What's in a nom?

• The Drama League nominations are now out, with Coast of Utopia up for Distinguished Production of a Play. Utopian blokes Brian F. O'Byrne, Ethan Hawke and Billy Crudup are also nominated for Distinguished Performance. The awards will be announced on May 11th.


• The Drama Desk nominations are up too, with Utopia scoring TEN nominations. Sadly, no love for Jennifer Ehle there. Here are the categories, lifted from the LCT's news page:
  
  
  • Outstanding Play
  • Outstanding Director of a Play (Jack O'Brien)
  • Outstanding Actor in a Play (Brian F. O'Byrne)
  • Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (Billy Crudup)
  • Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (Martha Plimpton)
  • Outstanding Set Design (Bob Crowley and Scott Pask)
  • Outstanding Lighting Design (Brian MacDevitt, Kenneth Posner, Natasha Katz)
  • Outstanding Costume Design (Catherine Zuber)
  • Outstanding Music for a Play (Mark Bennett)
  • Outstanding Sound Design (Mark Bennett)
  
  Congrats everyone nominated so far! Get your diaries out, awards recap:
  

• Drama League: May 11th
• Outer Critics Circle: May 14th
• Tony nominations: May 15th
• Drama Desk: May 20th
• Tony awards: June 10th

BroadwayWorld discusses the awards: Outer Critics and Drama Desks. Same at All That Chat.

• Also congrats to Utopia for being the top fundraising Broadway Play for Broadway Cares.


• There's a new post at the LCT's Utopia backstage blog about some of the above, as well as where the Utopians are headed after the show closes.


• Elsewhere in blogland, a glowing review of Shipwreck at Laughing Wild with much praise for the cast and production.
  

  [...] Jack O'Brien's direction leaves me speechless - he HAS to be a lock for every award that's coming up. The way he's masterfully taken this epic, sprawling work, this tremendous ensemble and this grade-A design team and turned it into something that stays true to its spirit, yes has a grand, riveting, almost cinematic in its epic-ness sweep to it stuns me. Everyone studying theatre should experience this production. [...]

  She also posts a discount code that lets you get Voyage seats for $55. Chad Jones of Theatre Dogs notes some of the show's iconic images:

  [...] Walking out of the theater after Shipwreck (when I ran into former San Francisco playwright Adam Bock – New York is such a small town), I could tell you I saw actors Jennifer Ehle, Brian F. O’Byrne, Jason Butler Harner, Ethan Hawke and Amy Irving do some interesting things, but they sort of all ran together in a mish-mash of Russians expounding on philosophical, romantic and political themes. But I won’t soon forget the images by Crowley (working here with Scott Pask): a stunning, forced-perspective view down the Champs d’Elysees; a demolished post-riot white marble statue; a gaudy chandelier and a man sitting deep in thought in the middle of a raging sea. [...]

  There's more love for Utopia at Metaplasmus, and another marathon fan report from Tess up at the forum.


• Word from EhleNews is that the Alpha Male DVD is due May 1st, presumably in the US. Can't find confirmation of this elsewhere. It has already been released in the UK, Greece and Poland (the Polish title is Skrywane namietnosci), according to IMDB.


• Check out our video bar over yonder on the right- they're Coast of Utopia clips from YouTube. Plus note that in the "What did you think of Utopia" poll, the coding is messed up so that votes for "haven't seen it yet" are read as 1 star. My bad.


• We haven't been following Spider-Man 3 here because of Utopia immersion, but there is plenty of news and press about it lately. Rosemary Harris has been doing the publicity rounds in the UK, Japan and Europe. Have a squiz at the official movie blog featuring a video of her saying she's sad she didn't get the chance to fly in this movie!