Drama League Awards to Josh Henry, Mexodus, Liberation

Joshua Henry of Ragtime won
the Drama League Award for 
Outstanding Performance.

The 92nd Drama League Awards were presented on May 15 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom to Joshua Henry (Outstanding Performance) of Ragtime (which was named Outstanding Revival of a Musical), Mexodus (Outstanding Production of a Musical), and Liberation (Outstanding Production of a Play). Additional winners included Death of a Salesman (Revival of a Play) and its director Joe Mantello (Director of a Play). Lear de Besonnet was voted Outstanding Director of a Musical for Ragtime. Frank DiLella of NY-1 hosted the ceremony. Presenters included Bryan Cranston, Bebe Neuwirth, Nathan Lane, Brian Stokes Mitchell, John Lithgow, Christopher Ashley and Whitney White. Even though Liberation was presented Off-Broadway last season, Drama League rules permit for transfers from Off-Broadway to on to be considered in both years. Joshua Henry has already won the Outer Critics Circle Award and is nominated for the Drama Desk and Tony.

The previously announced Special Honorees were presented as follows: Tony Award-winning producer David Stone presented the Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theater award to the Olivier and Grammy-nominated actress Caissie Levy; Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning actor and playwright Tracy Letts presented the Founders Award for Excellence in Directing to Tony Award-winning director David Cromer; Tony Award winning actor and director Ruben Santiago-Hudson presented the Contribution to the Theater Award to Executive Producer of the Apollo Theater Kamilah Forbes; and Tony Award-winning scenic designer David Rockwell presented the Gratitude Award to Tony nominee and Olivier Award winner Scott Ellis.

A complete list of winners follows:

Drama League Nominations

Natalie Venetia Belcon and Corbin Bleu
announced the 2026 Drama League nominees

The nominations for the 2026 Drama League Awards were announced on April 20 by Tony winner Natalie Venetia Belcon (Buena Vista Social Club) and Corbin Bleu (The Great Gatsby) at Lincoln Center's NY Public Library for the Performing Arts. The awards will be presented on May 15 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in a ceremony hosted by NY-1's Frank DiLella. Tickets and tables to the star-studded luncheon are available for purchase at dramaleague.org/2026awards or by calling The Drama League event office at 212.625.1025.First awarded in 1922 and formalized in 1935, The Drama League Awards are the oldest theatrical honors in America. They are the only major theater awards chosen by a cross-section of the theater community — the industry professionals, producers, artists, audiences, and critics who are Drama League members nationwide.

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A PLAY

THE BALUSTERS
CAROLINE
COLD WAR CHOIR PRACTICE
DOG DAY AFTERNOON
GIANT

KYOTO

LIBERATION

MARCEL ON THE TRAIN
THE MONSTERS

PRINCE FAGGOT

RHEOLOGY

SPREAD

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A MUSICAL

BEACHES, A NEW MUSICAL

BEAU THE MUSICAL

BIGFOOT

THE LOST BOYS
MEXODUS

MY JOY IS HEAVY

NIGHT SIDE SONGS

SATURDAY CHURCH

SCHMIDGADOON!

THE SEAT OF OUR PANTS

TITANIQUE

TWO STRANGERS (CARRY A CAKE ACROSS NEW YORK)

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A PLAY
ANNA CHRISTIE

BECKY SHAW

THE BROTHERS SIZE
BUG

DEATH OF A SALESMAN

EVERY BRILLIANT THING

FALLEN ANGELS

GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES
JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE

PROOF

TWELFTH NIGHT

YOU GOT OLDER

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL

THE 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLNG BEE
BAT BOY THE MUSICAL

CATS: THE JELLICLE BALL

CHESS
THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS

HEATHERS THE MUSICAL:

MASQUERADE

ORATORIO FOR LIVING THINGS

RAGTIME

THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW

THE WILD PARTY

Nicole Scherzinger, Happy Ending, Oh Mary! Win Drama League Awards

The Drama League Awards were presented on Fri. May 16 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in a ceremony hosted by NY-1 News theater reporter Frank DiLella.

Nicole Scherzinger of Sunset Blvd.
won the Distinguished 
Performance Drama League Award for 2025.

Nicole Scherzinger won the Distinguished Performance Award for her work in Sunset Boulevard; the well-respected honor can only be won once during the career of an actor. Maybe Happy Ending took home the Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical, and Oh, Mary! won for Outstanding Production of a Play. (Maybe Happy Ending has won the Outer Critics and the New York Drama Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical and is the  favorite the Best Musical Tony.) For the first time in 25 years, in any category, Eureka Day and Vanya tied for the honor of Outstanding Revival of a Play, and Outstanding Revival of a Musical was awarded to Sunset Boulevard. In the directing categories, Sam Pinkleton took home the Outstanding Direction of a Play award for Oh, Mary! and Michael Arden took home Outstanding Direction of a Musical for Maybe Happy Ending. 

The competitive awards were presented by previous Distinguished Performance Award Winners Annaleigh Ashford, Norbert Leo Butz, Danny Burstein, Audra McDonald, and Sutton Foster. Previous honoree for the Founders Award for Excellence in Directing, Schele Williams, presented the  Outstanding Direction of a Play & Musical Awards.

Tony Award winner and star of this season’s Old Friends, Bernadette Peters, presented both the Award for Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theater to her co-star, Tony and Olivier Award winner Lea Salonga, and The Gratitude Award to acclaimed theater, television and film producers Robert Greenblatt and Neil Meron, represented on Broadway this season with Smash; Tony Award winner Sam Gold (Romeo + Juliet) presented the Founders Award for Excellence in Directing to Tony and Drama League nominee Whitney White (The Last Five Years, Liberation); and Michael Cruz Kayne (Sorry For Your Loss) presented the Contribution to the Theater Award to Kate Navin and Audible Theater.
 

Drama League Nominations

Cats: The Jellicle Ball is among the
Drama League Award nominees.
Credit: Evan Zimmerman

Theater award season continues with the nominations for the Drama League Awards, announced on April 22 at the Lincoln Center's New York Public Library for the Performing Arts by Sarah Hyland (The Great Gatsby, Modern Family) and country music star Orville Peck (Cabaret). The awards will be presented on May 18 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom. 

The Drama League previously announced the 2025 Special Recognition Award Recipients: Tony and Olivier Award winner Lea Salonga will receive the Award for Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theater; Director Whitney White (and multiple 2025 Drama League Award Nominee) will be honored with the Founders Award for Excellence in Directing; Kate Navin and Audible Theater will receive the Contribution to the Theater Award; and The Gratitude Award will be presented to acclaimed producers Robert Greenblatt and Neil Meron, whose groundbreaking work across television, film, and theatre has garnered numerous accolades, including Tonys, Emmys, Golden Globes, and a Best Picture Oscar. This season they are the lead producers of the new musical Smash.

Founded in 1922, and formalized in 1935, the Drama League Award is the oldest theatrical honor in America, and is voted on by a cross-section of industry professionals, producers, artists, audiences, and critics.

Orville Peck and Sarah Hyland
announced the Drama League nominees.
Credit: Catalin Stelian

A complete list of the nominees follows:

Chita Rivera, Drama League, Other Awards

Winners of the Chita Rivera, Drama League and awards presented by Actors Equity Foundation were recently announced. On Mon. May 20, the Chita Rivera Awards for outstanding dance and choregraphy in theater and film were presented at NYU's Skirball Hall (site of the Drama Desks on June 10).

BROADWAY

OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHY IN A BROADWAY SHOW: TIE – Camille A Brown, Hell’s Kitchen; Jesse Robb and Shana Carroll, Water for Elephants

Isabella McCalla and Antoine Boissereau
in Water for Elephants.
Credit: Matthew Murphy

OUTSTANDING DANCER IN A BROADWAY SHOW: Antoine Boissereau, Water For Elephants; Tilly Evans-Kreuger, The Outsiders

OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE IN A BROADWAY SHOW: Illinoise

FILM AND DOCUMENTARY

OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHY IN A THEATRICAL RELEASE: Barbie, Jennifer White

OUTSTANDING DIRECTION OF A DANCE DOCUMENTARY: Lift, David Petersen

SPECIAL AWARDS

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Bernadette Peters

VANGUARD AWARD: Phil LaDuca

DOUGLAS AND ETHEL WATT CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARD: Mayte Natalio.

Drama League Nominations

Lindsay Mendez, Jonathan Groff, and
Daniel Radcliffe of Merrily We Roll Along
are all nominated for the Distinguished Performance
Drama League Award.
Credit: Joan Marcus

Theater award season is now in full throttle. The nominees for the 90th annual Drama League Awards were announced  by Vanessa Williams and Bebe Neuwirth on Mon. April 22 at the Lincoln Center's NY Public Library for the Performing Arts. The awards for outstanding work on and Off-Broadway, will be presented on May 17 at 12 noon at the Ziegfeld Ballroom. First awarded in 1922 and formalized in 1935, The Drama League Awards are the oldest theatrical honors in America. They are the only major theater awards chosen by a cross-section of the theater community — the industry professionals, producers, artists, audiences, and critics who are Drama League members nationwide. The Outer Critics Circle Award noms will be announced tomorrow and the Drama Desk and Tony noms will be next week.

2024 DRAMA LEAGUE AWARDS NOMINATIONS

 
OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A PLAY
 
THE COMEUPPANCE 
 
FLEX
 
GRIEF HOTEL
 
THE HUNT
 
JAJA’S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING 
 
MOTHER PLAY
 
OH, MARY!
 
PATRIOTS
 
PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
 
STEREOPHONIC
 
WET BRAIN

Awards Roundup for 2012-13

Andrea Martin at the Tonys

Last night's Tonys finished off the 2012-13 award season. As I did last year, I tallied up ALL the NYC award winners and recipients--just for giggles. This season the prizes were spread around without one performer dominating all the shows as Angela Lansbury in Blithe Spirit, Christine Ebersole in Grey Gardens, and Geoffrey Rush in Exit the King have done in years past. There were several top award-and-nomination grabbers with the most being five citations.

Sharing top quintuple honors are Bertie Carvel for Matilda; Tom Hanks for Lucky Guy; Shuler Hensley for The Whale; Rob McClure for Chaplin; Laura Osnes for Cinderella; Billy Porter for Kinky Boots; and Andrea Martin for Pippin.

The rundown lists nominees in lower case and winner in CAPS. If different awards organizations have placed actors in different categories, I just put them wherever I thought they belonged. For example, Kristine Nielsen was considered a leading actress by the Tonys, but a featured actress by the Outer Critics. I judged her as a leading lady of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike and put her there.

The breakdown is Astaire=Astaire Award for dancers; CD=Clarence Derwent Award from Equity for newcomers; DD=Drama Desk; DL=Drama League; LL=Lucille Lortel Award for Off-Broadway; Obie=Obie Award for Off and Off-Off-Broadway; OCC=Outer Critics Circle; RS=Richard Seff Award from Equity for veteran performers; Tony=Tony Award; TW=Theater World Award for newcomers.

Actor in a Play
Alec Baldwin, Orphans (dl)

Reed Birney, Uncle Vanya (dd)

Danny Burstein, Talley’s Folly (dl, ll)

Bobby Cannavale, The Big Knife, Glengarry Glen Ross (dl)

Brandon J. Dirksen, The Piano Lesson (dl, ll, OBIE, TW)

Jesse Eisenberg, The Revisionist (dl)

Daniel Everidge, Falling (dd, ll)

Tom Hanks, Lucky Guy (dd, dl, occ, tony, TW)

Shuler Hensley, The Whale (dd, dl, LL, OBIE, occ)
Nathan Lane, The Nance (dd, DL, OCC, tony)
Tracy Letts, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?(DD, dl, occ, TONY)

Matthew Maher, sustained excellence (OBIE)

Aasif Mandvi, Disgraced (ll)

Seth Numrich, Golden Boy (dl)
David Hyde Pierce, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (dl, occ, tony)

Paul Rudd, Grace (dl)

Michael Shannon, Grace (dl)
Tom Sturridge, Orphans (dl, OCC, tony, TW)

Paul Thureen, Blood Play (OBIE)

Stephen Tyrone Williams, My Children! My Africa (dl)

Freaky Friday in TheaterWorld: Voice Firings, Tempest in a Tony Teapot

Michael Feingold

Friday was a pretty overwhelming day. In addition to the fallout from the phone smashing at Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812, the Drama League Awards were presented and the Village Voice further cut its staff, firing its chief theater critic, Pulitzer Prize finalist Michael Feingold and popular gossip columnist Michael Musto. I admire both writers greatly and was saddened to hear this distressing news. There was also an emergency meeting of the Tony Administration Committee because producer Jeffrey Richards allegedly violated some silly rule with the brochure he sent out to Tony voters for his production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? All material sent to voters must be approved by the Committee and Richards apparently overlooked this step. Michael Reidel wrote in the Post the meeting was prompted by producer Nelle Nugent whose The Trip to Bountiful is Woolf's biggest competition for the Best Revival of a Play Award. According to Reidel's column, producers can only send Tony voters exactly the same souvenir program theatergoers receive. Richards had a new one made up just for the Tony electorate. It's kind of a stupid rule. As a Tony voter, I received the Virginia Woolf brochure and it's not going to make me vote for it over Bountiful. (I'm deciding between Woolf and Golden Boy, but the brochure is not influencing me one way or the other.)

The Drama League Awards went to Vanya, Sonia, Masha, and Spike, Kinky Boots, Pippin, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (I guess Drama League voters got that same brochure) and to Nathan Lane of The Nance for Distinguished Performance. Earlier this week, Boots won the Outer Critics Circle Award over Matilda. The Drama League win cements Boots' status as the underdog, upset winner for Best Musical at the Tonys. It can't win at the Drama Desks tonight because it's not even nominated for Best Musical, but will probably triumph for Billy Porter's lead performance as Lola. Lane's win, along with his Outer Critics victory, designates him as the front runner for the Tonys, but I still think Tom Hanks has the edge for Lucky Guy because most of the Tony voters are industry people, not critics and they want more movie stars to come to Broadway. It will be interesting to see who wins tonight at the DDs since Lane has already won several times (The Lisbon Traviata, Guys and Dolls, Forum, Producers), they might go for Hanks.