<i>Hairspray</i> and <i>Take Me Out</i> lead Drama Desk Award noms (8520)

Theater's 2003 awards season got under way Thursday when New York's Drama Desk Award nominations were announced at the New York Friars Club. Gay and gay-friendly shows dominated the nominations, with the musical Hairspray out in front with 14 nominations.

Hairspray's nominations included nods for Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Actor in a Musical (Harvey Fierstein), Outstanding Actress in a Musical (Marissa Jaret Winokur), Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical (Dick Latessa and Corey Reynolds), Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical (Kelly Butler), Outstanding Director of a Musical (Jack O'Brien), Outstanding Choreography (Jerry Mitchell), Outstanding Music (Marc Shaiman), Outstanding Lyrics (Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman), Outstanding Book (Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan), Outstanding Orchestrations (Harold Wheeler), Outstanding Set Design of a Musical (David Rockwell), and Outstanding Costume Design (Williams Ivey Long).

Also nominated were gay-based musicals Avenue Q, A Man of No Importance, and Zanna, Don't! A revue about the life of legendary lesbian cabaret and blues singer Alberta Hunter, Cookin' at the Cookery, also figured in the musical nominations with nods for both its stars, Debra Walton and, as Hunter, Ann Duquesnay.

In the drama category, the baseball coming-out saga Take Me Out batted in seven nominations, the most nods for a play. Competing for Best Actor in a Play are transvestite comic Eddie Izzard in a straight dramatic role as the harried father in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg and Daniel Sunjata as the hunky baseball player who tells the world he's gay in Take Me Out. Fiona Shaw was among the Best Actress nominees for her tour de force performance in Medea. In addition, Charles Busch will receive a Special Drama Desk Award.

The full list of nominations:

Outstanding Play:
Buicks by Julian Sheppard
Our Lady of 121st Street by Stephen Adly Guirgis
Peter and Vandy by Jay DiPietro
Take Me Out by Richard Greenberg
Talking Heads by Alan Bennett
Yellowman by Dael Orlandersmith

Outstanding Musical:
Amour
Avenue Q
Hairspray
A Man of No Importance
Movin' Out
Zanna, Don't!

Outstanding Revival of a Play:
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
Dinner at Eight
Long Day's Journey Into Night
Medea
Twelfth Night (Donmar Warehouse/BAM)
Uncle Vanya (Donmar Warehouse/BAM)

Outstanding Revival of a Musical:
Gypsy
La Boheme
Man of La Mancha
Nine

Outstanding Actor in a Play:
Simon Russell Beale (Uncle Vanya)
Norbert Leo Butz (Buicks)
Jim Dale (Comedians)
Brian Dennehy (Long Day's Journey Into Night)
Eddie Izzard (A Day in the Death of Joe Egg)
Daniel Sunjata (Take Me Out)

Outstanding Actress in a Play:
Jayne Atkinson (Enchanted April)
Marylouise Burke (Kimberly Akimbo)
Clare Higgins (Vincent in Brixton)
Dael Orlandersmith (Yellowman)
Vanessa Redgrave (Long Day's Journey Into Night)
Fiona Shaw (Medea)

Outstanding Actor in a Musical:
Antonio Banderas (Nine)
Harvey Fierstein (Hairspray)
Malcolm Gets (Amour)
Brian Stokes Mitchell (Man of La Mancha)
Jason Petty (Hank Williams: Lost Highway)
John Selya (Movin' Out)

Outstanding Actress in a Musical:
Stephanie D'Abruzzo (Avenue Q)
Ann Duquesnay (Cookin' at the Cookery)
Wei Huang (La Boheme)
Elizabeth Parkinson (Movin' Out)
Bernadette Peters (Gypsy)
Marissa Jaret Winokur (Hairspray)

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play:
Simon Russell Beale (Twelfth Night)
Walter Bobbie (Polish Joke)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Long Day's Journey Into Night)
T.R. Knight (Scattergood)
Denis O'Hare (Take Me Out)
Frederick Weller (Take Me Out)

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play:
Christine Ebersole (Talking Heads)
Jan Maxwell (My Old Lady)
Helen McCrory (Uncle Vanya)
Nancy Opel (Polish Joke)
Lynn Redgrave (Talking Heads)
Jeanine Serralles (Hold Please)

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical:
John Dossett (Gypsy)
Christopher Fitzgerald (Amour)
Charles Keating (A Man of No Importance)
Dick Latessa (Hairspray)
Steven Pasquale (A Man of No Importance)
Corey Reynolds (Hairspray)

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical:
Kerry Butler (Hairspray)
Jane Krakowski (Nine)
Mary Stuart Masterson (Nine)
Sally Mayes (Urban Cowboy)
Chita Rivera (Nine)
Debra Walton (Cookin' at the Cookery)

Outstanding Director of a Play:
Robert Falls (Long Day's Journey Into Night)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Our Lady of 121st Street)
Joe Mantello (Take Me Out)
Sam Mendes (Twelfth Night)
Sam Mendes (Uncle Vanya)
Deborah Warner (Medea)

Outstanding Director of a Musical:
James Lapine (Amour)
David Leveaux (Nine)
Baz Luhrmann (La Boheme)
Joe Mantello (A Man of No Importance)
Jack O'Brien (Hairspray)
Twyla Tharp (Movin' Out)

Outstanding Choreography:
Jerry Mitchell (Hairspray)
Ken Roberson (Harlem Song)
Twyla Tharp (Movin' Out)
Tommy Tune (Tommy Tune: White Tie and Tails)

Outstanding Music:
Tim Acito (Zanna, Don't!)
Stephen Flaherty (A Man of No Importance)
Michel Legrand (Amour)
Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx (Avenue Q)
Keb' Mo', Anderson Edwards, Keith Glover (Thunder Knocking on the Door)
Marc Shaiman (Hairspray)

Outstanding Lyrics:
Tim Acito, Alexander Dinelaris (Zanna, Don't!)
Lynn Ahrens (A Man of No Importance)
Craig Carnelia (Imaginary Friends)
Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx (Avenue Q)
Jeremy Sams, Didier van Cauwelaert (Amour)
Scott Wittman, Marc Shaiman (Hairspray)

Outstanding Book of a Musical:
Tim Acito, Alexander Dinelaris (Zanna, Don't!)
Terrence McNally (A Man of No Importance)
Mark O'Donnell, Thomas Meehan (Hairspray)
Jeremy Sams, Didier van Cauwelaert (Amour)
Jeff Whitty (Avenue Q)

Outstanding Orchestrations:
Luther Henderson (Little Ham)
Michel Legrand (Amour)
Harold Wheeler (Hairspray)

Outstanding Set Design of a Play:
John Lee Beatty (Dinner at Eight)
John Lee Beatty (My Old Lady)
Troy Hourie (Temporary Help)
Scott Pask (Take Me Out)
Neil Patel (Endpapers)
B.T. Whitehall (Shanghai Moon)

Outstanding Set Design of a Musical:
Riccardo Hernandez, Batwin + Robin Productions (Radiant Baby)
Catherine Martin (La Boheme)
Scott Pask (Amour)
Stephane Roy (Cirque du Soleil: Varekai)
David Rockwell (Hairspray)

Outstanding Costume Design:
Michael Bottari, Ronald Case (Shanghai Moon)
Jess Goldstein (Enchanted April)
Eiko Ishioka (Cirque du Soleil: Varekai)
William Ivey Long (Hairspray)
Catherine Martin, Angus Strathie (La Boheme)
Catherine Zuber (Dinner at Eight)

Outstanding Lighting Design:
Kevin Adams (Take Me Out)
Russell H. Champa (Yellowman)
Donald Holder (Movin' Out)
Donald Holder (Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Toward the Somme)
Nigel Levings (La Boheme)
Peter Mumford (Vincent in Brixton)

Outstanding Sound Design:
Acme Sound Partners (La Boheme)
Mark Bennett (Golda's Balcony)
Mark Bennett (Julius Caesar)
Francois Bergeron (Cirque du Soleil: Varekai)
Janet Kalas (Take Me Out)
David Meschter, Mel Mercier (Medea)

Outstanding Solo Performance:
Barbara Cook (Mostly Sondheim)
Tovah Feldshuh (Golda's Balcony)
Frank Gorshin (Say Goodnight, Gracie)
Ricky Jay (Ricky Jay: On the Stem)
Priscilla Lopez (Class Mothers '68)
Charlayne Woodard (In Real Life)

Unique Theatrical Experience:
Cirque du Soleil: Varekai
The Exonerated
The Play What I Wrote
Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway

Special awards also will be given to the Brooklyn Academy of Music as well as Geoffrey Johnson and Vincent Liff (posthumously) of Johnson-Liff Casting.