Much Ado About Nothing -- Shakespeare in the Park

The cast of The Public Theater’s free Shakespeare in the Park production of Much Ado About Nothing. Photo: Joan Marcus

Much Ado About Nothing
By William Shakespeare
The Public Theater
Shakespeare in the Park
THROUGH JULY 6

Cast:

Lily Rabe…. Beatrice
Hamish Linklater….Benedick
Steel Burkhardt…. Balthasar
Austin Durant…. Friar Francis, Sexton
John Glover…. Leonato
David Manis…. Antonio, Verges
Kathryn Meisle…. Ursula
Ismenia Mendes….Hero
Brian Stokes Mitchell…. Don Pedro
John Pankow…. Dogberry
Pedro Pascal…. Don John
Eric Sheffer Stevens…. Borachio
Zoë Winters…. Margaret
Caudiio.... Jack Cutmore-Scott
Matt Bittner, Alex Breaux, Paco Lozano, and Matthew Russell…. Ensemble

Enjoying the Stars Under the Stars at Central Park

By Lauren Yarger
Lily Rabe is Beatrice and Hamish Linklater is Benedick in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, thei first of two free offerings by the Public Theater at Central Park’s Delacorte Theatre this summer.

Other big names joining the cast are John Glover and Brian Stokes Mitchell

I hate re-telling Shakespeare plots in reviews since you either are familiar with them already, or will need Spark notes to follow if you’re not, so let this brief synopsis suffice (there’s also one in the program should you venture to the park):

It’s turn-of-the-century Sicily where Don Pedro, prince of Aragon, (Mitchell) visits his friend and governor of Messina, Leonato (Glover) along with two of his offers, Benedick and Claudio (Jack Cutmore-Scott). Claudio falls in love with Leonato’s daughter, Hero (Ismenia Mendes) while Bendick falls into scathing banter with long-time thorn-in-his-side Beatrice, Leonato’s insulting, quit witted niece.  

While acquaintances scheme to make Beatrice and Benedick fall in love, Hero and Claudio’s marriage is threatened when Don Pedro’s treacherous illegitimate brother, Don John (Pedro Pascal), plots to besmirch Hero’s reputation. Betrayal, false death and a helpful Friar (Austiin Durant) -- not unlike the plot of Romeo and Juliet -- ensue, but with more comedic results as everyone makes a big ado about nothing.

This production, directed by Jack O’Brien, who plays up bits for minor characters for humor, is light and fun and takes place on an imposing set designed by John Lee Beatty including sundrenched stucco balconies, vines, vegetables and palm trees blending in with the greenery of Central Park. Jane Greenwood designs the simple costumes that place the production around late 19^th century. A four-man band directed by Nathan Koce serenades with accordion, horns, strings and woodwinds as well as vocal solos.

Rabe is entertaining as the feisty Beatrice. While some of the dialogue sounds stilted and doesn’t flow easily for some of the other performers, sitting under the stars listening to the Bard isn’t a bad way to spend three hours in New York (except for those annoying helicopters that kept flying overhead).

Tickets to the Shakespeare in the Park shows are free. Virtual ticketing is done by lottery online at www.publictheater.org on the day of the show. You also can stand in line at the Delacorte the day of the show beginning at noon (but the line starts forming way before that). Supporter tickets also are available. For more information, call (212) 539-8734.

The next production will be King Lear, starring John Lithgow, beginning July 22.

FREE SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK TICKET INFORMATION 

FREE TICKETS to The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park are distributed, two per person (age 

5+), at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park beginning at noon on the day of each performance. In 

order to allow as many different people as possible to attend free Shakespeare in the Park this summer, 

visitors will be limited to receiving free tickets to two performances only of each production. There will 

continue to be a separate line for accessible tickets for senior citizens (65+) and patrons with disabilities.

VIRTUAL TICKETING LOTTERY FOR FREE TICKETS will be available at www.publictheater.org on the day of the show.

Get Up Close with Broadway Theaters, History on Walking Tour

By Lauren Yarger

Summer is almost here and I know many of you are headed into the Big Apple. Every year I get tons of emails from readers asking which shows they should see while they are in New York, where to stay, where to eat and what to do besides see good theater.

One option that combines theater with seeing the sites in the Broadway Up Close Walking Tours. 

I took the The ACT One Tour with affable and knowledgeable owner Tim Dolan, right. Armed with a tablet for photos to enhance the tour, we began at the Nederlander Theatre on 41st street between 7th and 8th avenues and visited a number of theaters between there and 45th Street in Times Square in about two hours (additional tours -- Act Two -- also are available. You can't possibly see all 42 theaters in one trip!).The tour not only gives you a chance to stop at some of New York's beautiful Broadway theaters (we even stopped inside the former Empire Theatre, left, now the lobby of a multi-plex movie theater) and saw photos Tim (an actor when he's not giving tours) took when he was granted a rare visit to the supposedly haunted apartment atop the Belasco Theatre (below, right, my personal favorite -- the Tiffany stained glass and wood trim in there are gorgeous.)

We learned amazing history about rooftop parties on competing theaters on 42nd Street (did you know there once was a farm up there?) The tours are scheduled to last two hours and 45 minutes and cover a half mile of terrain without a break or a chance to sit, so comfortable shoes are recommended.

Broadway Up Close Walking Tours doesn't operate with a set schedule. They customize tours based on  travel needs. Tours are $30 per person.  Private tours and group rates (15 or more)  are available upon request.Contact info@broadwayupclose.com; 917-841-0187; http://www.broadwayupclose.com/ The Lyric, formerly Foxwood.

TOP PICK Off-Broadway Theater Review: Fly By Night

Adam Chanler-Berat and Patti Murin. Photo: Joan Marcus

Fly By Night

Conceived By Kim RosenstockWritten By Will Connolly, Michael Mitnick and Kim Rosenstock

Directed By Carolyn CantorTo Feature

A Stellar Message We Hope Rides on Every Broadway Shooting Star

By Lauren Yarger

In the span of a year between Nov. 9, 1964 and 1965, a lot happens: people fall in and out of love, leave home and return, find jobs and quit, live and die and there are moments of blessings and of curse before a blackout sinks the northeast into darkness.

In the span of the two and a half hours it takes to tell the stories in Fly By Night, getting its New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons, I fell in love with Kim Rosenstock, who conceived the musical, and Will Connolly and Michael Mitnick who wrote it with her.

Rarely are we treated to such a sharply written, enjoyable journey on the stage. It's exciting, like a shooting star on which we wish all Broadway musicals would catch a ride.

And stars do figure prominently in this tale of two sisters, a father and son, a playwright and a shopkeeper all trying to find their way in the dark.

Beautiful Daphne wants to be a star -- on Broadway. She packs her bags, bids her mother and small-town South Dakota goodbye, and heads out the door. In tow is her sister, Miriam (Allison Case), who really is quite content being a waitress in the small town where she can remember nights with her father gazing at the stars. She's a star too -- but because she is made up of particles from the supernova that created everything.

Daphne has a bad feeling about being in New York. It grows stronger when she encounters a gypsy fortune teller (played by Henry Stram, who as narrator, jumps in to play any characters needed to help tell the story) She predicts three signs and a great love for Miriam, followed by tragedy.

Meanwhile, Daphne finds love with Harold McClam (Adam Chanler-Berat) , who hopes to become a musician -- once he learns to play more than one note on the guitar that was his mother's. Her death has caused a chasm between him and his father, (Peter Friedman), who loses himself in her memory by carrying around a recording of La traviata that once meant something to him and his wife. 

Harold does write a song about being a turtle (backed up by Foe Destroyer, a five-member band directed by Vadim Feichtner), but spends most of his time at his day job, making sandwiches for boss Crabble (Michael McCormick), who's got "hum drum" down to a science.

Dahpne's dreams of leaving her mundane job as a coat salesperson and becoming a star just might come true when Joey Storms (Bryce Ryness) falls for her and casts his muse as the lead in the new play he is writing and producing. Constant rehearsals keep her away from Harold, however, and he finds himself gravitating toward a star-crossed relationship with Miriam.

Carolyn Cantor brilliantly directs a luminous cast. The play bursts with creativity as time shifts between past and present (quite effectively). The dialogue and lyrics offer insight and soothing rhythms. The narrator tells us:

Long wide stretches of the ordinary

Spinning circles as this life rolls on 

From the cradle to the cemetery 

Just get through until tomorrow’s dawn 

Then, a burst—a soaring peak, a sudden drop 

Best, or worst—don’t let it end, please make it stop 

Instants, moments— 

One flickering flame of light—

Simply beautiful. Then, at the other end of the spectrum (blunt and crass), his oft-repeated mantra of sandwich making --  "Mayonnaise meat cheese ‘n lettuce" -- creates a Crapple who is simultaneously minstrel, prophetic, humorous and sad. His duet with Harold about the sandwich-making routine is a hoot.

Cantor also assembles an excellent creative team to help propel the story with a lesson about how we all are connected and about how what we do on earth isn't nearly as important as with whom we do it. We love these characters and root for them. At intermission, audience members were discussing what they hoped would happen and humming the tunes. 

A scene between Harold and his father, beautifully acted, is one of them most touching I have witnessed on stage.

The '6os period costumes (designed by Paloma Young) keep us anchored in time without making the show about the era and Lighting Designer Jeff Croiter, turns steps into bedrooms and the entire theater into a galactic wonder.

And if that's not enough, the simple tunes give characters a chance to shine (Sound Designers Ken Travis and Alex Hawthorn create the right mix) with non-intrusive choreography by Sam Pinkleton.

This one is stellar -- so much so that at the final curtain, I thought about buying a ticket to go back and see it again. It gets Top Pick Status.

Fly By Night plays through June 29 at Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd St., NYC. Performances are Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 7, Thursdays and Fridays at 8, Saturdays at 2:30 and 8 pm and Sundays at 2:30 and 7:30 pm. Single tickets are $80-95; www.TicketCentral.com; 212-279-4200 (noon-8 pm daily); Box Office, 416 West 42nd St. (between 9th and 10th avenues).

Christians might also like to know:

-- fortune telling

--God's name taken in vain

Off-Broadway Theater Review: Ionesco's The Killer

Michael Shannon. Photo: Gerry Goodstein

The Killer
By Eugène Ionesco
Newly Translated: Michael Feingold
Featuring Kristine Nielsen, Michael Shannon, Paul Sparks, and Robert Stanton in a company of 20 actors.
Directed by Darko Tresnjak
Polonsky Shakespeare Center, Brooklyn

A Puzzling Play, Where Humor Helps Put Together the Pieces
By Lauren Yarger
So what does a director who wins the Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League and Outer Critics Circle awards do in his spare time?

If you are Darko Tresnjak, Hartford Stage’s artistic director who just took all of those top directing honors for A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, you direct a rarely seen Off-Broadway revival of Eugène Ionesco’s dark, absurdist comedy The Killer, getting a limited run as the season closer at Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn.

The Killer was last produced Off-Broadway in 1960, perhaps because it’s not an easy work to produce (Ionesco’s Exit the King saw success on Broadway in 2009 when Geoffrey rush took home Tony for best actor in a play and seems much lighter and funnier to me.) When I ran into Tresnjak at a Drama Desk reception held during the rehearsal period for the play, he admitted that he was finding the process very difficult. The Killer was appropriately named, he joked.

Apparently he solved the puzzle of how to make this play work, because the production, starring Michael Shannon (“Revolutionary Road,” “Boardwalk Empire”), Kristine Nielsen (Vanya, Sonia, Masha & Spike, Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson) Paul Sparks (also “Boardwalk Empire) and Robert Stanton (a veteran stage actor whom you might know as the dad in the “Dennis the Menace” film), has been packing them in over at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn and whether or not the audience “gets it,” they’re definitely talking about it.

At the center of The Killer is Berenger (Shannon), Ionesco’s “every man” (the character who also gets the starring role in different portrayals in Exit the King, A Stroll in the Air and perhaps the best known of all of Ionesco’s plays, The Rhinoceros.)

Here, a downtrodden Berenger takes the wrong bus one day and discovers a city of light – a virtual paradise—where everything is clean, the gardens are lush and the sun shines perpetually. Lighting Designer Matthew Richards shines as he adds to the storytelling with effects that cast shadow on the less-than-Eden-like features of the paradise, evidenced by sewer grates and a creepy lagoon that appears on the dark set with rotating circles designed by Suttirat Larlarb (who also designs the costumes).

The Architect of this place (a comically adroit Robert Stanton) looks a bit familiar. He omnisciently listens to Berenger while chatting on his cell phone (the updated translation of Ionesco’s play is by Michael Feingold) and running a bureaucratic office with the assistance of Dennie (Stephanie Bunch), with whom Berenger falls in love at first sight.

There is a problem in this paradise – there is a killer on the loose and he is drowning people in that lagoon after showing them a picture of a colonel. Berenger is aided in his search for the killer by a mysterious (and quite funny) friend, Edward (Paul Sparks)

Highlight of the second act (there are three in all for just over three hours at the theater) is the appearance of a whacky (but dark, remember, this is Ionesco) concierge played by Kristine Nielsen, a favorite stage actress of mine who can make pushing a broom around seem like the funniest thing you’ve ever seen. She doesn’t disappoint here. She also plays Ma Piper, a totalitarian dictator dominating a political climate where protestors are rounded up by the police.

Shannon also gets a shining moment in a long monologue climax where he confronts the killer and tries to convince him that his actions are wrong.

Now, if you are looking for some answers about what this play is all about, let me direct you to Spark Notes. This type of theater is called absurd for a reason. Besides telling you there is a metaphor here for Original Sin and the fall of man as well as some references to the Occupy movement thanks to Feingold’s modernization of the text, there is a lot open to interpretation.

Tresnjak doesn’t try to answer the questions about life and death and purpose that are raised here, but instead focuses on the humor that helps us to ponder them. Good choice. Humor provides a way to fit the pieces of the puzzle together and if you run down to New York to see this limited run before it ends on June 29, you just might see the jigsaw come into focus.

The Killer runs through June 29 at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place, between Lafayette Avenue and Fulton Street, Brooklyn. Performances: Tuesday through Sunday evenings at 7:30 with matinees Saturdays and Sundays at 2. http://www.tfana.org/season-2014/killer/overview.

Christians might also like to know:
-- Language
-- God's name taken in vain

Some of the Best Broadway Dads; What Names Would You Add to the Top Ten?

By Lauren Yarger
In honor of Father's Day, and my own father who introduced me to Broadway, here are a few of the best dad characters from Broadway shows. What name would you add to fill out this Top-Ten list?

Ramin Karimloo as Jean Valjean in the current Broadway Revival of Les Miserables. Photo: Matthew Murphy

1. Jean Valjean from Les Mis: Jean adopts Cosette when her mother, Fantine, dies, freeing her from the tyranny of the innkeepers who were charged with her care. He loves her as his own and risks his life to save Marius when he discovers that the young boy has won Cosette's heart.
2. Charlie Anderson from Shenandoah. Widower Charlie raises a brood of boys and a daughter and tries to keep his family out of the Civil War. His strong patriarchal presence is tempered with softness as he comforts his daughter, worried about her new husband's fate as a soldier and shoulder's a parent's worst nightmare when his youngest son is taken prisoner.
3. Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof. Putting his children first, no matter how difficult, he supports his daughters' desires to marry for love rather than tradition. He also conveys love for his wife.
4. Oliver Warbucks from Annie. The guy's got millions and FDR in his pocket and he is willing to share it all with a little orphan girl and her dog.
5. The Founding Fathers of the musical 1776. The Sherman Edwards musical still gives goosebumps when the roll is called at the end to form a new nation.
6. Father, from Life with Father, still Broadway's longest running play. The banker who runs his home like a drill sergeant masks a deep love for his wife and children.
7. Jack Crystal, the father of comedian Billy Crystal, immortalized in memories that form the one-man play 700 Sundays. His busy, jazz promoter dad always made time for his family. You can catch this show on HBO http://www.hbo.com/comedy/billy-crystal-700-sundays#/
8. Guy's father in Once. Moved by his son's musical talent, Da gives him the financial backing needed to pursue a career in the USA.

   

   Emily Weiner as Tiny Tim and Robert Hannon Davis as Bob Cratchit in Hartford Stage's A Christmas Carol. Photo: T. Charles Erickson

9. Bob Cratchit from A Christmas Carol. Whether we see this is play or musical form, Bob always takes Top Father honors as he puts up with Scrooge to provide for his struggling family. He never holds back showing his affection for his wife and children, especially when hoisting Tiny Tim up on his capable shoulders.
10. Which dad would you put in this slot?

Solo Production of Mark's Gospel Runs Through This Weekend

 George Drance. Photo courtesy of Magis Theatre Company

La Mama E.T.C., in association with the Magis Theatre Company’s Logos Project, presents *mark, performed by George Drance, directed by Luann Jennings, with original music composed by internationally acclaimed, award winning composer Elizabeth Swados.

*mark will be presented at La Mama’s First Floor Theatre, 74A East 4th Street (between Bowery & Second Avenue) in Manhattan through Sunday, June 15. Performances are Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 2:30 pm. 

The Gospel of Mark, the oldest of the four gospels, had an early tradition of being performed aloud from start to finish. Written during Nero’s brutal persecution of the followers of “the Way,” the Gospel of Mark was recited in its entirety, giving courage to this community of quiet rebels whose radical compassion threatened the Empire’s status quo. Today it is rare for an audience to hear this gospel performed in its totality, or to experience it with the immediacy of that dangerous period of oppression. In his contemporary solo performance, Magis Theatre Company’s Artistic Director George Drance examines the message of commitment and love through the eyes of a street artist, using drawings to illustrate and illuminate the text.

Magis Theatre Company, founded in 2003, is an ensemble of actors and teaching artists, who came together out of desire: desire to teach, desire to train, and desire to act. The company has produced a variety of actor driven, physically based theatre productions that explore the human condition. 

Drance, artist-in-residence at Fordham University, has performed and directed in more than countries on five continents. He has served as artistic director of Theatre YETU in Kenya and artistic associate for Teatro la Fragua in Honduras. Drance has been a guest artist and lecturer at Columbia, Cornell and Marquette University.

Jennings worked for a dozen years as a director, artistic director and arts educator in Atlanta. She is the founder and director of CAELA, a service organization for arts leaders of faith; and she founded and ran the arts ministry at Redeemer Presbyterian Church  in New York City

Perhaps best known for her Broadway and international show Runaways, Swados has composed, written, and directed issue-oriented theater for more than 30 years. Some of her works include the Obie Award winning Trilogy, at La Mama Alice at the Palace with Meryl Streep at the New York Shakespeare Theater Festival and Groundhog, which was optioned by Milos Forman for a film. Awards include: Five Tony nominations, three Obie Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Ford Grant, the Helen Hayes Award, a Lila Acheson Wallace Grant, PEN, and others.

Gentelman's Guide, All the Way Take Top Honors; Audra Makes History with 6th Award

The cast of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder with Bryce Pinkham as Monty Navarro (standing center), Jefferson Mays as Lord Adalbert D'Ysquith (red), and Jane Carr as Miss Shingle (seated) in a scene from "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder" at the Walter Kerr Theater. Photo credit: Joan Marcus.

2014 Tony Award Winners

Best Musical

*A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
After Midnight
Aladdin
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical

*Jessie Mueller, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Mary Bridget Davies, A Night with Janis Joplin
Sutton Foster, Violet
Idina Menzel, If/Then
Kelli O'Hara, The Bridges of Madison County

Best Revival of a Musical
*Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Les Misérables
Violet

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical
*Neil Patrick Harris, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Ramin Karimloo, Les Misérables
Andy Karl, Rocky
Jefferson Mays, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
Bryce Pinkham, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Best Revival of a Play
*A Raisin in the Sun
The Cripple of Inishmaan
The Glass Menagerie
Twelfth Night

Best Lighting Design of a Musical
*Kevin Adams, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Christopher Akerlind, Rocky
Howell Binkley, After Midnight
Donald Holder, The Bridges of Madison County

Best Lighting Design of a Play
*Natasha Katz, The Glass Menagerie
Paule Constable, The Cripple of Inishmaan
Jane Cox, Machinal
Japhy Weideman, Of Mice and Men

Best Play
*All The Way by Robert Schenkkan
Act One by James Lapine
Casa Valentina by Harvey Fierstein

Mothers and Sons ny Terrence McNally

Outside Mullingar by John Patrick Shanley

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play
*Bryan Cranston, All The Way
Samuel Barnett, Twelfth Night
Chris O'Dowd, Of Mice and Men
Mark Rylance, Richard III
Tony Shalhoub, Act One

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play
*Audra McDonald, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill
Tyne Daly, Mothers and Sons
LaTanya Richardson Jackson, A Raisin in the Sun
Cherry Jones, The Glass Menagerie
Estelle Parsons, The Velocity of Autumn

Best Costume Design of a Play
*Jenny Tiramani, Twelfth Night
Jane Greenwood, Act One
Michael Krass, Machinal
Rita Ryack, Casa Valentina

Best Costume Design of a Musical
*Linda Cho, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
William Ivey Long, Bullets Over Broadway
Arianne Phillips, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Isabel Toledo, After Midnight

Best Choreography
*Warren Carlyle, After Midnight
Steven Hoggett and Kelly Devine, Rocky
Casey Nicholaw, Aladdin
Susan Stroman, Bullets Over Broadway

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play
*Sophie Okonedo, A Raisin in the Sun
Sarah Greene, The Cripple of Inishmaan
Celia Keenan-Bolger, The Glass Menagerie
Anika Noni Rose, A Raisin in the Sun
Mare Winningham, Casa Valentina

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical
*James Monroe Iglehart, Aladdin
Danny Burstein, Cabaret
Nick Cordero, Bullets Over Broadway
Joshua Henry, Violet
Jarrod Spector, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

Best Direction of a Play
*Kenny Leon, A Raisin in the Sun
Tim Carroll, Twelfth Night
Michael Grandage, The Cripple of Inishmaan
John Tiffany, The Glass Menagerie

Best Direction of a Musical
*Darko Tresnjak, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
Warren Carlyle, After Midnight
Michael Mayer, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Leigh Silverman, Violet

Best Book of a Musical
*Robert L Freedman, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
Chad Beguelin, Aladdin
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Douglas McGrath
Bullets Over Broadway
Woody Allen

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical
*Lena Hall, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Linda Emond, Cabaret
Anika Larsen, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Adriane Lenox, After Midnight
Lauren Worsham, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play
*Mark Rylance, Twelfth Night
Reed Birney, Casa Valentina
Paul Chahidi, Twelfth Night
Stephen Fry, Twelfth Night
Brian J. Smith, The Glass Menagerie

Best Scenic Design of a Musical
*Christopher Barreca, Rocky
Julian Crouch, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Alexander Dodge, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
Santo Loquasto, Bullets Over Broadway

Best Scenic Design of a Play*Beowulf Boritt, Act One
Bob Crowley, The Glass Menagerie
Es Devlin, Machinal
Christopher Oram, The Cripple of Inishmaan

Best Orchestrations
*Jason Robert Brown, The Bridges of Madison County
Doug Besterman, Bullets Over Broadway
Steve Sidwell, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
Jonathan Tunick, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
*The Bridges of Madison County Music and Lyrics: Jason Robert Brown
Aladdin Music: Alan Menken/ Lyrics: Howard Ashman, Tim Rice and Chad Beguelin
A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder Music: Steven Lutvak/ Lyrics: Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak
If/Then Music: Tom Kitt/Lyrics: Brian Yorkey

Best Sound Design of a Play
*Steve Canyon Kennedy, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill
Alex Baranowski, The Cripple of Inishmaan
Dan Moses Schreier, Act One
Matt Tierney, Machinal

Best Sound Design of a Musical
*Brian Ronan, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical

Peter Hylenski, After Midnight
Tim O'Heir, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Mick Potter, Les Misérables