Will Roland & George Salazar in Be More Chill and Heidi Schreck in What the Constitution Means to Me

Nominations for The 34th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards announced

The nominees include the hit musical Be More Chill and Heidi Schreck's What the Constitution Means to Me, both now running on Broadway.

Tom Millward
Tom Millward

Today the Off-Broadway League revealed the nominations for The 34th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards for outstanding achievement Off-Broadway. The nominations were announced by Broadway favorites Rebecca Naomi Jones (who is currently starring as Laurey Williams in the Broadway revival of Oklahoma!) and Gideon Glick (currently starring as Dill Harris in To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway).

As previously announced, the winners of the 2019 Lucille Lortel Awards will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on Sunday, May 5, 2019 at NYU Skirball Center.

It was also revealed that the host of this year's ceremony will be multiple Emmy Award winner Wayne Brady, who was last seen on the New York stage as Lola in the Broadway production of Kinky Boots.

Leading the nominations this year with six nods each are the Classic Stage Company revival of Carmen Jones and the Ars Nova production of Rags Parkland Sings The Songs Of The Future, also receiving nominations for "Outstanding Revival" and "Outstanding Musical," respectively.

The following Special Awards, as previously reported, will also be presented at this year's ceremony:

Edith Oliver Service to Off-Broadway Award: Off-Broadway League President Terry Byrne

Outstanding Body of Work AwardTelsey + Company

Playwrights' Sidewalk InducteeMaría Irene Fornés​ (who will be inducted posthumously)​

A Special Award for Outstanding Alternative Theatrical Experience was also newly announced and will go to On Beckett (at Irish Repertory Theatre), exploring the works of Samuel Beckett, conceived by Bill Irwin.


The 2019 nominations by category are:

Outstanding Play

Mlima's Tale (at the Public Theater) - written by Lynn Nottage

Pass Over (at Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3) - written by Antoinette Nwandu

Slave Play (at New York Theatre Workshop) - written by Jeremy O. Harris

Sugar In Our Wounds (at Manhattan Theatre Club) - written by Donja R. Love

What the Constitution Means to Me (at New York Theatre Workshop) - written by Heidi Schreck


Outstanding Musical

Be More Chill (at Pershing Square Signature Center) - Music & Lyrics by Joe Iconis, Book by Joe Tracz 

Girl from the North Country (at the Public Theater) - Book by Conor McPherson, Music & Lyrics by Bob Dylan

Midnight at The Never Get (at York Theatre Company) - Book, Music & Lyrics by Mark Sonnenblick, Co-Conceived by Sam Bolen

Miss You Like Hell (at the Public Theater) - Book & Lyrics by Quiara Alegría Hudes, Music & Lyrics by Erin McKeown

Rags Parkland Sings The Songs Of The Future (at Ars Nova) - written by Andrew R. Butler


Outstanding Revival

Carmen Jones (at Classic Stage Company) - Book & Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, with Music by Georges Bizet

Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine (at Signature Theatre) - written by Lynn Nottage

Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish (by National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene) - Book by Joseph Stein, Music by Jerry Bock, Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, Translation by Shraga Friedman

Happy Birthday, Wanda June (by Wheelhouse Theater Company) - written by Kurt Vonnegut

The Shadow of a Gunman (at Irish Repertory Theatre) - written by Sean O'Casey


Outstanding Solo Show

Feeding the Dragon (at Primary Stages) - written and performed by Sharon Washington

Fleabag (at Soho Playhouse) - written and performed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Girls & Boys (at Minetta Lane Theatre) - written by Dennis Kelly and performed by Carey Mulligan

Mike Birbiglia's The New One (at Cherry Lane Theatre) - written and performed by Mike Birbiglia, additional writing by Jennifer Hope Stein

My Life On a Diet (at the Theatre at St. Clement's) - written by Renée Taylor and Joseph Bologna and performed by Renée Taylor


Outstanding Director

Lileana Blain-Cruz, Marys Seacole

Jo Bonney, Mlima's Tale

John Doyle, Carmen Jones

Lee Sunday Evans, Dance Nation

Joel Grey, Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish


Outstanding Choreographer

Lee Sunday Evans, Dance Nation

Raja Feather Kelly, If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka

Rick and Jeff Kuperman, Alice By Heart

Lorin Latarro, Merrily We Roll Along

Susan Stroman, The Beast in the Jungle


Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play

Juan Castano, Transfers

Russell Harvard, I Was Most Alive with You

Jon Michael Hill, Pass Over

Sahr Ngaujah, Mlima's Tale

Tom Sturridge, Sea Wall/A Life


Outstanding Lead Actress in a play

Ako, God Said This

Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Marys Seacole

Marin Ireland, Blue Ridge

Zainab Jah, Boesman and Lena

Charlayne Woodard, "Daddy"


Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical

Sam Bolen, Midnight at The Never Get

Andrew R. Butler, Rags Parkland Sings The Songs Of The Future

Jeremy Cohen, Midnight at The Never Get

Clifton Duncan, Carmen Jones

Steven Skybell, Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish


Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical

Kate Baldwin, Superhero

Gizel Jiménez, Miss You Like Hell

Anika Noni Rose, Carmen Jones

Stacey Sargeant, Rags Parkland Sings The Songs Of The Future

   Mare Winningham, Girl from the North Country


Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play

Ato Blankson-Wood, Slave Play

Marchánt Davis, Ain't No Mo'

Gabriel Ebert, Pass Over

John Procaccino, Downstairs

Matt Walker, The Play That Goes Wrong


Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play

Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Our Lady of 121st Street

Stephanie Berry, Sugar In Our Wounds

Blair Brown, Mary Page Marlowe

Crystal Lucas-Perry, Ain't No Mo'

Danielle Skraastad, Hurricane Diane


Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical

John Edwards, Smokey Joe's Cafe: The Songs of Leiber & Stoller

Sydney James Harcourt, Girl from the North Country

Bryce Pinkham, Superhero

George Salazar, Be More Chill

Heath Saunders, Alice By Heart


Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical

Jackie HoffmanFiddler on the Roof in Yiddish

Stephanie Hsu, Be More Chill

Luba Mason, Girl from the North Country

Soara-Joye Ross, Carmen Jones

Alysha Umphress, Smokey Joe's Cafe: The Songs of Leiber & Stoller


Outstanding Scenic Design

Wilson Chin, Pass Over

Charlie Corcoran, The Shadow of a Gunman

Nigel Hook, The Play That Goes Wrong

Laura Jellinek, Rags Parkland Sings The Songs Of The Future

   Arnulfo Maldonado, Sugar In Our Wounds


Outstanding Costume Design

Dede Ayite, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark

Montana Levi Blanco, The House That Will Not Stand

Jennifer Moeller, Mlima's Tale

Kaye Voyce, Marys Seacole

Paloma Young, Alice By Heart


Outstanding Lighting Design

Amith Chandrashaker, Boesman and Lena

Lap Chi Chu, Mlima's Tale

Bradley King, Apologia

Barbara Samuels, Rags Parkland Sings The Songs Of The Future

Yi Zhao, The House That Will Not Stand


Outstanding Sound Design

Matt Hubbs, Boesman and Lena

Dan Moses Schreier, Carmen Jones

Jane Shaw, I Was Most Alive with You

Mikaal Sulaiman, Rags Parkland Sings The Songs Of The Future

   Isobel Waller-Bridge, Fleabag


Outstanding Projection Design

Katherine Freer, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark

Luke Halls, Girls & Boys

Alex Basco Koch, Be More Chill

Alex Basco Koch, Fireflies

Tal Yarden, Superhero


The 2019 Lucille Lortel Awards voting committee is appointed by the League of Off-Broadway Theatres & Producers, the Lucille Lortel Foundation, Actors' Equity Association, the Society of Stage Directors & Choreographers, and the Lucille Lortel Foundation, and includes theatre journalists, academics and other Off-Broadway professionals.

Awarded since 1986, the Lucille Lortel Awards are produced by the League by special arrangement with the Lucille Lortel Foundation.

(Be More Chill photo by Maria Baranova / What the Constitution Means to Me photo by Joan Marcus)

Originally published on

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