The Playgoer: NY Drama Critics Circle

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Wednesday, May 06, 2009

NY Drama Critics Circle

Sure it's just another award. But the fun of the NY Drama Critics Circle is they actually publish who voted for what, on all the different ballots, no less.

I suppose this is the only awards show where Wooster Group's La Didone gets some nominations for Best Musical!

And who knew John Simon had a soft spot for Neil LaBute?

But disappointing to me is reading how the amazing Blasted got squeezed out by technicalities for Best Foreign Play by the much inferior pseudo-political patchwork piece Blackwatch:

Blasted received the most votes, with seven, while National Theatre of Scotland's Black Watch—a holdover from last year—received five. A second vote was then taken to determine whether an award would be given at all. Having agreed that one should, the Circle moved to a weighted third ballot, which Black Watch squeaked out a victory with 30 points, versus 27 each for Blasted and God of Carnage.

3 comments:

Playgoer said...

But hey, I certainly give them credit on transparency!

Theater of Ideas said...

John Simon, a critic known for an acerbic wit that often crosses the line into the outright unpleasant and who laces his reviews with shockingly sexist comments about women's looks has a soft spot for LaBute? Who woulda thunk it...

Playgoer said...

Here's a postscript for you Th. of Ideas: The May/June '09 issue of "The Dramatist" (magazine of Dramatists Guild) features a cozy interview between LaBute and Simon, thick as thieves.