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Inside the Drama Desk Awards: Sarah Snook, Nicole Scherzinger, Jasmine Amy Rogers and more on theater's big night
Maybe Happy Ending won big at the 69th annual Drama Desk Awards on Sunday night, earning a total of six trophies at the only awards show to recognize talent from Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off Broadway productions.
Hosted by Debra Messing and Tituss Burgess, the show unfolded at NYU's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, with all proceeds benefiting the Entertainment Community Fund. Performers from a range of theater productions were both nominated and on hand to present, including Nicole Scherzinger of Sunset Boulevard, Jonathan Groff of Just in Time and Jeremy Jordan of Floyd Collins.
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Among its many accolades, Maybe Happy Ending, which stars Darren Criss and Helen J. Shen as robots who fall in love, earned Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Direction of a Musical and Outstanding Music. Meanwhile, Outstanding Play went to Purpose, Outstanding Revival of Play went to Eureka Day and Outstanding Revival of a Musical went to Gypsy. (See the complete breakdown of winners.)
Photo byThe Drama Desk Awards recognized thespians in gender neutral categories, a change implemented in 2023, with two individuals honored per award, or more in the case of a tie. This year, the award for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play went to Laura Donnelly for The Hills of California and Sarah Snook for The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Speaking to Gold Derby after her win, Snook reflected on returning to the stage after her time spent on television. 'It's like a homecoming,' the Succession alum said. 'It felt like a place that I've always been growing up, and I certainly pursued TV and film in my twenties, but I grew up doing theater, and it's where I really always wanted to come back to. So it's really special.'
Snook also spoke to the daunting and rewarding elements of participating in the technologically innovative production led by director Kip Williams.
'Kip has been working with digital screens and cameras for over a decade of his work, but this is the first show in which he used prerecorded elements and composite elements,' she explained. 'That being the risk was a massive challenge for me as the actor as well, because it means there's a certain amount of time between each line and cue that I have to act opposite my prerecorded self, and if I lose concentration, or I relax for a moment, then I've missed the cue, and it's all over. So it's an incredible challenge, but it's the challenge that I've really relished.'The most nominated show of the night Boop!, a musical based on the animated character Betty Boop, won three of its 11 nominations. This included rising star Jasmine Amy Rogers winning Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical alongside theater veteran Audra McDonald, who won for 'Gypsy.'
Sharing she was 'over the moon' with the win, Rogers went on to explain how playing Betty is quite strenuous — but that's part of the privilege of the role.
'The most challenging [part] is just the energy level that is required to deliver and pay homage to Betty,' she said. 'She is so full of life. She's so exuberant. She never stops moving. She never stops going, she never stops singing,' she said. 'So I would say that's the most challenging part, but the most rewarding part is also the fact that I get to do that, and that I am able to dive into this character and bring life to her in a way that we haven't been able to in almost the 100 years that she's been around. We've seen her in these small snippets here and there, but this is the first time we're bringing her to life. And it's an honor that I get to do that, that I get to be that girl that gets to do that.'
Rogers was nominated alongside Scherzinger, who revealed on the red carpet how she taps into the emotionality of her Sunset Boulevard character Norma Desmond. 'A lot of prayer and meditation, because I've got to anchor myself,' said Scherzinger. 'It's got to come from a really, really, really, really, really deep, soulful, spiritual place. And just trusting in the work, the work over the past two years that I've put into this.'
Also in the performance realm, Amalia Yoo of John Proctor Is the Villain and Kara Young of Purpose won in the category of Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play. Young spoke to Gold Derby about the profound topics addressed in Brendan Jacobs-Jenkins' story, which follows an African American family in Chicago.'I personally think that the story transcends race,' Young said. 'It's about a Black legacy family, but it transcends race because we're looking at actual family dynamics of a patriarch and a matriarch and their two children, and what love means in this household.'
Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical resulted in three winners — Brooks Ashmanskas for Smash, Jak Malone for Operation Mincemeat and Michael Urie for Once Upon a Mattress. Andrew Scott took home the award for Outstanding Solo Performance for his role in Vanya.
Alongside Michael Arden nabbing Best Direction for a Musical for Maybe Happy Ending, Danya Taymor won Best Direction for a Play in recognition of her work on John Proctor is the Villain.
Several honors were bestowed outside of the contested awards categories. The late Broadway performer Gavin Creel, who died in September at the age of 48, was posthumously honored with the Harold S. Prince Award for Lifetime Achievement. Additionally, Norm Lewis presented Brian Stokes Mitchell with the William Wolf Award for his service to the entertainment community.
Mitchell, who served as chair of the Entertainment Community Fund from 2004 to 2023, spoke to Gold Derby about the recognition: 'I'm just so honored,' he said. 'I'm so happy to get this award, because it's not just for my accomplishments. It's for service as well, and that's done with the whole team, a whole cooperative of people, including all of the staff and board of the Entertainment Community Fund, all the volunteers, anybody that's ever donated money, anybody that's ever done a performance — it really is a community event.'
Elsewhere in the night, Kip Williams took home the award for Unique Theatrical Experience for The Picture of Dorian Gray. Asked if he believes that an innovative spirit has helped to fuel one of Broadway's most profitable seasons ever, Williams answered in the affirmative.
'Theater is my favorite art form, and it's my favorite art form because there's nothing like sitting in a room with several hundred other people, and all taking that creative leap of faith together to say what we're watching is real,' he shared. 'We're all going to take an imaginative leap and say 'That's real.' And for me, the bigger that leap, the more rewarding an experience it is for an audience, and particularly at a time where television is not only going through a golden age, it's going through a period of great accessibility.'
'I directed this show and conceived the show directorially whilst I was in the pandemic, not knowing if I would ever get to come back and make a piece of theater,' he continued. 'And so I was fueled by this desire to create an incredible live experience for audiences to say to them, 'Leave your homes that you've been trapped inside for so long. Come back to the theater. Join us in that extraordinary exchange between the stage and an audience.''
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