Drama Desk Award winner Michael Urie (Torch Song, Buyer and Cellar, “Ugly Betty”) will return as host of the 63rd Annual Drama Desk Awards, for the third consecutive year. Charles Wright, President of the Drama Desk, and Gretchen Shugart, President of Arts and Culture of AudienceView, parent company of TheaterMania, which will present the awards ceremony announced this year’s Drama Desk Awards will be held on Sunday, June 3rd, 2018 at 8:00 PM at The Town Hall (123 W. 43rd Street).
“The Drama Desk is delighted that Michael Urie is hosting the Awards for a third time,” said Drama Desk president Charles Wright. “Michael’s enthusiasm for New York theater and his distinctive sense of humor add the perfect zest to this annual celebration.”
“TheaterMania is honored to again present the Drama Desk Awards at New York’s famed Town Hall,” Ms. Shugart said. “Audience members and webcast viewers from the New York community and around the world are in for a treat, as the Awards show celebrates the diversity, creativity, and talent that live theater has to offer. And with Michael Urie once again at the helm, we can expect a fun-filled unpredictable night.”
The Drama Desk Awards are the only major New York City theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off Broadway compete against each other in the same categories.
The Drama Desk Awards, which are presented annually, honor outstanding achievement by professional theater artists on Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway. What sets Drama Desk Awards apart is that they are voted on and bestowed by theater critics, journalists, editors and publishers covering theater. For this reason, Drama Desk Awards reflect enthusiasm for all aspects of New York’s professional theater.
The Drama Desk Awards nominations announcement will take place on Thursday, April 26th at Feinstein’s/54 Below at 10a.m. and can be seen on
www.TheaterMania.com.
Tickets are now on sale for the 63rd AnnualDrama Desk Awards, and can be purchased at www.DramaDeskAwards.com.
Joey Parnes Productions will produce and manage the show. The Awards show will be written by Bill Rosenfield (46 Beacon, True Fans, Sunshine and Shadow) and directed by Mark Waldrop (Not That Jewish, Howard Crabtree’s When Pigs Fly, Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends).
The 63rd Annual Drama Desk Awards will be sponsored by Music Theatre International, Hudson Scenic Studio, and Production Resource Group. More sponsors will be announced in the coming weeks.
The 2017-2018 Drama Desk Nominating Committee is composed of: David Barbour, (
Lighting&Sound America – Committee Chair), Linda Buchwald (freelance:
Theatre is Easy, Playbill,
American Theatre,
TDF Stages), Peter Filichia (Broadway Select; Broadway Radio; author, most recently,
Strippers, Showgirls, and Sharks – St. Martin’s Press), Helen Shaw (
Time Out NY; Village Voice), Martha Wade Steketee (freelance;
Theater Pizzazz; Exeunt; HowlRound), Zachary Stewart (
TheaterMania.com), Doug Strassler (
Garden State Journal; Center on the Aisle; Back on the Block; TDF Stages), Charles Wright (Drama Desk President), ex officio.
In addition to TheaterMania and Ms. Shugart, Robert R. Blume, and David S. Stone are Executive Producers of the Drama Desk Awards.
Founded in 1999, TheaterMania connects the theater industry to a mass consumer audience, with comprehensive listings, news, reviews, features, interviews and video content that covers theater across the United States and the United Kingdom. TheaterMania’s widely distributed email newsletters provide special offers to over 1 million subscribers. In addition to providing theaters with online marketing programs to drive ticket sales, TheaterMania’s proprietary ticketing system OvationTix is used throughout America by hundreds of performing arts organizations, museums, concerts, festivals and events to process ticket sales and manage fundraising and patron information. TheaterMania owns London-based WhatsOnStage, a source for information and tickets to UK theater, and also produces the annual WhatsOnStage Awards. TheaterMania became presenter of the Drama Desk Awards in 2012. In July of 2017 TheaterMania became part of AudienceView Ticketing Corporation, a leading provider of ticketing software to major performing arts, sports and other organizations around the globe.
