Drama Desk Awards Special to Premiere on Ovation

Hosted by Harvey Fierstein, Presenters Include Katie Holmes, Daniel Radcliffe, Liev Schreiber, Colin Quinn, Holland Taylor, Christian Siriano, Tyne Daly, Cheyenne Jackson, Marsha Mason, and Tom Wopat

Santa Monica, CA – May 17, 2011   The 56th Annual Drama Desk Awards, which will be held May 23rd at the Hammerstein Ballroom at the Manhattan Center in New York City, will premiere on Ovation, the only network dedicated to arts culture,  Saturday, June 4 at 9:00 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT.    The 90-minute highlight special, will be hosted by Tony® and Drama Desk Award-winner Harvey Fierstein and will feature musical performances from some of the Outstanding Musical nominees.  The 56th Annual Drama Desk Awards honors outstanding productions and creative talent for the 2010-2011 season.

Presenters at the Drama Desk Awards include Katie Holmes, Annabella Sciorra, Daniel Radcliffe, Liev Schreiber, Jonathan Groff, Colin Quinn, Cheyenne Jackson, Holland Taylor, Tyne Daly, Marsha Mason, Tom Wopat, Christian Siriano, Larry Kramer, Jennifer Damiano, Reeve Carney and Montego Glover with others to be announced soon.

The Drama Desk Awards ceremony will be directed by Jeff Kalpak and will be shot in HD. In addition to the June 4th premiere, there will be encore presentations on Sunday, June 12 at 12:30 p.m. ET/9:30 a.m. PT and 2:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT.   The highlight special will be produced by Heflin Filmworks, with Lance Heflin serving as supervising producer and Mark Stroman as executive producer. Terry Rohnke (Saturday Night Live) is creative consultant.

OvationTV.com will stream a special red-carpet show on May 23 at 6:00 p.m. ET hosted by renowned stylist/designer Phillip Bloch and Broadway Channel’s Maribel Aber and featuring arrivals and interviews with the Drama Desk nominees, presenters and guests.

The Drama Desk (www.dramadesk.org) is an organization of professional theatre writers, editors, critics and columnists who cover all areas of professional theatre in the greater New York area, including Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway and not-for-profit theatres. The organization was founded in 1949 to explore key issues of the theatre community.

For more information and a list of the nominees visit www.dramadeskawards.com.