Drama Desk Awards (1999 New York)
Sponsor and online marketing for the 50th Anniversary of the Drama Desk Awards at the LaGuardia High School of the Arts (the Fame School) in New York on May 9, 1999.
The Drama Desk organization was formed in 1949 by a group of New York theater critics, editors, reporters and publishers, in order to make the public aware of the vital issues concerning the theatrical industry. They debuted the presentations of the Vernon Rice Awards in 1955.
The name honors the New York Post critic Vernon Rice, who had pioneered Off-Broadway coverage in the New York press.
The name was changed for the 1963–1964 awards season to the Drama Desk Awards. Broadway productions were included beginning with the 1968–69 award season. The awards are considered a significant American theater distinction.
The Drama Desk has more than 100 members, including theatre critics, reporters and editors who cover New York theater and vote on the awards.
The 1999 Drama Desk Awards recipients:
| Outstanding Play | Wit |
| Outstanding Musical | Parade |
| Outstanding Musical Revival | Your a Good Man, Charlie Brown |
| Outstanding Play Revival | Death of a Salesman and The Iceman Cometh |
| Outstanding One-Person Show | David Hare, Via Dolorosa |
| Best Actor in a Play | Brian Dennehy, Death of a Salesman |
| Best Actress in a Play | Kathleen Chalfant, Wit |
| Best Featured Actor in a Play | Kevin Anderson, Death of a Salesman |
| Best Featured Actress in a Play | Anna Friel, Closer |
| Best Actor in a Musical | Brent Carver, Parade |
| Best Actress in a Musical (tie) | Carolee Carmello, Parade and Bernadette Peters, Annie Get Your Gun |
| Best Featured Actor in a Musical | Roger Bart, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown |
| Best Featured Actress in a Musical | Kristen Chenoweth, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown |
| Best Director of a Play | Trevor Nunn, Not about Nightingales |
| Best Director of a Musical | Matthew Bourne, Swan Lake |
| Best Choreography | Matthew Bourne, Swan Lake |
| Best Music | Jason Robert Brown, Parade |
| Best Lyrics | Gerard Alessandrini, Forbidden Broadway Cleans Up Its Act |
| Outstanding Book of a Musica | Alfred Uhry, Parade |
| Outstanding Orchestrations | Don Sebesky, Parade |
| Outstanding Set Design of a Play | Richard Hoover, Not about Nightingales |
| Outstanding Set Design of a Musical | Lez Brotherson, Swan Lake |
| Special Awards | Al Hirschfeld (lifetime achievement) |
| Sony Classical (for its Columbia Broadway Masterworks Series) | |
| The Actor’s Fund |
As Founder and CEO of Theatre.com and BuyBroadway.com. The pioneer in moving the Broadway industry onto the internet. The theatre press branded me as “Toby is the man pushing theatre, kicking and screaming, into cyberspace.” What started in 1989 as a Broadway industry service called ShowCall via dialup BBS for members of the League of American Theatre Producers evolved onto the world wide web in the early 90’s, and shortly after this, the vast majority of Broadway shows (starting with my production of Victor/Victoria) and theatrical organizations followed. The “Super site of Broadway” became a publicly traded company, prior to my re-branding it as Theatre.com at the Minskoff Theatre.
Described by Variety Magazine as a “marketing powerhouse“, it was the single largest theatre community in the world with over 180,000 active members (in the 1990’s this was massive). From buying official Broadway tickets and souvenirs, providing detailed global show listings, interactive show study & educational guides, live streaming shows and events (including many Opening Nights live broadcasts), industry news from major theatre journalists, pictures and videos, games, messaging directly to Broadway cast’s backstage or even licensing a musical, theatre.com offered it all in a single, easy-to-use interface to theatregoers globally.