The 5th Annual David Desk Awards

Audra McDonald adds a David Desk to her numerous awards for
Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill

Yes, I know it's July already and the season's been over for a month, but here they are--the David Desk Awards. For the fifth time, here are my choices for the top performances in New York theater during the past season. The classifications are my own. The Tonys and the Drama Desks decided Audra McDonald in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill was best suited for Actress in a Play while the Outer Critics put her in the musical category. I know the play choice would be in keeping with Jane Lapotaire in Piaf and Tracey Bennett as Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow, with the musical numbers being part of the main character's performance in concert. But even the Drama Desk has not been consistent with this. Sian Philips was in the running for Best Actress in a Musical in Marlene even though her performance was largely dramatic. That year (1999) there were very few available nominees for the category--Bernadette Peters in Annie Get Your Gun and Carolee Carmello in Parade where the only other ones vying for the top award and they tied. I think that McDonald's performance was so dependent on the musical element, she should have been in that category and that's why I placed her there. (Plus when Lonette McKee played the original production in 1987, she was nominated as Outstanding Actress in a Musical). I also felt Marin Ireland in Marie Antoniette was ignored.

So here are my picks for the tops of 2013-14:

Play

All the Way (Robert Schenkkan)

Domesticated (Bruce Norris)

The Night Alive (Conor McPherson)

Nikolai and the Others (Richard Nelson)

Outside Mullingar (John Patrick Shanley)

Musical

After Midnight

Fun Home

A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

Revival of a Play

All That Fall

The Glass Menagerie

I Remember Mama

Machinal

No Man’s Land

A Raisin in the Sun

Twelfth Night

Actor in a Play

Bryan Cranston, All the Way

Jeff Goldblum, Domesticated

K. Todd Freeman, Fetch Clay, Make Man

Ian McKellen, No Man’s Land

Brian F. O’Byrne, Outside Mullingar

Chris O’Dowd, Of Mice and Men

Mark Rylance, Twelfth Night/Richard III

Actress in a Play

Eileen Atkins, All That Fall

Barbara Barrie, I Remember Mama

Tyne Daly, Mothers and Sons

Rebecca Hall, Machinal

Marin Ireland, Marie Antoinette

Cherry Jones, The Glass Menagerie

Laurie Metcalf, Domesticated

Actor in a Musical

Norbert Leo Butz, Big Fish

Michael Cerveris, Fun Home

Neil Patrick Harris, Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Andy Karl, Rocky

Ramin Karimloo, Les Miserables

Jefferson Mays, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

Bryce Pinkham, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

Actress in a Musical

Mary Bridget Davies, A Night with Janis Joplin

Audra McDonald, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill

Idina Menzel, If/Then

Jessie Mueller, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

Kelli O’Hara, Far from Heaven, The Bridges of Madison County

Barrett Wilbert Weed, Heathers

Featured Actor in a Play

Reed Birney, Casa Valentina

Paul Chahidi, Twelfth Night

Daniel Davis, Romeo and Juliet (CSC)

Peter Maloney, Outside Mullingar

Jim Norton, The Night Alive, Of Mice and Men

Bill Pullman, The Jacksonian

Steven Rattazzi, Marie Antoinette

Featured Actress in a Play

Mia Barron, Domesticated

Lynn Cohen, I Remember Mama

Caoilfhionn Dunne, The Night Alive

Sophie Okonedo, A Raisin in the Sun

Marisa Tomei, The Realistic Joneses

Featured Actor in a Musical

Brooks Ashmanskas, Bullets Over Broadway

Danny Burstein, Cabaret

Nick Cordero, Bullets Over Broadway

James Monroe Iglehart, Aladdin

Dakin Matthews, Rocky

Featured Actress in a Musical

Linda Emond, Cabaret

Adriane Lenox, After Midnight

Sydney Lucas, Fun Home

Cass Morgan, The Bridges of Madison County

Lisa O’Hare, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

Alexandra Socha, Fun Home

Director (Play)

Marc Bruni, The Explorers Club

Tim Carroll, Twelfth Night

Des MacAnuff, Fetch Clay, Make Man

Bill Rauch, All the Way

Rebecca Taichman, Marie Antoinette

John Tiffany, The Glass Menagerie

Lindsay Turner, Machinal

Director (Musical)

Warren Carlyle, After Midnight

Sam Gold, Fun Home

Alex Timbers, Rocky

Darko Tresnjak, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

Choreography

Warren Carlyle, After Midnight

Sonya Tayeh (choreography), Emmanuel Brown (fight direction), Jamie Guan (Chinese Opera movement), Kung Fu

Set Design

Christopher Barreca, Rocky

Beowulf Boritt, Act One

Bob Crowley, The Glass Menagerie

Es Devlin, Machinal

Todd Rosenthal, Of Mice and Men

Donyale Werle, The Explorers Club

Costume Design

Linda Cho, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

Michael Krass, Machinal

William Ivey Long, Big Fish, Bullets Over Broadway

Rita Ryack, Casa Valentina

Jenny Tiramani, Twelfth Night, Richard III

Isabel Toledo, After Midnight

Anita Yavich, The Explorers Club

Lighting Design

Christopher Akerlind, Rocky

Jane Cox, Machinal, All the Way

Natasha Katz, The Glass Menagerie

Ben Stanton, Kung Fu

Stephen Strawbridge, Marie Antoinette

Sound Design

Paul Groothuis, All That Fall

Matt Tierney, Machinal

Music in a Play

Matthew Herbert, Machinal

Nico Muhly, The Glass Menagerie

Louis Rosen, Act One

Claire Van Kampen, Twelfth Night/Richard III