SETPIECE Independent critical review Skip to content Issue 07 / 26

Award record

1991-1992 award record

Categories
5
Honoured
5
Nominated
15

5 awards were given across 5 categories, chosen from 15 nominated entries listed below. The entries have been checked line by line against published records.

Five categories, with sound design now settled alongside set, costume, lighting and choreography. Guys and Dolls took two, and Crazy for You, Jelly's Last Jam and Four Baboons Adoring the Sun one each.

Four different productions sharing five awards is an unusually even spread for a single season. Fifteen names were shortlisted. Nothing new entered the category list this season; the shape had held steady since sound design arrived a decade earlier.

The Guys and Dolls revival that takes two of this season's five awards was directed by Jerry Zaks and ran at the Martin Beck Theatre from 14 April 1992 to 8 January 1995. It drew eight Tony nominations and won four, including Best Revival.

On this page its awards are for Tony Walton's set and William Ivey Long's costumes. Long is the most frequently recorded name in this whole index, appearing across twenty-one separate seasons.

Susan Stroman, who wins choreography for Crazy for You, and Jules Fisher, who wins lighting design for Jelly's Last Jam, are both established Broadway names whose careers extend well beyond this single season — Fisher's award here is one of multiple Tony Awards he holds across a decades-long career in lighting design.

'Tis Pity She's a Whore, John Ford's Jacobean tragedy, drew two nominations this season, for costume and lighting design, without winning either — a rare appearance of pre-Restoration English drama on a record dominated by contemporary musicals and revivals.

Jelly's Last Jam connects to three of the season's categories, not one: Jules Fisher's lighting win is covered already, but the same production was also nominated for choreography — credited to Hope Clarke, Gregory Hines and Ted L. Levy — and for costume design, by Toni-Leslie James. Gregory Hines, the show's star as well as a credited choreographer, was already a well-known tap dancer and actor by 1992.

Robin Wagner, nominated for set design on Crazy for You, and Paul Gallo, nominated for lighting design on Guys and Dolls, both recur widely elsewhere in the record — nine seasons each — despite neither converting a nomination into a win this particular season. Recurrence and winning are two different measures, and this page shows them pulling apart for both names.

Twenty entries across the season connect to only ten distinct productions, not twenty separate ones. Guys and Dolls accounts for four of them, Crazy for You and Jelly's Last Jam three each, and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore three more — four productions between them carrying thirteen of the season's twenty entries, well over half.

Dancing at Lughnasa, Brian Friel's play, accounts for two of the season's twenty entries, both nominations rather than wins — set design to Joe Vanek and lighting design to Trevor Dawson, neither converting into an award that season. Neither designer recurs elsewhere on this particular record; both are single-season appearances, start to finish.

Sources: Guys and Dolls, Jules Fisher, Gregory Hines

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

  • Susan Stroman Crazy for You

Also nominated

  • Christopher Chadman Guys and Dolls
  • Hope Clarke , Gregory Hines and Ted L. Levy Jelly's Last Jam

Outstanding Costume Design

Winner

  • William Ivey Long Guys and Dolls

Also nominated

  • Gabriel Berry 'Tis Pity She's a Whore
  • Toni-Leslie James Jelly's Last Jam
  • William Ivey Long Crazy for You

Outstanding Lighting Design

Winner

  • Jules Fisher Jelly's Last Jam

Also nominated

  • Christopher Akerlind Mad Forest
  • Mimi Jordan Sherin 'Tis Pity She's a Whore
  • Paul Gallo Guys and Dolls
  • Trevor Dawson Dancing at Lughnasa

Outstanding Set Design

Winner

  • Tony Walton Guys and Dolls

Also nominated

  • James Youmans Bella, Belle of Byelorussia
  • Joe Vanek Dancing at Lughnasa
  • John Conklin 'Tis Pity She's a Whore
  • Robin Wagner Crazy for You

Outstanding Sound Design

Winner

  • Paul Arditti Four Baboons Adoring the Sun

Also nominated

  • Mark Bennett and Jim van Bergen Lypsinka! A Day in the Life
  • Stewart Werner Lips Together, Teeth Apart

Outstanding Costume Design is one of 3 design and art-direction headings carried this season. Set design, costume and game art →

Questions about this season's record

Was any production honoured more than once this season?

Yes — Guys and Dolls took two of the five awards, for Tony Walton's set design and William Ivey Long's costume design. The other three, Crazy for You, Jelly's Last Jam and Four Baboons Adoring the Sun, each won exactly one, an even spread across four shows.

Did any new category enter the record this season?

No. Nothing new entered the category list in 1991-1992 — the shape had held steady since sound design, the last of the original five crafts, arrived twelve seasons earlier. All five categories judged this season had already existed for years.

Who is the most frequently recorded name connected to this season?

William Ivey Long, who wins costume design here for Guys and Dolls, one of that production's two awards. He is the most frequently recorded name in the whole index, appearing across twenty-one separate seasons — more than anyone else named on this page.

Do most of the names on this page appear only this once?

No — twelve of the nineteen people and firms named this season turn up in at least one other season held here. Only seven are limited to a single appearance in 1991-1992, a higher recurrence rate than many other seasons in this record.

How many names were nominated without winning this season?

Fifteen, standing behind the five awards given across the five categories judged that year. Four different productions share the five awards, an even spread rather than one show dominating — the fifteen nominees are the shortlist behind that result, on a page with no double winners at all.

Who else on this page appears elsewhere in the record

12 of the 19 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.

Top