Drama Desk winner Michael Urie will host the 64th Annual Drama Desk Awards
April 8, 2019: The 64th Annual Drama Desk Awards will be presented Sunday, June 2 at The Town Hall in New York City, and tickets will go on sale tomorrow, April 9th at 12pm EST. Michael Urie is set to host for the fourth consecutive time. He starred on Broadway this past fall in a revival of Harvey Fiersten’s Torch Song Trilogy to excellent reviews and said, “I’ll certainly be more chill hosting the Drama Desks for a fourth time,” adding, “In fact, this year I’m going to introduce myself to Glenda Jackson!”
The Drama Desk Awards are the only major theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off Broadway compete against each other in the same categories. The awards are bestowed by New York Critics, journalists, editors, and publishers. In a joint statement, Drama Desk co-presidents Charles Wright and David Barbour said: “The Board of the Drama Desk is delighted to welcome Michael Urie for his fourth stint as host of the Awards ceremony. Michael’s charm, spirited stage presence, and distinctive sense of humor guarantee that this will be an evening of fun and surprises. A Drama Desk recipient himself, Michael is the ideal ambassador for our organization and the Awards, both in the theater community and beyond.”
Public tickets go on sale tomorrow, April 9th at 12PM EST, and can be purchased at www.DramaDeskAwards.com. VIP tickets will become available later this month. Nominations for The 64th Annual Drama Desk Awards will be announced on Thursday, April 25th.
Matt Britten, Broadway Brands CEO, will serve as executive producer and Joey Parnes Productions will produce the ceremony, as it has since 2012. The show will be written by Bill Rosenfield(46 Beacon, True Fans, Sunshine and Shadow), returning for his seventh year; directed by Mark Waldrop (Not That Jewish, Howard Crabtree’s When Pigs Fly, Bea Arthur on Broadway: Just Between Friends), marking his fourth year; and music-directed by Dan Lipton (The Band’s Visit, The Last Ship), making his fifth appearance.
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.
Previous winners include Lin-Manuel Miranda, Bernadette Peters, Cynthia Erivo, Nathan Lane, Kevin Kline, Laura Linney, Bette Midler, Danny DeVito, Cynthia Nixon, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Helen Mirren as well as Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer (lighting design) Tina Landau (director), Tina Fey (book writer), Warren Carlyle (choreography), Jason Robert Brown (orchestrations), Ivo van Hove (director), Philip Glass (music), Ed Sylvanus Iskandar (director), Bess Wohl (playwright), and many others.
