NY Drama Critics Circle Awards: Fast and Funny at 54 Below

Shalita Grant and Sigourney Weaver of
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at
the NY Drama Critics Circle Awards

The New York Drama Critics Circle Awards are usually held in a crowded bar with all the honorees, critics, friends, and cast members standing up and pushed up against each other as if they were in the subway. This year, the ceremony, held on Mon. May 13, was moved to the more spacious 54 Below cabaret room. Critics mingled with actors, playwrights, directors, producers, and press agents and there was no bloodshed.

The Circle was founded in 1935 in reaction to the press's dissatisfaction with choices made by the Pulitzer Prize committee and gives awards for the Best Play, Best American or Foreign Play (depending on the nationality of the Best Play choice), Best Musical, and whatever special citations the members choose for that season. I've been a voting member for many years and this was probably the most entertaining and fun Circle presentation in recent memory. Before the ceremony started I found myself chatting with Sigourney Weaver and Linda Winer of Newsday on the mating habits of gorillas and lions. We were talking about Weaver's role in Gorillas in the Mist; I mentioned I had been in Namibia and one of the attractions at the lodge where I stayed was watching a pride of lions at feeding time. The pride consisted of one male and eight females one of whom was in heat. The male mated with her three times during the course of the meal. "How long did each encounter take?," Linda asked. "About 30 seconds," I answered. Sigourney confirmed that it was about the same for gorillas.

Peter Bartlett and Harriet Harris
of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella
hosting the NY Drama Critics Circle Awards

Tony Eligibility Ruling Reaction

Kristine Nielsen, left, is definitely a leading lady in
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
Credit: T. Charles Erickson

Just five days before the Tony nominations are announced, the Tony Administration Committee met and made its final ruling as to who's eligible in which category. To paraphrase Charles Dickens (or the 1950s movie version of A Christmas Carol), the reaction from the theater blogosphere has resembled a chorus of scalded cats. The two biggest causes for brouhaha concern are the four young actresses playing the title role in Matilda and the status of Kristine Nielsen of Christopher Durang's Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. The talented quartet of little girls who alternate as Roald Dahl's spunky genius were ruled ineligible for Best Actress in a Musical and will be awarded a Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theater. All that is very fine, but it breaks precedence with the Billy Elliot boys. The three young men who alternated in that role were considered eligible as a single, joint nominee for Best Actor in a Musical, and won. What's the difference here? It is because there are four as opposed to three? Or perhaps the Matilda producers did not want to have to give Tony voters free tickets on four separate occasions and lose all that income? This happens with the Tonys all the time. Unlike the Supreme Court, they do not abide by previous cases. There have been plenty of times when actors has been considered leading AND featured for the same role--Zena Walker and Stockard Channing both played the same part in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg. But Walker won a Featured Tony and Channing triumphed in the leading category when the play was revived. same with Joel Grey and Alan Cumming in Cabaret.