2008-2009 nominations award announcement — April 27, 2009 (press084)
This is the nominations issued for the 2008-2009 season, dated April 27, 2009, for the 54th 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 2008-2009 record, so there is one place to correct if anything in them turns out to be wrong.
Nine headings were carried that season, with 35 nominated entries standing behind nine awards. Seven of the nine hold exactly six entries each, one award and five nominations, which is the pattern the design categories settled into through the 2000s.
Two headings appear on this record for the first time this season: lighting design of a musical, and lighting design of a play. An undivided lighting heading also carries a single entry the same season, so the record catches the split part-way through rather than cleanly.
Tim Hatley takes two of the nine awards, for costume design and for scenic design of a musical. He is the only person honoured more than once that season, and Rob Howell is the only name nominated twice.
Two of the nine award rows carry no usable recipient name in the source used here. They are published as unnamed rather than filled in, because a guess on a page that other sites cite is worse than a gap that says so.
Of the 41 people and firms named across the season, 29 appear in at least one other season held here. Reading a designer as a run across seasons, rather than as a single entry, is what an index like this one is for.
The awards themselves were announced separately, after this document. Where a heading below reads as unfamiliar, it is because the category names were still moving: this is the season the lighting award divided, and the scenic award had already divided thirteen seasons earlier.
Billy Elliot the Musical takes three of the season's nine awards outright — choreography to Peter Darling, lighting design of a musical to Rick Fisher, and sound design to Paul Arditti — the widest spread of any production that season, ahead of Shrek the Musical's two.
9 to 5 leads the nominated field with five nods across the craft categories this record tracks, ahead of Irving Berlin's White Christmas with four. Neither converts a single nomination into a win that season — the nine awards go to Billy Elliot the Musical, Shrek the Musical, and two further productions taking one each.
Beyond the winners already covered, twenty-two of the season's thirty-four distinct nominees recur in at least one other season held here. Thirty-four is the largest distinct-nominee count of any announcement page on this record, though not the most headings — that belongs to the 2009-2010 nominations covered separately, at eleven.
Every entry recorded for the 2008-2009 season is cross-checked against a published external source, the same standard applied to every season on this record from the mid-1970s forward. That standard applies uniformly across the record rather than only to seasons with enough surviving material to make cross-checking easy — a season is not exempted from it for being thin, only recorded honestly as archive-only where no second source exists. Nothing here is left to guesswork.
That standard holds here exactly as it does everywhere else on the record, whether the season in question sits in the 1950s or the 2020s.
Outstanding Lighting Design of a Musical enters the record here, for the first time in any season. It is one of 2 headings new to the record this season. The design categories in full →
Questions about this announcement
What did this announcement cover?
The nominations for the 2008-2009 season, issued on 27 April 2009 for the 54th annual awards. Nine design and craft headings were carried, with 35 nominated entries behind nine awards. The winners were announced separately, later the same season, in a different document.
Why are the nominated entries not listed on this page?
Because they are held once, on the 2008-2009 record, so a correction has one place to land rather than two. This address exists because other sites cite it directly, and it answers with what the document was and how the field was shaped.
Which awards divided into musical and play categories here?
Lighting design. Both lighting design of a musical and lighting design of a play appear on this record for the first time this season, and an undivided lighting heading still carries one entry alongside them. Scenic design had already divided the same way some seasons earlier.
Did anyone take two awards in this season?
Tim Hatley did, for costume design and for scenic design of a musical. He is the only person honoured twice across the nine awards. On the nominated side, Rob Howell is the only name appearing twice, and he converted neither of those nominations into an award.
How many people and firms recur elsewhere in the record from this season?
Twenty-nine of the forty-one people and firms named this season appear in at least one other season held here — a high recurrence rate. Tim Hatley, who takes two of the nine awards, and Rob Howell, nominated twice, are both part of that recurring group.