Awards season! The Tonys and the Drama Desk nominations were both announced this week, and Lawson Taitte of the Dallas Morning News and Lindsey Wilson for CultureMap have done a handy job of rounding up the Texas connections. But the Cyndi Lauper-scored musical Kinky Boots tops the Tony nominations with 13, with Matilda the Musical following closely behind with 12. Men in dresses! They’re everywhere. Other local pride comes from the nomination of Horton Foote’s Trip of Bountiful for Best Revival of a Play (and Cicely Tyson landed a nod for leading actress for her turn as Carrie Watts). Tyson is up against Holland Taylor, who was nominated for best actress in a leading role for her performance as Ann Richards, the iron-willed former governor of Texas, in the solo show Ann.
Meanwhile, folks here at home might remember Giant, that unwieldy collaboration between the Dallas Theater Center and the Public Theater that had a local try-out last March before it was revamped and moved Off-Broadway. It’s all over the Drama Desk nominations, since those can include Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off Broadway theater. Giant is vying for Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Lyrics, Outstanding Book of a Musical, Outstanding Orchestrations, Outstanding Sound Design, Outstanding Actor, Outstanding Actress in a Musical, and Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical. Shows what I know, huh?
Finally, a couples notes with no local ties at all. The late, great designer Martin Pakledinaz’s last show, Chaplin: The Musical, was nominated (co-nominated, really) for a Drama Desk award for Outstanding Costume Design. He died last year at 58. Meanwhile, Nora Ephron‘s Lucky Guy nabbed six Tony nominations. Remember them both well.
Here are the full lists of nominees: Tony Awards and Drama Desk.
Opening This Weekend
Fly By Night / Dallas Theater Center at Kalita Humphreys Theater
Southern Comforts / One Thirty Productions at Bath House Cultural Center
Closing This Weekend
4,000 Miles / Stage West
Wicked / Dallas Summer Musicals at Fair Park Music Hall
One-Offs
A Tribute to Frida / Winspear Opera House
Alvin Ailey Dance Theater / TITAS at Winspear Opera House
Lambarena & Voluntaries / Texas Ballet Theater at Wyly Theatre
Theresa Alice (staged reading) / Spacegrove Productions at The Green Zone
Running
Enron / Theatre Three
The Ghost Sonata / Undermain Theatre
Re-Designing Women / Uptown Players at S4
Avenue Q / Theatre Three at Theatre Too
The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs / Amphibian Stage Productions
Image: Production image for Fly By Night, which the Dallas Theater Center opens at the Wyly Theater this weekend.
