Nominations are in for the 35th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards

This year marks the 35^th anniversary of the Lucille Lortel Awards, founded by the eponymous actress and producer in 1986, to recognize excellence in New York’s Off-Broadway theater. Nominations for the 2020 awards were announced today, with a virtual presentation scheduled for Sunday, May 3, 7 pm, when the winners will be named and the Off-Broadway community celebrated.

Leading with seven nominations this season is Playwrights Horizons’ production of A Strange Loop, with book, music, and lyrics by Michael R. Jackson. It is followed by Heroes of the Fourth Turning and In The Green, both with six; for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, Octet, and Soft Power with five each; and Is This a Room, Little Shop of Horrors, and Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie, each with a total of four nominations.

Along with the nominees in nineteen categories for productions, direction, choreography, acting, and design, two honorary awards recipients have been named. The Lifetime Achievement Award will go to Tim Sanford, Artistic Director of Playwrights Horizons since January 1996, and Anna Deavere Smith will be honored as the Playwrights’ Sidewalk Inductee, with her name on a bronze star, embedded in black concrete in front of the Lucille Lortel Theatre on Christopher Street in the West Village.

The full list of 2020 Lucille Lortel Awards nominations is as follows:

Outstanding Play: BLKS (produced by MCC Theater; written by Aziza Barnes); Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven (produced by Atlantic Theater Company; written by Stephen Adly Guirgis); Heroes of the Fourth Turning (produced by Playwrights Horizons; written by Will Arbery); Is This A Room (produced by Vineyard Theatre; conceived by Tina Satter; Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie (produced by Ars Nova; created by The Mad Ones and Phillip James Brannon, Brad Heberlee, Carmen M. Herlihy, and January LaVoy);

Outstanding Musical: A Strange Loop (produced by Playwrights Horizons in association with Page 73 Productions; book, music, and lyrics by Michael R. Jackson); In The Green (produced by Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3; book, music, and lyrics by Grace McLean); Octet (produced by Signature Theatre; book, music, and lyrics by Dave Malloy); Soft Power (produced by The Public Theater and Center Theatre Group; play and lyrics by David Henry Hwang, music and additional lyrics by Jeanine Tesori); The Secret Life of Bees (produced by Atlantic Theater Company; book by Lynn Nottage, music by Duncan Sheik, lyrics by Susan Birkenhead; based on the novel by Sue Monk Kidd);

Outstanding Revival: A Bright Room Called Day (produced by The Public Theater; written by Tony Kushner); Fires in the Mirror (produced by Signature Theatre; written by Anna Deavere Smith; performed by Michael Benjamin Washington); for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf (produced by The Public Theater; written by Ntozake Shange); Little Shop of Horrors (produced by Tom Kirdahy, Robert Ahrens, Hunter Arnold, Mickey Liddell, Caiola Productions, Curt Cronin, John Joseph, DDM Productions, DeSantis-Baugh Productions, Elizabeth Dewberry & Ali Ahmet Kocabiyik, Wendy Federman, Roy Furman, Deborah Gree, Kayla Greenspan, Marguerite Hoffman, Sally Cade Holmes, Latitude Link, Seriff Productions, Silva Theatrical Group, and Eric Gelb/Oliver Roth; book and lyrics by Howard Ashman, music by Alan Menken); MAC BETH (produced by Red Bull Theater; written by William Shakespeare, adapted by Erica Schimdt);

Outstanding Solo Show: Bella Bella (produced by Manhattan Theatre Club; written and performed by Harvey Fierstein); Dana H. (produced by Vineyard Theatre, Goodman Theatre, and Center Theatre Group; written by Lucas Hnath; performed by Deirdre O’Connell); the way she spoke (produced by Audible; written by Isaac Gomez; performed by Kate del Castillo); We’re Only Alive for A Short Amount of Time (produced by The Public Theatre and Goodman Theatre; written and performed by David Cale; lyrics by David Cale, music by David Cale and Matthew Dean Marsh); Where We Stand (produced by WP Theater in association with Baltimore Center Stage; written and performed by Donnetta Lavinia Grays);

Outstanding Director: Stephen Brackett, A Strange Loop; Tina Satter, Is This a Room; Danya Taymor, Heroes of the Fourth Turning; Annie Tippe, Octet; Les Waters, Dana H.;

Outstanding Choreographer: Camille A. Brown, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf; Camille A. Brown, Toni Stone; Raja Feather Kelly, A Strange Loop; Sam Pinkleton, Soft Power; Travis Wall, The Wrong Man;

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play: Charles Busch, The Confession of Lily Dare; Edmund Donovan, Greater Clements; Raúl Esparza, Seared; Hamish Linklater, The Pain of My Belligerence; Aaron Yoo, The Headlands;

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Play: Liza Colón-Zayas, Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven; Emily Davis, Is This a Room; April Matthis, Toni Stone; Zoë Winters, Heroes of the Fourth Turning; Kara Young, All the Natalie Portmans;

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play: Christopher Borg, The Confession of Lily Dare; Marc Borvino, Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie; Garcia, Continuity; Francis Jue, Cambodian Rock Band; Ken Narasaki, Greater Clements;

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play: Okwui Okpokwasili, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf; Estelle Parsons, A Bright Room Called Day; Michele Pawk, Heroes of the Fourth Turning; Stephanie Wright Thompson, Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie; Alexandria Wailes, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf;

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical: Jonathan Groff, Little Shop of Horrors; Joshua Henry, The Wrong Man; Francis Jue, Soft Power; Larry Owens, A Strange Loop; Conrad Ricamora, Soft Power;

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical: Eisa Davis, The Secret Life of Bees; LaChanze, The Secret Life of Bees; Beth Malone, The Unsinkable Molly Brown; Janelle McDermoth, We’re Gonna Die; Grace McLean, In The Green;

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical: Christian Borle, Little Shop of Horrors; Alex Gibson, Octet; Gus Halper, Sing Street; Jay Armstrong Johnson, Scotland, PA; John-Andrew Morrison, A Strange Loop;

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical: Ashley Pérez Flanagan, In The Green; Ari Groover, Little Shop of Horrors; L Morgan Lee, A Strange Loop; Ciara Renée, The Wrong Man; Kuhoo Verma, Octet;

Outstanding Scenic Design: You-Shin Chen and Laura Jellinek, Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie; Yu-Hsuan Chen, Our Dear Dead Drug Lord; Tim Mackabee, Seared; James Noone, London Assurance ; Clint Ramos, Soft Power;

Outstanding Costume Design: Dede Ayite, BLKS; Montana Levi Blanco, A Strange Loop; Oana Botez, In The Green; Toni-Leslie James, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf; Rachel Townsend and Jessica Jahn, The Confession of Lily Dare;

Outstanding Lighting Design: Isabella Byrd, Heroes of the Fourth Turning; Alan C. Edwards, Fires in the Mirror; Tyler Micoleau, Socrates; Barbara Samuels, In The Green; Jen Schriever, Power Strip;

Outstanding Sound Design: Justin Ellington, Heroes of the Fourth Turning; Mikhail Fiksel, Dana H.; Lee Kinney and Sanae Yamada, Is This a Room; Hidenori Nakajo, Octet; Nicholas Pope, In The Green;

Outstanding Projection Design: Stephan Mazurek, Mojada; Lisa Renkel and Possible, Emojiland the Musical; Ruey Horng Sun, The Headlands; Hannah Wasileski, Anatomy of a Suicide; Hannah Wasileski, Fires in the Mirror.

The Lucille Lortel Awards are produced by the League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers by special arrangement with the Lucille Lortel Foundation, with additional support from the Theatre Development Fund.