...And We're Off Into Awards Season 2018

Let the games begin.  The spring theater season officially closed Thursday night with the opening of The Iceman Cometh, which means the Tony nominators will be toting up their scorecards this weekend, gather on Monday to vote and then announce this year's nominees for Broadway's top prizes on Tuesday, ushering in five weeks of genteel, but still fierce, campaigning.

But awards season actually began at the beginning of April when the nominations were announced for the Lucille Lortel Awards, which honor off-Broadway shows. Then two weeks later, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama was given to the young playwright Martyna Majok for Cost of Living, her terrific drama about people living with disabilities (click here to read my review of that play and here to read a recent interview I did with the playwright).

Two days after that came the nominations from the Drama League. And this past week the Outer Critics Circle and the Drama Desk announced theirs.  Parsing all those lists and figuring out which shows in this somewhat lackluster season got the biggest embrace—and which the sharpest cold shoulders—could make a person cross-eyed. 

Heck, even laying out who runs each group and which kinds of shows they honor is a challenge.  Luckily, "Playing for Prizes: America's Award for Best Drama and Best Musical," a nifty little book by Tim Donahue that I've been reading, does that hard work and so I don't have to (if you're interested, you can check it out by clicking here). 

And if you're as crazy about this stuff, as I am, you also can keep track of the odds for this year's Tony race on the Gold Derby website, where a foolhardy bunch of theater fanatics (including me) try to handicap the winners by clicking here.

Meanwhile, as a literal card-carrying member of the Outer Critics Circle, I'm just going to list all the OCC nominees (some of which I enthusiastically endorse, others which I'm resignedly going along with) and then I'm going to try to catch up with the shows I still haven't seen so I can improve my odds on Gold Derby:

OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY PLAY
The Children
Farinelli and the King
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Junk

*OUTSTANDING NEW BROADWAY MUSICAL
Escape to Margaritaville
Frozen
Mean Girls
Prince of Broadway
SpongeBob SquarePants
*we celebrated The Band's Visit as the Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical last year so it's ineligible this year

OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY PLAY
Admissions
Cost of Living
Hangmen
The Low Road
Mlima’s Tale

OUTSTANDING NEW OFF-BROADWAY MUSICAL
Cruel Intentions
Desperate Measures
Jerry Springer- The Opera
Miss You Like Hell
Woody Sez

OUTSTANDING BOOK OF A MUSICAL
(Broadway or Off-Broadway)
Tina Fey Mean Girls
Quiara Alegría Hudes Miss You Like Hell
Kyle Jarrow SpongeBob SquarePants
Peter Kellogg Desperate Measures

OUTSTANDING NEW SCORE
(Broadway or Off-Broadway)
Yolanda Adams, Steven Tyler & Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Sara Bareilles, Jonathan Coulton, Alex Ebert ofEdward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, The Flaming Lips, Lady Antebellum, Cyndi Lauper & Rob Hyman, John Legend, Panic! At the Disco, Plain White T’s, They Might Be Giants, T.I., Domani & Lil’C, Jonathan Coulton and Tom Kitt, SpongeBob SquarePants
David Friedman & Peter Kellogg Desperate Measures
Imogen Heap Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Erin McKeown and Quiara Alegría Hudes Miss You Like Hell
Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez Frozen

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A PLAY
(Broadway or Off-Broadway)
Angels in America
Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train
Lobby Hero
Three Tall Women
Travesties

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL
(Broadway or Off-Broadway)
Carousel
My Fair Lady
Once on This Island
Pacific Overtures

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR OF A PLAY
Jo Bonney Cost of Living
Marianne Elliott Angels in America
Patrick Marber Travesties
Joe Mantello Three Tall Women
John Tiffany Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR OF A MUSICAL
Michael Arden Once on This Island
Bill Castellino Desperate Measures Tina Landau SpongeBob SquarePants
Casey Nicholaw Mean Girls
Bartlett Sher My Fair Lady

OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHER
Camille A. Brown Once on This Island
Christopher Gattelli My Fair Lady
Christopher Gattelli SpongeBob SquarePants
Steven Hoggett Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Justin Peck Carousel

OUTSTANDING SET DESIGN
(Play or Musical)
Miriam Buether Three Tall Women
Myung Hee Cho In the Body of the World
Christine Jones Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Michael Yeargan My Fair Lady
David Zinn SpongeBob SquarePants

OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN
(Play or Musical)
Katrina Lindsay Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Clint Ramos Once on This Island
Paloma Young Time and the Conways
David Zinn SpongeBob SquarePants
Catherine Zuber My Fair Lady

OUTSTANDING LIGHTING DESIGN
(Play or Musical)
Kevin Adams SpongeBob SquarePants
Neil Austin Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Paule Constable Angels in America
Paul Russell Farinelli and the King
Lap Chi Chu Mlima’s Tale

OUTSTANDING PROJECTION DESIGN
(Play or Musical)
Tim Reid 1984
Finn Ross Frozen
Finn Ross In the Body of the World
Finn Ross & Adam Young Mean Girls
Finn Ross & Ash Woodward Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

OUTSTANDING SOUND DESIGN
(Play or Musical)
Gareth Fry Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Kate Marvin [Porto]
Fitz Patton Napoli, Brooklyn
Marc Salzberg My Fair Lady
Darron L. West Mlima’s Tale

OUTSTANDING ORCHESTRATIONS
Jason Robert Brown Prince of Broadway
Tom Kitt SpongeBob SquarePants
AnnMarie Milazzo & Michael Starobin Once on This Island
Jonathan Tunick Carousel
Claire Van Kampen Farinelli and the King

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A PLAY
Sean Carvajal Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train
Andrew Garfield Angels in America
Tom Hollander Travesties
Gregg Mozgala Cost of Living
Michael Urie The Government Inspector

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A PLAY
MaameYaa Boafo School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play
Jessica Hecht Admissions
Glenda Jackson Three Tall Women
Lauren Ridloff Children of a Lesser God
Katy Sullivan Cost of Living

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
Harry Hadden-Paton My Fair Lady
Joshua Henry Carousel
David M. Lutken Woody Sez
Conor Ryan Desperate Measures
Ethan Slater SpongeBob SquarePants

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Lauren Ambrose My Fair Lady
Erika Henningsen Mean Girls
Hailey Kilgore Once On This Island
Taylor Louderman Mean Girls
Patti Murin Frozen

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY
Anthony Boyle Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Johnny Flynn Hangmen
Nathan Lane Angels in America
David Morse The Iceman Cometh
Paul Sparks At Home at the Zoo

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY
Jamie Brewer Amy and the Orphans
Denise Gough Angels in America
Harriet Harris The Low Road
Laurie Metcalf Three Tall Women
Mary Testa The Government Inspector

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTOR IN A MUSICAL
Norbert Leo Butz My Fair Lady
Alexander Gemignani Carousel
Gavin Lee SpongeBob SquarePants 
Nick Wyman Desperate Measures
Tony Yazbeck Prince of Broadway

OUTSTANDING FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL
Kerry Butler Mean Girls
Lindsay Mendez Carousel
Lauren Molina Desperate Measures
Ashley Park Mean Girls
Emily Skinner Prince of Broadway

OUTSTANDING SOLO PERFORMANCE
Billy Crudup Harry Clarke
Eve Ensler In the Body of the World
Alison Fraser Squeamish
John Lithgow Stories By Heart
Sharon Washington Feeding the Dragon

JOHN GASSNER AWARD
(Presented for an American play, preferably by a new playwright)
Kate Benson [Porto]
Jocelyn Bioh School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play
Lindsey Ferrentino Amy and the Orphans
Meghan Kennedy Napoli, Brooklyn
Dominique Morisseau Pipeline