The 69th Annual Drama Desk Awards, which recognize excellence in Broadway and off-Broadway theatre, were definitely the place to be at the NYU Skirball Center on LaGuardia Place in Manhattan, hosted by Debra Messing and Tituss Burgess. The winners for the evening included “Gypsy” for Outstanding Revival of a Musical; Audra McDonald for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical as Rose; “Purpose,” Brandon Jacob-Jenkins’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, as Outstanding Play; Kara Young as Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play for “Purpose”; Jasmine Amy Rogers tied with McDonald and also received the Drama Desk for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical for “BOOP!”; and Dede Ayite for Outstanding Costume Design of a Play for “Our Town.”
Acknowledging decades worth of work, Pregones/PRTT, a Latinx theater company that focuses on producing work on the Latinx experience in this country, received a Special Award. Lighting designer Stacey Derosier was also honored for her work on off-Broadway productions.
The evening began with Kara Young winning Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play for “Purpose.” Young appeared shocked at the podium as she exclaimed, “Oh, my God, life is so crazy. I am so grateful for this, thank you so much. I didn’t prepare anything. Brandon Jacob-Jenkins is here and I get the honor of doing his Pulitzer Prize ‘Purpose’ eight shows a week and I’m so grateful to be saying your words and stepping into your world every single night. I see you. I’m so grateful to Ms. Phylicia Rashad, who helps guide us with such grace. She’s such a masterful teacher. To this incredible cast that I get to do this with every night — Alana Arenas, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Jon Michael Hill, Glenn Davis, Harry Lennix — I’m so grateful to be in this company of giants. If you haven’t seen ‘Purpose’ and see it and lean in, lean all the way in. It is a haunting, beautiful, introspection into humanity.”
Backstage at the awards, Young sat down with the AmNews after receiving a hug of pride from me. She tearfully confided how she felt about this acknowledgment. “I’m overwhelmed from this. It’s so unexpected.”
When asked how the role spoke to her when she took it on, Young replied, “I just wanted to honor a young woman from Harlem who is unapologetically herself and has been taught to be a free Black child in the world. I look up to Aziza in the way that she has navigated her life and how she brings the magnitude of purpose in her life, which is to bring life into the world … I’m so thankful to Brandon, Ms. Rashad, and the company that I get to be with eight times a week.”
Jorge Merced, associate artistic director of Pregones/PRTT, spoke with the AmNews about receiving a Special Award for the company’s work. “The two companies [merged in] 2014. We do a lot of musicals, but we have done plays. We do original musicals by Latina writers. Any playwright you can think of with a Latina name has gone through our stage at some point. Some of our company members are in ‘Real Women Have Curves.’ It actually started out as a play that premiered on the Bronx stage in 1995 — it was part of a festival. It’s great to see the trajectory of the show,” Merced said.
By receiving this award and being acknowledged, Merced said, “I think our voices are part of the fabric of the American theater and now that the Drama Desk recognized that it’s that connection that we always felt we had. A lot of us have a lot of things to say. We want to have our voices heard. All of us are honored to receive this award and it honors that connection, that collaboration … Audiences select our theater because they know it’s a place they will feel safe. This is a place where I can question things about myself and go on a journey where at the end, you have a different take on how our community is dealing with a particular moment in history.”
George C. Wolfe, who directed “Gypsy,” spoke with the AmNews about this musical winning Outstanding Musical Revival. “It’s an extraordinary piece of writing, the whole thing is masterful,” he said. “It’s a great company, they are all so beautifully gifted and they work so well together, so that’s lovely. This is the third time I’ve worked with Audra and she is an incredible spirit and incredible human being.”
About the vision he had for the musical, Wolfe said, “Audra asked me if I would direct ‘Gypsy’ and so it became fun, exploring this time period and this subject matter, that you had the center an incredibly powerful amazing woman of color, a Black woman who was braver, tougher, smarter, and more brilliant than the times would allow her to be and that’s the story. I grew up around incredibly strong, brilliant women, so I wanted to celebrate that.”
Talking about the end of the musical, Wolfe said, “It’s a beautiful musical, but it’s also a tragedy because an exceptional person didn’t get to express who she was.”
Audra McDonald became emotional when she won Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical. Addressing the audience, she said, “Thank you to everybody at the Majestic Theatre, the incredible cast, my babies, my Herbie — it’s just been such a labor of love. Thank you to my husband, who has been holding it down and holds my hand and holds me down and holds me up when I don’t think I can make it. Thank you to sweet Sally, who hates her mother right now, ’cause I’m never home, but I love you, Sally. I want to thank my grandmother, my aunties. I want to thank everyone — every Black woman that has ever existed, I do this for you.”
Brian Stokes Mitchell felt great after receiving the William Wolfe Award. “It’s a beautiful award to get named after William Wolfe, someone who dedicated his life to the theater and to service as well, so I feel very happy. Norm Lewis sang and made them hear you beautifully, and I’m floating, I’m levitated.”
Jasmine Amy Rogers was glad to share her feelings with the AmNews about also winning Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical, tying with McDonald, for “BOOP! The Musical.” “It feels really special because I always dreamt of what I would do with my life and nothing ever felt as right as theater does — to step into it and have it click the way it does. You’re right — this is what you’re supposed to be doing. It feels magical and it just feels so affirmed in my dream that I’ve been chasing forever and working towards,” Rogers said. “Playing Betty brings me so much joy and makes me feel so alive because while she isn’t a human being, she reminds me a lot of myself, her lust for life, her joy, and she is tuned to life the way I hope to live mine, leading with love and excitement. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it’s also the easiest thing I’ve ever done … Winning this was incredible, but to have won it alongside Audra was the most amazing thing I ever could have. I am over the moon.”
Considering the BOOP characters, she said, “A lot of the silly bits of Betty are the silly quirks of Jasmine.”
Jacob-Jenkins stopped to speak with the AmNews about “Purpose,” his deep, funny, timely play. “”I wanted to write about Black families. I did a lot of research and read biographies and decided the story I wanted to tell,” he said. “There are so many things about our families that are just universal. I love family dramas — they are the American pastime. For me, it is easy to be inspired by these actors; these are my top-tier actors. In so many ways, we became a family in the company. I feel like there’s so much territory to be mapped about American family life and what it looks like, and I tried to make my small contribution. I’m just so touched that audiences are responding … the audiences have been incredibly supportive and affirming.” Other Drama Desk Award winners can be found at DramaDeskAward.com. Hope to see you there next year!