Nominations for the Tony Awards and for the Drama Desk Awards were among the theater awards announced last week; winners of the Lucille Lortel Awards were announced and feted last night; winners of the Pulitzer Prizes, including for drama, will be announced this afternoon. Over the next six weeks, we’ll learn the winners of the half dozen or so major New York theater awards, culminating in the Tony Awards on June 16th.
Meanwhile, new theater is being made every day.
May 2024 New York Theater Openings
The Week in New York Theater Reviews
Catching Silhouettes.
“Catching Silhouettes” introduces us to past and present landmarks along a half-mile route, from Buddhist temples to Fujianese restaurants to the nondescript headquarters of the Asian Americans for Equality . It also showcases the five impressively talented performers who bring the people of Chinatown to life, in lightly dramatized scenes, dances, musical interludes, and monologues drawn directly from true stories.
Grenfell
“Grenfell” is documentary theater about an infamous 2017 fire in a 24-story public housing project in London called Grenfell Tower that killed 72 people. Subtitled “In the words of survivors,” the show uses verbatim accounts by survivors and from an official public inquiry to make the ironclad case that the catastrophe was a direct result of greed, neglect, incompetence and British Conservative policy. …It’s too much.
The Week in New York Theater News
2024 Tony Award Nominations: Hell’s Kitchen, Stereophonic Lead
The Tonys 2024: The Unnominated 11. What they could have been nominated for.
Analysis of nominations (aka snubs and surprises) from LA Times, Variety, NY Times. Plus: Snarky categories that should be awarded (not), from New York Magazine critics Sara Holden and Jackson McHenry: Welcome to the Phonys (eg The “Cars Onstage for Some Reason” Award; there are such cars in The Great Gatsby, The Outsiders, and Lempicka.)
2024 Special Tony Awards and Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theater
Eight Special Tony Awards and Honors have been announced, including for pioneers in projection design, hair and wig design, and sound design, as well as for writer and director Alex Edelman. Several of these smartly compensate for what some perceive as shortcomings in the competitive Tony Awards.
Drama Desk Award Nominations 2024
2024 Chita Rivera Award Nominations: Illinoise gets lots of love
Anna Zavelson and Jake Roxander win Clive Barnes Awards for theater and dance respectively
The SDCF Awards (from Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation) will be given tonight virtually to Anne Bogart, Raymond O. Caldwell, Pam MacKinnon for directing Downstate, Orlando Pabotoy for choreographing the Half-God of Rainfall,. Reservations to watch the awards ceremony can be found at this link
The 90th Annual Drama League Awards on May 17 will feature presenters Daniel Radcliffe, Lindsay Mendez, Jim Parsons, Latanya Richardson Jackson, And Thomas Schumacher.
The Drama League has also selected nineteen exceptional stage directors to receive the 2024 fellowships, assistantships, residencies, and fund programs collectively known as The Directors Project. Selected from a record-breaking 1,800 applicants worldwide, the recipients are Zoë Adams, Arin Arbus, Britt Berke, Rosalind Bevan, Desdemona Chiang, Jaime Castaneda, Emma Denson, Stefan Dezil, Morgan Green, Devin E. Haqq, Sarah Hughes, Karl Michael Iglesias, Lauren Keating, Irvin Mason, Jr., Jess McLeod, Martavius Parrish, Danny Sharron, Colm Summers, and Dina Vovsi.
“Lempicka,” is closing May 19, exactly five weeks after it opened on Broadway, despite its three Tony nominations (best actress, best supporting actress, best scenic design) for this musical about Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980), an artist whose heyday was in the 1930s, painting Art Deco-style portraits of rich and titled Europeans.
Mia Farrow and Patti LuPone will return to Broadway, starring in a new comedy, “The Roommate” by Jen Silverman, directed by Jack O’Brien, pening Sept 12 at the Booth Theater (Aug 29-Dec 15). “a blossoming intimacy between two women from vastly different background”
The Week’s Theater Video
Watch Videos from the Five 2024 Best Musical Tony Nominees
