PATTI LuPONE Will HOST OUR 55TH ANNUAL DRAMA DESK AWARDS CEREMONY

Patti LuPone, winner of three Drama Desk Awards as Outstanding Actress in A Musical for her performances in Evita (1980), Anything Goes (1988) and Gypsy (2008), will host this year’s 55th annual Drama Desk Awards ceremony on Sunday, May 23 from the stage of the LaGuardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center.

The Nominations Ceremony will take place at a news conference at the New York Friars Club, 57 E. 55th St., on Monday, May 3 at 9:30 a.m. A continental breakfast will be served at 8:45 a.m. Once those nominations are announced, it’s as if a starter pistol has gone off for all of us voters. We pounce on the phone and start calling the press agents, trying to fit in the nominated shows we haven’t seen yet among all the shows opening during the craziness of awards season.

The Drama Desk, an organization of theater critics, writers and editors that honors excellence in all areas of New York theatre, including Broadway, Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway and not-for-profit theater, was organized in 1949. The organization presented its first awards in 1955.