Awards season overdose

Awards season is almost over. And while I'm grateful for the attention being paid to worthy artists, I'll be more thankful that I won't have to sit through these award ceremonies for another year.

LORTELS - Personally, I think these awards are great. There is a true camraderie amongst the off-Broadway theatre community, especially the non-profits. The artists honored are almost always very worthy of their nominations and there seem to be less politics involved in deciding them than the other awards. The nominators take their duties really seriously and I find that when their list comes out, I rarely disagree with their choices.

DRAMA DESK - A big party, this year's ceremony felt more excruciating than usual, mostly thanks to Kristin Chenowith going on and on. It's fun to see the off-Broadway artists mingled in with the Broadway ones, but in most cases, the powerhouse shows always win, so it's not much of a competition.

OBIES - The OBIES used to be fun. At the old location at Webster Hall, the bar was kept open so it felt like a big irreverent party all night. Now in a nicer space, NYU's Skirball Center, the ceremony feels a bit boring and like every other awards show. I do love the fact that they don't announce categories and that they can make up categories at whim. It's also great to see all the smaller theatre companies getting some attention. I don't miss sitting on a folding chair but it would be nice to keep the party going, especially as this year, the ceremony went on for 2 hours and 40 minutes, a very long time to be sitting through a program without an intermission. Some of their choices seemed odd to me - I like Michael Friedman's music just fine, but he's quite young and has yet to have a really big triumph in his career so the "sustained excellence" OBIE seemed strange. Seating this year was general admission and that didn't work well. Finding seats took forever and I'm not sure what the point of that was, except to be controversial and "downtown."

OUTER CRITICS - They don't even do a proper ceremony - they just have dinner with the pre-announced winners at Sardi's, presumably for their members to hobnob with stars. I'm going as the guest of a member. It's my first time going to this, so I'll report back after tomorrow. Looking at lists of past winners, it seems like they always give awards to the biggest stars they can. This year, they are giving a special award to Angela Lansbury even though the show asked not to be considered for awards.

I was reading about the Boston area awards and they seem to have an interesting system. They give awards at three levels - for large, mid-size and small companies. What a concept! If the Drama Desk and Outer Critics had such a system, the set designer for a big Broadway show wouldn't be pitted against the one who designs for a 99 seat house. It also allows for more winners and spreads the wealth a lot more.