2005-2006 nominations — April 27, 2006 (nom01)
This is the nominations issued for the 2005-2006 season, dated April 27, 2006, for the 51st annual awards. It is held at its original address because other sites cite it directly. The entries themselves are not repeated here — they are on the awards index, so there is one place to correct if anything in them turns out to be wrong.
Six headings were carried that season, with 30 nominated entries standing behind six awards. Every one of the six holds exactly six entries, one award and five nominations, so the field is completely regular across the season with no heading larger or smaller than another.
Scenic design runs here as two headings, one for musicals and one for plays, while lighting and sound design each run undivided. The lighting award would not divide the same way for another three seasons, which is visible on this record rather than asserted here.
Robert Wilson is the only name nominated twice across the season, and neither nomination became an award. No individual is honoured more than once, so the six awards go to six different recipients.
Kathleen Marshall takes the choreography award. It is one of three she wins on this record, alongside the 2003-2004 and 2010-2011 seasons, from seven appearances spanning the 1995-1996 season to 2019-2020. Only Susan Stroman wins the heading more often, with four.
Of the 34 people and firms named across the season, 24 appear in at least one other season held here. The nominated field, not just the winners, is what makes that visible: most of these names recur.
A separate announcement covering the winners of this same season, issued on 21 May 2006, is held at its own address on this site. This document announced the nominations only; the two are different papers and each keeps the address it was cited at.
The thirty nominations spread across nineteen distinct productions, so no single show dominates the shortlist the way a winner can dominate the results announced later. Robert Wilson's two nominations are the only case of a name appearing twice across that spread of nineteen productions and thirty nominated entries.
Three productions tie for the most nominations in the craft categories this record tracks: The Wedding Singer, Peer Gynt and Grey Gardens, each with three. None of the three converts any of them into a win — the season's six awards go to six other productions entirely.
Twenty of the twenty-nine distinct people nominated that season, aside from the winners already covered, turn up in at least one other season held here. Nomination alone is a real form of recurrence on this record — most of the craft's working names appear on it more than once, whether or not the specific season converts a nomination into an award.
Every entry recorded for the 2005-2006 season on this record is cross-checked against a published external source rather than resting on the archive announcement alone — a distinction that matters most for the oldest seasons here, where no second source survives to check against, unlike this one.
The distinction between the two is stated on the entry itself rather than left for a reader to guess at from the season alone, which matters most for names appearing only in the earliest, thinnest-sourced years of this record.
That standard holds here exactly as it does everywhere else on the record, and a reader citing this page can check the same underlying claim independently rather than taking it on trust.
Outstanding Scenic Design of a Play sits among the 4 design and art-direction headings this season carried. How the design categories developed →
Questions about this announcement
Which season's nominations are held at this address?
The 2005-2006 season, issued on 27 April 2006 for the 51st annual awards. Six design and craft headings were carried, with 30 nominated entries behind six awards. The winners were announced in a separate document that May, held at its own address here.
Why does every heading have the same number of entries?
Each of the six headings carries one award and five nominations, so the season runs to exactly six entries per heading. Several seasons in this period are shaped that way. It is what was announced rather than a rule stated anywhere in the surviving papers.
Was the lighting award split into musical and play here?
Not yet. Scenic design already runs as two headings this season, one for musicals and one for plays, but lighting and sound each still run as a single award. Lighting divides three seasons after this one, which the later records on this site show.
How often does Kathleen Marshall appear on this record?
Seven times, spanning the 1995-1996 season to 2019-2020, all under the choreography heading. Three of those are awards, including this season's, with the others in 2003-2004 and 2010-2011. Only Susan Stroman wins the heading more often, with four from twelve appearances.
Did any name appear twice in the nominations without winning?
Yes — Robert Wilson, nominated twice across the season's six headings, and the only name to be. Neither nomination converted into an award, and the six awards that season go to six different recipients, none of them named more than once among the winners either.