Drama Desk Awards: Patti LuPone to host

Patti LuPone, the 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 which will take place at 9pm on 23 May 2010 at the F.H. LaGuardia Concert Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City, it was announced by Robert R. Blume, Executive Producer of the annual Drama Desk Awards ceremony, and William Wolf, President of 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.

Patti LuPone swept the 2008 theater awards winning the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Actress in a Musical and Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance for her performance as 'Rose' in the critically acclaimed Broadway revival of the Stephen Sondheim-Arthur Laurents musical 'Gypsy.'

She also received a Tony Award as Best Actress in a Musical for her performances in 'Evita,' a Tony nomination as Best Actress in a Musical for 'Anything Goes,' an Outer Critics Circle Award for her one-woman show, 'Patti LuPone On Broadway,' and Olivier Awards as Best Actress in a Musical for her West End performances in 'Les Miserables' and 'The Cradle Will Rock.' She also created the role of 'Norma Desmond' in the West End production of 'Sunset Boulevard' (1993), for which she won an Olivier nomination, as Best Actress in A Musical.

The Drama Desk Awards nominations will be announced at a news conference at 9:30am on 4 May 2010 at the New York Friars Club, 57 East 55th Street.

Organized in 1949, the Drama Desk presented its first awards in 1955. The Drama Desk Awards are unique in that Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway shows and creative personnel compete in the same categories.

The Board of Directors of the Drama Desk is composed of William Wolf, President; Leslie (Hoban) Blake, Vice President; Charles Wright, Treasurer and 2nd Vice President; Richard Ridge, Secretary, Randy Gener, Isa Goldberg, Susan Haskins, John Istel, David Kaufman, Ellis Nassour and Sam Norkin.