Thoughts on the Drama Desk Awards
Let me start off by noting how thoroughly varied this year's Best Musical picks are. Drama League voted for "A Catered Affair." Outer Critics voted for "Young Frankenstein" and "Xanadu" in a tie. Drama Desk voted for "Passing Strange." And the Tony will likely go to "In the Heights." Why such disparity? Cause the other theater award shows considered "In the Heights" last year, so it was ineligible this year. Had that not been the case, I imagine it would have won everything else.
This year's Drama Desk Awards had a mission - to make the show three hours or less long. In past years, it's taken about 3.5 to 4 hours in length. So not only was there no intermission, there were no musical numbers at all - except for an original opening number from the "title of show" cast, which was hosting.
I hear the lack of musical numbers was also due to the fact that WNET did not broadcast this year's awards. That left only Theatermania to "webcast" it. So in response, the producers of the nominated shows didn't want to pay the actors to perform, and neither did the Drama Desk. The result: a lean, mean and boring show.
To make the show even shorter, MANY of the winners didn't show up. So when this happens, it's like this: a winner is announced, the lights come up, a brief pause, the presenter says he/she will accept it on the winner's behalf, and we move on. Not a single producer from "Boeing Boeing" came. STEW, who won both Music and Lyrics, didn't show. WTF? Celebrities came. And he couldn't?
It was rather sad that "A Catered Affair," which received 12 DD nominations, received no awards. I thought it was going to win Best Musical. In fact, I was thoroughly surprised at how well "Passing Strange" did. Throughout the ceremony, I continued to confess to people that I didn't like the show and didn't understand its appeal.
Will this build up momentum for "Passing Strange" to win the Tony over "In the Heights"?
And what of the DD controversy? Prez William Wolf did not bother to directly address the scandal. Instead, he took the stage and praised the nominating committee one by one. That was probably the smartest thing to do.
