The Week in Review

Tony Nominations Announced: This year's Tony nominations offer plenty of horse races in the design categories. For best scenic design of a play, John Lee Beatty's multi-set recreation of the '30s New York The Nance competes with Santo Loquasto's depiction of the many rooms of an Upper West Side apartment in The Assembled Parties; David Rockwell's constantly changing newsroom environment for Lucky Guy, and Michael Yeargan's portrait of Depression-era New York as a skyscraper jungle in Golden Boy. In the category of scenic design for a musical, Rob Howell's explosion of Scrabble tiles for Matilda is up against Anna Louzios' music hall setting, equipped with plenty of gorgeous painted drops for The Mystery of Edwin Drood; Scott Pask's circus tent for Pippin; and David Rockwell's factory environment in Kinky Boots.

For costume design of a play, Soutra Gilmour's grittily take realistic on 17th-century wear for Cyrano de Bergerac competes with Ann Roth's seedily amusing burlesque costumes for The Nance, Albert Wolsky's plush and detailed 19th-century clothing for The Heiress, and Catherine Zuber's sleekly tailored suits in Golden Boy. In the category of costume design for a musical, it's hard to beat drag queens, so Gregg Barnes' work on Kinky Boots may be hard to beat, but don't rule out Rob Howell's transformation of the actor Bertie Carvel into Miss Trenchbull in Matilda, Dominque Lemieux's stunningly detailed work in Pippin; or William Ivey Long's stunning a vista transformation in Cinderella.

The lighting design for a play category pits four old favorites against a relative newcomer. Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer's work on Lucky Guy helps keep that show moving at a rapid clip, but there are also fine contributions from Donald Holder's stunningly theatrical work on Golden Boy and Jennifer Tipton's seamless, beautifully modulated contribution to The Testament of Mary. Will they all lose to Japhy Weideman's purposely tacky burlesque house lighting as well his more subtle work for the offstage scenes of The Nance? In the category of lighting design for a musical, Kenneth Posner enters the record books, garnering three of the four nominations, for Kinky Boots, Pippin, and Cinderella. His only competition is Hugh Vanstone, for Matlida.

The nominees for sound design of a play are John Gromada, combining his own compositions with early '50s pop music and special effects in The Trip to Bountiful; Mel Mercier's soundscape for The Testament of Mary, Leon Rothenberg's handling of the play with music that is The Nance, and Peter John Still and Marc Salzberg, who created the offstage aura of the boxing ring in Golden Boy. In the category of sound design for a musical, the nominees are Jonathan Deans and Garth Helm, for the Cirque du Soleil atmosphere of Pippin; Peter Hylenski, for reproducing that Motown sound in Motown; John Shivers, for helping to the shape the sound of Cindy Lauper's first Broadway musical, and Nevin Steinberg's transparent work on Cinderella. For the full list, go to http://plasa.me/9zi0v.

Drama Desk Nominations Announced: Meanwhile, the Drama Desk Awards nominations, which mix Broadway with Off and Off Off Broadway were announced, making for some very different, and equally interesting, competitions. The outstanding set design category mixes plays and musicals, so Rob Howell's design for Matilda, Santo Loaquasto's work on The Assembled Parties, Anna Louizos for The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and Michael Yeargan for Golden Boy are up against Mimi Lien's depiction of a dummy Denver apartment in The Whale and David Zinn's astonishingly realistic recreation of a seedy movie house for The Flick.

In the costume design category, Dominique Lemieux with Pippin and William Ivey Long for Cinderella, are pitted against Amy Clark and Martin Pakledinaz's all black-and-white work for Chaplin; Loren Shaw's merger of 18th- and 21st-century fashions for Restoration Comedy; Paloma Young's similarly contemporary take on 19th-century Russian wear for Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, and Chris March's work on something called The Butt-Cracker Suite: A Trailer Park Ballet.

Kenneth Posner scored only one nomination in the lighting design category; the others include Ken Billington's feat of lighting all black-and-white sets and costumes for Chaplin; Jane Cox's beautifully rendered tableaux in Passion; Justin Townsend's disco extravaganza for Here Lies Love; Daniel Winters' work on The Man Who Laughs, and Scott Zielinski's cinematic approach to A Civil War Christmas.

The Drama Desk is now awarding projection design, and the nominees are Jon Driscoll, for his recreations of silent film in Chaplin; Wendall K. Harrington's gag-filled work on Old Hats; Peter Nigrini's explosion of imagery in Here Lives Love; Darrel Maloney's recreation of a key moment in Richard Nixon's career in Checkers; Pedro Pires virtuosic work on Cirque du Soleil's Totem, and Aaron Rhyne's scene-setting contributions to the comedy Wild With Happy.

The nominees for sound design of a musical include Steve Canyon Kennedy for the luckless but much nominated Hands on a Hardbody; Scott Lehrer and Drew Levy for Chaplin: The Musical; Tony Meola for The Mystery of Edwin Drood; Brian Ronan, twice nominated, for Bring It On and Giant; and Dan Moses Schreier for Passion. And for sound design of a play, the nominees are Ien DeNio, for The Pilo Family Circus; Steve Fontaine, for Last Man Club; Christian Frederickson, for Through the Yellow Hour; Lindsay Jones, for Wild With Happy; Mel Mercier, for The Testament of Mary, Fergus O'Hare, for Macbeth. For the rest of the nominations, go to http://plasa.me/yy89o,

TEC Foundation Joins NAMM: In an interesting twist, The TEC Foundation for Excellence in Audio formally entered into an agreement to become part of NAMM. Most of all, this means the NAMM Foundation will present the annual TEC Awards event starting in 2014. This looks like a logical alliance, and it should do good things for both NAMM and the TEC Awards. In addition to the TEC Awards, the NAMM Foundation will oversee TEC Foundation activities including the Les Paul Award and other philanthropic activities designed to support and grow the pro audio, live sound, and recording world.

R.I.P. Roy Miller: Broadway producer Roy Miller died last week at the age of 52. His credits included The Drowsy Chaperone, A Christmas Story, the recent revivals of West Side Story and Ragtime, and such hard-to-describe novelties as [title of show] and The Pee-Wee Herman Show. Among these credits, he was the driving force behind The Drowsy Chaperone, a high-concept entertainment that was far from an easy sell to investors. Miller also spent 14 years as associate producer at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse and was a panelist for the ASCAPT Foundation Musical Theatre Workshop. His family and friends have requested that donations in his memory be made to The Actors Fun, 729 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10009. (www.actorsfund.org).