summer Vacation Betty's Summer Vacation is a play by Christopher Durang In many ways, this play was a “comeback” hit for Durang. His career flourished in the late seventies and early eighties with off-Broadway smashes like The Marriage of Bette and Boo and Sister Mary Ignatius ), Craig Lucas (The Dying Gaul), Paul Rudnick (The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told), and Margaret Edson, who wrote the winner of this year's Pulitzer Prize for drama From 1918 to 2006, the Drama Prize was unlike the majority of the other Pulitzer Prizes: during these years, the eligibility period for the drama prize ran from March 2 to March 1, to reflect the Broadway , Wit. But since all of those shows were staged in off-Broadway theaters, they are ineligible for Tonys. Instead, Williams's competition for Best Play includes Warren Leight (Side Man) and British writers Patrick Marber (Closer) and Martin McDonagh (The Lonesome West). Gay composer and lyricist William Finn also had an acclaimed New York premiere: A New Brain, cowritten with James Lapine. But, again, it was off Broadway--not eligible for Tonys. Indeed, the past Broadway season was a particularly weak one for new musicals. Of the nominated shows, only two--Jason Robert Brown's Parade (which has since closed) and Frank Wildhorn and Jack Murphy's The Civil War--have new scores, while the other two, Fosse and It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues, are essentially revues. There was, however, no shortage of outstanding performances in both musicals and plays. The nominees for acting include Kevin Spacey (The Iceman Cometh), who faces Brian Dennehy (Death of a Salesman Death of a Salesman is a 1949 play by Arthur Miller and is considered a classic of American theater. Viewed by many as a caustic attack on the American Dream of achieving wealth and success without regard for principle, Death of a Salesman ) for Best Actor in a Play; Brent Carver (Parade) and Martin Short (Little Me) for Best Actor in a Musical; Oscar winner Judi Dench (Amy's View) and Stockard Channing (The Lion in Winter) for Best Actress in a Play; and diva Bernadette Peters (Annie Get Your Gun), who faces Sian Phillips (who played a diva in Marlene) for Best Actress in a Musical. In the category of Best Featured Actress in a Musical, lesbian actor-singer-comic Lea DeLaria--who received rave notices for her knockout performance as the raucous cab driver cab·driv·er also cab driver n. One who drives a taxicab for hire. cab driver n → taxista m/f cab driver n → in George C. Wolfe's short-lived revival of On the Town--was passed over in favor of fellow cast member Mary Testa. Out gay and lesbian talents did get nods for behind-the-curtain work, including director Michael Mayer, up for Best Direction of a Musical for his cartoon-style revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown This article is about the stage musical. For the 1985 animated television adaptation, see You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (TV special). You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown , which earned four nominations total. Nominated last year too, for his revival of Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge A View from the Bridge is a play by Arthur Miller originally produced as a one-act verse drama on Broadway in 1955. It was based upon an unproduced screenplay that Miller developed with Elia Kazan in the early 1950s, entitled The Hook, dealing with corruption on the Brooklyn , the ubiquitous Mayer also directed Best Play nominee Side Man and the revival of The Lion in Winter this season. For unleashing his bare-chested male swans on the Broadway stage in his unique production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Matthew Bourne is nominated for both Best Direction of a Musical and Best Choreography awards. And although he was not nominated for an award, The Object of My Affection director Nicholas Hytner's production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night received five nominations, including Best Revival of a Play. Raymond is a freelance theater writer based in Nov York City. Find more on this topic at www.advocate.com |
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