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Award record

2003-2004 award record

Categories
6
Honoured
6
Nominated
26

6 awards were given across 6 categories, chosen from 26 nominated entries listed below. The entries have been checked line by line against published records.

Six categories, and the first season on this record where scenic design appears as two separate awards for musical and play rather than one. Wicked and Assassins each took two, and no individual won twice.

Twenty-six names were shortlisted, the widest field of any season in the 2000s held here. Henry IV drew the most nominations of any single production without converting one into a win — a pattern a winners-only record hides.

Bombay Dreams, the Bollywood-themed musical brought to Broadway with Andrew Lloyd Webber as a producer, drew three nominations this season — choreography, costume design and scenic design of a musical — without converting any of them into a win. Ramayana 2K3 matches it with three nominations of its own, across choreography, costume and sound design, also without a win.

John Lee Beatty, who wins scenic design of a play for Twentieth Century and is separately nominated for scenic design of a musical for Wonderful Town, recurs across twelve seasons of this record in total — the most frequently recorded name connected to this particular season.

The joint credit "Peggy Eisenhauer and Jules Fisher," which wins lighting design for Assassins, appears as that exact pairing across three seasons of this record. Dan Moses Schreier, winning sound design for the same production, recurs far more widely on his own name — eleven seasons in total — so the same show's two award winners have very different footprints elsewhere in the record.

Catherine Zuber, nominated for costume design on Intimate Apparel, is the most frequently recorded name of anyone connected to this season without actually winning that year — fourteen seasons in total, more than any of the season's six actual winners.

Wonderful Town connects to two categories without winning either outright through John Lee Beatty's nomination — Kathleen Marshall's choreography win for the same production is the only award it actually takes, alongside a scenic design nomination that goes nowhere. The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci and I Am My Own Wife each draw two nominations of their own, neither converting into a win.

Thirty-two total entries across six categories connect to eighteen distinct productions this season. Five productions carry three or more credits each — Henry IV, Bombay Dreams, Ramayana 2K3, Wicked and Assassins — accounting for sixteen of the season's thirty-two entries between them, exactly half, with the other thirteen productions each appearing once or twice.

Susan Hilferty and Eugene Lee, the two Wicked winners, each recur across four and six seasons respectively — modest runs next to Beatty's twelve or Zuber's fourteen, a reminder that winning a craft award this season carried no guarantee of a long run in the record afterward. A single season is a small sample to judge a career by, in either direction. The record states both figures and lets a reader weigh them.

Sources: Bombay Dreams

An empty stage against an exposed brick side wall, three beams from a lighting rig above cutting through haze, with the light reflecting off the stage floor.
Brick, haze and three beams: the stage as the design categories began splitting. Photographs on these record pages illustrate the period; they do not depict the productions listed.

Outstanding Choreography

Winner

  • Kathleen Marshall Wonderful Town

Also nominated

  • Anthony Van Laast and Farah Khan Bombay Dreams
  • Jerry Mitchell Never Gonna Dance
  • Stephen Hues Ramayana 2K3

Outstanding Costume Design

Winner

  • Susan Hilferty Wicked

Also nominated

  • Catherine Zuber Intimate Apparel
  • Jenny Mannis Animal Farm
  • Jess Goldstein Henry IV
  • Mark Thompson Bombay Dreams
  • Robert A. Prior and Lisa Leighton Ramayana 2K3

Outstanding Lighting Design

Winner

  • Peggy Eisenhauer and Jules Fisher Assassins

Also nominated

  • Brian MacDevitt Henry IV
  • David J. Lander I Am My Own Wife
  • Donald Holder The Violet Hour
  • Kenneth Posner Wicked
  • T.J. Gerckens The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

Outstanding Scenic Design of a Musical

Winner

  • Eugene Lee Wicked

Also nominated

  • John Lee Beatty Wonderful Town
  • Mark Thompson Bombay Dreams
  • Robert Brill Assassins
  • Tom Pye Fiddler on the Roof

Outstanding Scenic Design of a Play

Winner

  • John Lee Beatty Twentieth Century

Also nominated

  • Andrew Lieberman Wintertime
  • David Korins Blackbird
  • Derek McLane I Am My Own Wife
  • Ralph Funicello Henry IV
  • Scott Bradley The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

Outstanding Sound Design

Winner

  • Dan Moses Schreier Assassins

Also nominated

  • Brian Ronan Bug
  • David Van Tieghem The Stendhal Syndrome
  • Mark Bennett Henry IV
  • Scott Jennings Ramayana 2K3

Of the 6 headings on record here, 4 are design and art-direction categories — including Outstanding Scenic Design of a Musical. Set design, costume and game art →

Questions about this season's record

Why is scenic design split into two headings here?

Because by this season the award had separated musicals from plays, a split that first appears eight seasons earlier. Both headings run in parallel on this page, each with its own winner, so a set built for a musical is no longer judged against one built for a straight play.

Which production was nominated most often without winning?

Henry IV, with four nominations across costume, lighting, scenic design and sound, and no award in any of them. It is the most-nominated production of the season on this page. Nothing in the record explains the outcome; four nominations and no win is simply what was announced.

Did Wicked or Assassins take more of the awards?

Neither. They take two each, and between them four of the season's six awards. Wicked wins costume design and scenic design of a musical; Assassins wins lighting and sound. No other production wins more than once, so those two shows account for most of this page.

Why does John Lee Beatty appear twice on this page?

He is nominated for scenic design of a musical for Wonderful Town and wins scenic design of a play for Twentieth Century. One designer in both halves of the split heading in a single season is the clearest illustration on this record of why the award was divided.

How many of this season's thirty people recur elsewhere in the record?

Twenty-two of the thirty people and firms named this season appear in at least one other season held here — a high recurrence rate for this record, higher than several seasons either side of it. Only eight names are limited to a single appearance in 2003-2004.

Who else on this page appears elsewhere in the record

22 of the 30 names on this page appear in at least one other season held here. Reading a person as a run rather than a single entry is the point of an index like this one. A designer's work shows up under two or three different category names as the headings were renamed.

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