Jane Krakowski

Broadway’s Fiddler on the Roof star Danny Burstein and She Loves Me sensation and TV favorite Jane Krakowski announced the Outer Critics Circle, nominations at New York’s renowned Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel (59 W 44th Street). The Outer Critics Circle are an organization of writers and commentators covering New York theater for out-of-town newspapers, national publications and other media beyond Broadway.

Simon Saltzman

Sadly missing from this list was the phenomenal off Broadway musical Ride The Cyclone, Cate Blanchett, Josh Groban, John Leguizamo and Latin History For Morons, elements from Bandstand, War Paint and The Play The Goes Wrong. The Off-Broadway productions of Dear Evan Hansen, InTransit, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 and Significant Other were evaluated, nominated and/ or received awards from Outer Critics Circle in previous seasons and therefore were not considered for this year. In the case of the Broadway musical Sunset Boulevard, Glenn Close won the Outstanding Actress Award in a Musical for her original performance. Any new elements for these current productions were assessed for this year’s awards. In addition, due to OCC’s nomination deadline last season, the producers of the Broadway musical “Shuffle Along,” asked to be included with this year’s entries.

The Algonquin

This season Outer Critics Circle is also proud to post two new award categories, “Outstanding Sound Design” and “Outstanding Orchestrations” increasing award nominations to 27 categories.

Jane Krakowski

Celebrating its 67th season of bestowing awards of excellence in the field of theatre, the Outer Critics Circle is an association with members affiliated with more than ninety newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, internet, and theatre publications in America and abroad.

Jane Krakowski

The winners will be announced on Monday, May 8th. The annual Gala Awards Dinner and presentation of awards to the winners will be held on Thursday, May 25th (3PM) at the legendary Sardi’s Restaurant.

Outer Critics Circle

2016-2017 Award Nominations

OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY PLAY

A Doll’s House, Part 2

Indecent

Oslo

Sweat

OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY MUSICAL

Anastasia

A Bronx Tale

Come From Away

Groundhog Day

Holiday Inn

OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY PLAY

If I Forget

Incognito

A Life

Linda

Love, Love, Love

OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY MUSICAL

The Band’s Visit

Hadestown

Himself and Nora

Kid Victory

Spamilton

OUTSTANDING BOOK OF A MUSICAL

(Broadway or Off-Broadway)

Terrence McNally Anastasia

Itamar Moses The Band’s Visit

Chazz Palminteri A Bronx Tale

Danny Rubin Groundhog Day

Irene Sankoff & David Hein Come From Away

OUTSTANDING NEW SCORE

(Broadway or Off-Broadway)

Stephen Flaherty & Lynn Ahrens Anastasia

Alan Menken & Glenn Slater A Bronx Tale

Tim Minchin Groundhog Day

Irene Sankoff & David Hein Come From Away

David Yazbek The Band’s Visit

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A PLAY

(Broadway or Off-Broadway)

The Front Page

Jitney

The Little Foxes

Othello

The Price

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL

(Broadway or Off-Broadway)

Finian’s Rainbow

Hello, Dolly!

Miss Saigon

Sunset Boulevard

Sweeney Todd

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR OF A PLAY

Lila Neugebauer The Wolves

Jack O’Brien The Front Page

Daniel Sullivan The Little Foxes

Rebecca Taichman Indecent

Kate Whoriskey Sweat

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR OF A MUSICAL

Christopher Ashley Come From Away

David Cromer The Band’s Visit

Darko Tresnjak Anastasia

Matthew Warchus Groundhog Day

Jerry Zaks Hello, Dolly!

OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHER

Andy Blankenbuehler Bandstand

Warren Carlyle Hello, Dolly!

Savion Glover Shuffle Along

Kelly Devine Come From Away

Denis Jones Holiday Inn

OUTSTANDING SET DESIGN

(Play or Musical)

Alexander Dodge Anastasia

Nigel Hook The Play That Goes Wrong

Mimi Lien Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812

Scott Pask The Little Foxes

Douglas W. Schmidt The Front Page

OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN

(Play or Musical)

Linda Cho Anastasia

Susan Hilferty Present Laughter

Santo Loquasto Hello, Dolly!

Ann Roth Shuffle Along

Catherine Zuber War Paint

OUTSTANDING LIGHTING DESIGN

(Play or Musical)
Christopher Akerlind Indecent

Donald Holder Anastasia

Natasha Katz Hello, Dolly!

Bradley King Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812

Kenneth Posner War Paint

OUTSTANDING PROJECTION DESIGN

(Play or Musical)
Duncan McLean Privacy

Jared Mezzocchi Vietgone

Benjamin Pearcy for 59 Productions Oslo

Aaron Rhyne Anastasia

Tal Yarden Indecent

OUTSTANDING SOUND DESIGN

(Play or Musical)
Gareth Fry & Pete Malkin The Encounter

Gareth Owen Come From Away

Nicholas Pope Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812

Matt Stine Sweeney Todd

Nevin Steinberg Bandstand

OUTSTANDING ORCHESTRATIONS

Doug Besterman Anastasia

Larry Blank Holiday Inn

Bill Elliott & Greg Anthony Rassen Bandstand

Larry Hochman Hello, Dolly!

Jamshied Sharifi The Band’s Visit

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A PLAY

Daniel Craig Othello

Michael Emerson Wakey, Wakey

Kevin Kline Present Laughter

David Oyelowo Othello

David Hyde Pierce A Life

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A PLAY

Janie Dee Linda

Sally Field The Glass Menagerie

Allison Janney Six Degrees of Separation

Laura Linney The Little Foxes

Laurie Metcalf A Doll’s House, Part 2

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A MUSICAL

Christian Borle Falsettos

Nick Cordero A Bronx Tale

Andy Karl Groundhog Day

David Hyde Pierce Hello, Dolly!

Tony Shalhoub The Band’s Visit

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL

Christy Altomare Anastasia

Christine Ebersole War Paint

Katrina Lenk The Band’s Visit

Patti LuPone War Paint

Bette Midler Hello, Dolly!

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY

Michael Aronov Oslo

Danny DeVito The Price

Nathan Lane The Front Page

Richard Thomas The Little Foxes

Richard Topol Indecent

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY

Johanna Day Sweat

Jayne Houdyshell A Doll’s House, Part 2

Katrina Lenk Indecent

Nana Mensah Man From Nebraska

Cynthia Nixon The Little Foxes

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR IN A MUSICAL

John Bolton Anastasia

Jeffry Denman Kid Victory

Gavin Creel Hello, Dolly!

Shuler Hensley Sweet Charity

Andrew Rannells Falsettos

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL

Kate Baldwin Hello, Dolly!

Stephanie J. Block Falsettos

Jenn Colella Come From Away

Caroline O’Connor Anastasia

Mary Beth Peil Anastasia

OUTSTANDING SOLO PERFORMANCE

Ed Dixon Georgie: My Adventures with George Rose

Marin Ireland On the Exhale

Sarah Jones Sell / Buy / Date

Judith Light All the Ways to Say I Love You

Simon McBurney The Encounter

JOHN GASSNER AWARD

(Presented for an American play, preferably by a new playwright)

Jaclyn Backhaus Men on Boats

Sarah DeLappe The Wolves

Paola Lázaro Tell Hector I Miss Him

Qui Nguyen Vietgone

Bess Wohl Small Mouth Sounds

2016-17 Outer Critics Circle Executive / Nominating Committee

Simon Saltzman (President)

Mario Fratti (Vice-President) Stanley L. Cohen (Treasurer)

Patrick Hoffman (Corresponding Secretary) Joseph Cervelli (Recording Secretary)

Glenn Loney (Historian & Member-at-Large)

And Aubrey Reuben, David Gordon & Harry Haun (Members-at-Large)

Nominations Talley for 3 or more:

Anastasia – 13; Hello, Dolly! – 10; The Band’s Visit – 7; Come From Away – 7; Indecent – 6; The Little Foxes – 6; Groundhog Day – 5; A Bronx Tale – 4; The Front Page – 4; War Paint – 4; Bandstand – 3; A Doll’s House – 3; Holiday Inn – 3; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 – 3; Oslo – 3; Sweat – 3

Up Next

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The Stars Come Out For Rose: Tribeca, Hello Dolly and All Around Town

Suzanna Bowling

Suzanna, co-owns and publishes the newspaper Times Square Chronicles or T2C. At one point a working actress, she has performed in numerous productions in film, TV, cabaret, opera and theatre. She has performed at The New Orleans Jazz festival, The United Nations and Carnegie Hall. She has a screenplay and a TV show in the works, which she developed with her mentor and friend the late Arthur Herzog. She is a proud member of the Drama Desk and the Outer Critics Circle and was a nominator. Email: suzanna@t2conline.com

Broadway

Parade: A Musical That Asks Us Do We Have The Eyes And Ears To See.

Published

20 hours ago

March 24, 2023

Suzanna Bowling

Micaela Diamond and Ben Platt Photo by Joan Marcus

I have always loved Jason Robert Brown’s score for Parade. “You Don’t Know This Man,” “This Is Not Over Yet” and the wonderfully romantic “All the Wasted Time” are just the tip of the iceberg for music that stirs your soul and tells a tale of heartbreak. There is a reason this score won the Tony Award in 1999.

Ben Platt Photo By Joan Marcus

The musical now playing on Broadway dramatizes the 1913 trial of Jewish factory manager Leo Frank (Ben Platt), who was accused and convicted of raping and murdering a thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan (Erin Rose Doyle). The trial was sensationalized by the media, newspaper reporter Britt Craig (Jay Armstrong Johnson) and Tom Watson (Manoel Feliciano), an extremist right-wing newspaper aroused antisemitic tensions in Atlanta and the U.S. state of Georgia. When Frank’s death sentence is commuted to life in prison thanks to his wife Lucille (Micaela Diamond), Leo was transferred to a prison in Milledgeville, Georgia, where a lynching party seized and kidnapped him. Frank was taken to Phagan’s hometown of Marietta, Georgia, and he was hanged from an oak tree.

Erin Rose Doyle, Photo by Joan Marcus

The telling of this horrid true tale begins with the lush ode to the South in “The Old Red Hills of Home.” Leo has just moved from Brooklyn to in Marietta, where his wife is from and he has been given the job as as a manager at the National Pencil Co. He feels out of place as he sings “I thought that Jews were Jews, but I was wrong!” On Confederate Memorial Day as Lucille plans a picnic, Leo goes to work. In the meantime Mary goes to collect her pay from the pencil factory. The next day Leo is arrested on suspicion of killing Mary, whose body is found in the building. The police also suspect Newt Lee (Eddie Cooper), the African-American night watchman who discovered the body, but he inadvertently directs Starnes’ suspicion to Leo.

Across town, reporter Britt Craig see this story as (“Big News”). Mary’s suitor Frankie Epps (Jake Pederson), swears revenge on Mary’s killer, as does the reporter Watson. Governor John Slaton (Sean Allan Krill) pressures the local prosecutor Hugh Dorsey (the terrific smarmy Paul Alexander Nolan) to get to the bottom of the whole affair. Dorsey, an ambitious politician sees Leo as he ticket to being the Governor and though there are other suspects, he willfully ignores them and goes after Leo.

Sophia Manicone, Emily Rose DeMartino, Ashlyn Maddox Photo By Joan Marcus

The trial of Leo Frank is presided over by Judge Roan (Howard McMillan). A series of witnesses, give trumped up evidence which was clearly is fed to them by Dorsey. Frankie testifies, falsely, that Mary said Leo “looks at her funny.” Her three teenage co-workers, Lola, Essie and Monteen (Sophia Manicone, Emily Rose DeMartino, Ashlyn Maddox), collaborate hauntingly as they harmonize their testimony (“The Factory Girls”). In a fantasy sequence, Leo becomes the lecherous seducer (“Come Up to My Office”). Testimony is heard from Mary’s mother (Kelli Barrett ) (“My Child Will Forgive Me”) and Minnie McKnight (Danielle Lee Greaves)before the prosecution’s star witness, Jim Conley (Alex Joseph Grayson ), takes the stand. He claims that he witnessed the murder and helped Leo conceal the crime (“That’s What He Said”). Leo is given the opportunity to deliver a statement (“It’s Hard to Speak My Heart”), but it is not enough. He is found guilty and sentenced to hang. The crowd breaks out into a jubilant circus.

Alex Joseph Grayson Photo by Joan Marcus

Act 1, is not as strong as it should have been. I have attended three different incarnations, the last being with Jeremy Jordan as Leo and Joshua Henry as Jim in 2015. Part of the problem is Michael Arden’s direction. Instead of allowing his performers to act, he has them pantomime, as the solo goes forth. “Come Up to My Office” was not as haunting as in past productions. The same can be said of “That’s What He Said”. Who’s stands out in the first act is Jake Pederson as Frankie and Charlie Webb as the Young Soldier who sings “The Old Red Hills of Home.”

Micaela Diamond and Ben Platt Photo by Joan Marcus

In Act 2, Lucille finds Governor Slaton at a party (the hypnotic “Pretty Music” sung wonderfully by Krill) and advocates for Leo. Watson approaches Dorsey and tells him he will support his bid for governor, as Judge Roan also offers his support. The governor agrees to re-open the case, as Leo and Lucille find hope. Slaton realizes what we all knew that the witnesses were coerced and lied and that Dorsey is at the helm. He agrees to commute Leo’s sentence to life in prison in Milledgeville, Georgia, which ends his political career. The citizens of Marietta, led by Dorsey and Watson, are enraged and riot. Leo is transferred to a prison work-farm. Lucille visits, and he realizes his deep love for his wife and how much he has underestimated her (“All the Wasted Time”). With hope in full blaze Lucille leaves as a party masked men kidnap Leo and take him to Marietta. They demand he confess and hang him from an oak tree.

Paul Alexander Nolan, Howard McMillan Photo By Joan Marcus

In Act Two Parade comes together with heart and soul. Diamond, who shines brightly through out the piece is radiant, and her duets with Platt are romantic and devastating. Platt comes into his own and his huge following is thrilled to be seeing him live. Alex Joseph Grayson’s also nails his Second Act songs.

Dane Laffrey’s set works well with the lighting by Heather Gilbert.

Frank’s case was reopened in 2019 and is still ongoing.

Parade has multiple messages and the question is will audiences absorb it. I am so glad this show is on Broadway, making us think and see. This is a must see.

Parade: Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, 242 W 45th Street.

Art

Ken Fallin’s Broadway: Celebrating Hadestown’s 1000th Performance

Published

23 hours ago

March 24, 2023

Ken Fallin

On Sunday, March 19, 2023, Hadestown celebrated the first day of spring and the show’s recently-achieved milestone of 1,000 performances at Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theatre.

The handsome artist with Anais Mitchell

On hand were songwriter Anaïs Mitchell and director Rachel Chavkin, Tony Award winner Lillias White, original Broadway cast member Jewelle Blackman as Persephone, Grammy Award winner Reeve Carney as Orpheus, Tony Award nominee Tom Hewitt as Hades, and two-time Tony Award nominee Eva Noblezada as Eurydice. were joined by Amelia Cormack, Shea Renne, and Soara-Joye Ross as the Fates. The chorus of Workers is played by Emily Afton, Malcolm Armwood, Alex Puette, Trent Saunders, and Grace Yoo.

The winner of eight 2019 Tony Awards including Best New Musical and the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, Hadestown is the most honored show of the 2018-2019 Broadway season. In addition to the Tony and Grammy Awards, it has been honored with four Drama Desk Awards, six Outer Critics Circle Awards, including Outstanding New Broadway Musical, and the Drama League Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical.

Following two intertwining love stories — that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and that of King Hades and his wife Persephone — Hadestown invites audiences on a hell-raising journey to the underworld and back. Mitchell’s beguiling melodies and Chavkin’s poetic imagination pit industry against nature, doubt against faith and fear against love. Performed by a vibrant ensemble of actors, dancers, and singers, Hadestown delivers a deeply resonant and defiantly hopeful theatrical experience.

Broadway

Broadway Up Close (R) Gives Dance Workshops In Times Square

Published

23 hours ago

March 24, 2023

Suzanna Bowling

A fun way to get active, learn and have fun: InterContinental New York Times Square has partnered with Broadway Up Close to provide monthly dance workshops. The new series offers the opportunity to learn choreography with current Broadway professionals, and to join them in conversation about their Broadway careers.

On Saturday, April 15, 2023 join Broadway Performer Sarah Meahl (Bad Cinderella, Hello, Dolly!, Kiss Me, Kate) and on Sunday, May 13, 2023 – Broadway Performer Thayne Jasperson (Hamilton, Newsies, Matilda).

All classes are scheduled from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm and include 60 minutes of dance class and 30 minutes to learn and connect.

Following the class, an à la carte lunch menu is provided at The Stinger Cocktail Bar & Kitchen for an additional cost; perfect timing for a matinee performance.

Tickets are $36.25 and you can tickets here.