Outer Critics Circle Announce 2012 - 2013 Season Nominees

	Kinky Boots was nominated for nine awards. Stark Sands, Annaleigh Ashford, Billy Porter. Photo: Matthew Murphy

Outer Critics Circle, the organization of writers and commentators covering New York theatre for media beyond Broadway, recently announced its nominees for the 2012 -2013 season in 24 categories. Broadway stars Robert Cuccioli and Laila Robins made the announcement during a ceremony at Manhattan's Friars Club.

Outstanding Lighting Design nominations went to Ken Billington for Chaplin: The Musical; Paul Gallo for Dogfight; Donald Holder for Golden Boy; Kenneth Posner for Cinderella; and Kenneth Posner for Pippin.

The nominees for Outstanding Set Design are John Lee Beatty for The Nance; Rob Howell for Matilda the Musical; David Korins for Here Lies Love; Scott Pask for Pippin; and Michael Yeargan for Golden Boy.

Nominations for Outstanding Costume Design went Amy Clark and Martin Pakledinaz for Chaplin: The Musical; Gregg Barnes for Kinky Boots; Dominique Lemieux for Pippin; William Ivey Long for Cinderella; and William Ivey Long for The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

The John Gassner Award for American playwrights will go to either Ayad Akhtar for Disgraced; Paul Downs Colaizzo for Really Really; Joshua Harmon for Bad Jews; Samuel D. Hunter for The Whale; or Aaron Posner for My Name is Asher Lev.

Pippin was nominated for 11 awards; Kinky Boots was nominated for nine awards; Chaplin: The Musical and Cinderella were nominated for eight awards; Golden Boy and The Nance were nominated for six awards, while Dogfight and Matilda the Musical were nominated for five. Here Lies Love, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Trip to Bountiful, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? were nominated for four awards. Bad Jews, Hands on a Hardbody, and The Whale were nominated for three awards. For the full list of nominations, see the URL below.

Robbins and Cuccioli also announced that a Special Achievement Award will be given to Irish Repertory Theatre (Charlotte Moore, artistic director and Ciarán O'Reilly, producing director) in recognition of 25 years of producing outstanding theatre.

The Outer Critics Circle is an association with members affiliated with more than 90 newspapers, magazines, websites, radio and television stations, and theatre publications. Award winners will be announced on Monday, May 13, and the annual awards ceremony will be held at 4pm on Thursday, May 23 at Sardi's Restaurant.