NYMF ‘09 Awards for Excellence

Last year I agreed with nearly all of the choices for NYMF Excellence Awards; just about every award squared with my juror ballot. This year the two are a little less synchronous. There’s nothing strange about that – the distilled opinion of a group will of course only very rarely mirror the opinion of any one person, and although I came within striking distance I didn’t see every single show at the festival this time.

After a hearty congratulations to the winners in all categories, I’d like to make note of some of the work that was on my ballot that wasn’t cited by the group. Jurors are asked to list 3 weighted choices in most categories and 10 individual performances and musicals; I’ll keep it simple and just list my Top 5 who neither won nor received an honorable mention.

OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE
Every single performer in Fat Camp was on fire.

OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE
6 of the performers on my ballot didn’t make it through to the group tally, but I’d most like to single out Alex Wyse who was laugh out loud funny in The Last Smoker In America, and Dale Soules who brought appropriate notes of needed gravity to The Toymaker.

EXCELLENCE IN WRITING: MUSIC
This was a staggeringly tough category this year. There are at least half a dozen new composers I’ll be looking out for thanks to this year’s NYMF, but I want to shout out here to Joe Drymala’s score for Street Lights which credibly theatricalized old-school hip-hop.

OUTSTANDING NEW MUSICAL
The top choice on my ballot was F@#king Up Everything, recognized by the group with awards for Book, Lyrics, Ensemble Performance and Individual Performance (the terrific Noah Weisberg)