Drama Desk and Outer Critics Announce 2026 Dates

Two major theater award dispensing groups, the Drama Desk and the Outer Critics Circle, have announced their dates for nominations and ceremonies. The 70th annual Drama Desk Awards will be held on Sun. May 17 at Town Hall. The ceremony will celebrate the organiztion's 70-year history. This marks a return to the venue for the first time since the 2020 theater shutdown. The DDs had been presented at NYU's Skirball in recent years. The nominations will be announced on April 29. This year’s awards will be produced by Drama Desk Awards Productions, a venture of Scene Partners in partnership with the Season. Chaired by the Martha Wade Steketee (UrbanExcavations.com), the 2026 nominating committee includes Linda Armstrong (Amsterdam News), Daniel Dinero (Theater Is Easy), Peter Filichia (Broadway Radio), Kenji Fujishima (freelance, Theatermania), Margaret Hall (Playbill.com) and Raven Snook (TDF).  Charles Wright and David Barbour are co-presidents. The Drama Desk considers Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway in each of its multiple categories. The acting categories are not gender-specific and the top two vote-getters are the winners. Multiple awards may be presented in the case of ties. The awards are voted on by about 100 DD members who are NY-based theater critics, reporters, and editors.

Nominations for the Outer Critics Circle Awards will be announced on April 21. The winners will be made public by press release on May 11 with a ceremony to be held on May 21 at a venue yet to be announced. Previous OCC presentations have been held at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts' Bruno Walter auditorium and before that at Sardi's restaurant where a meal was included. The OCCs honor on and Off-Broadway. Some of their categories are divided between Broadway and Off-Broadway while others put them together. Like the DDs, the OCCs have eliminated gender-specific acting categories. The Outer Critics Circle is an organization of writers on New York theatre for out-of-town, national, and digital publications. Led by President David Gordon (Theatermania), the OCC Board of Directors which is also the Nominating Committee includes Vice President Richard Ridge, Recording Secretary Joseph Cervelli, Corresponding Secretary Patrick Hoffman, Treasurer David Roberts, Cynthia Allen, Harry Haun, Dan Rubins, Janice Simpson and Doug Strassler. Simon Saltzman is president emeritus and a non-nominating board member, and Stanley L. Cohen serves as financial consultant and a non-nominating board member.

2025-26 Broadway/Off-Broadway Calendar
Winter 2025-26
Feb. 4--High Spirits (Encores!/City Center)
Feb. 5--The Other Place (The Shed)
Feb. 11--Monsters (MTC/City Center)
Feb. 11--Kramer/Fauci (NYU Skirball)
Feb. 12--The Unknown (Studio Seaview)
Feb. 14--Coriolanus (TFANA)
Feb. 16--The Dinosaurs (Playwrights Horizons)
Feb. 22--Marcel on the Train (CSC)
Feb. 24--Mother Russia (Signature Theater Company)
Feb. 24--The Reservoir (Atlantic Theater Company)
Feb. 25--Meat Suit, or the shitshow of motherhood (Second Stage/Signature Theater)
Feb. 26--Chinese Republicans (Roundabout/Laura Pels)

Spring 2026

March 1--Bigfoot! the Musical (MTC/City Center)

March 5--What We Did Before Our Moth Days (Greenwich House Theater)

March 10--Cold War Choir Practice (MCC)

March 11--Bughouse (Vineyard)

March 11--Antigone (This Play I Read in High School) (Public)

March 12--Every Brilliant Thing (Hudson)

March 17--My Joy Is Heavy (NYTW)

March 18--The Wild Party (Encores!/City Center)

March 20--Jesa (Public/Ma-Yi)

March 23--Giant (Music Box)

March 23--Hamlet (Teatro La Plaza/TFANA)

March 25--Public Charge (Public)

March 29--Titus Andronicus (Red Bull/Pershing Signature Center)

March 30--Dog Day Afternoon (August Wilson)

March 30--Seagull: True Story (Public)

April 7--Cats: The Jellicle Ball (Broadhurst)

April 8--Becky Shaw (Second Stage/Hayes)

April 9--Death of a Salesman (Winter Garden)

April 12--Titanique (St. James)

April 14--The Adding Machine (New Group/Theater at St. Clements)

April 15--The Fear of 13 (James Earl Jones)

April 16--Proof (Booth)

April 19--Hamlet (BAM)

April 19--Fallen Angels (Roundabout/Todd Haimes)

April 20--Schmigadoon (Nederlander)

April 20--Drama League Nominations (NYPL at Lincoln Center)

April 21--The Balusters (MTC/Friedman)

April 21-- Outer Critics Circle Award Nominations

April 22--Beaches, a New Musical (Majestic)

April 23--The Rocky Horror Show (Roundabout/Studio 54)

April 25--Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Barrymore)

April 26--The Lost Boys (Palace)

April 29--Drama Desk Nominations

May 5--Tony Nominations

May 7--The Receptionist (Second Stage/Signature Center)

May 11--Outer Critics Circle Winners Announced

May 15--Drama League Awards (Ziegfeld Ballroom)

May 17--Drama Desk Awards (Town Hall)

May 18--Chita Rivera Awards (NYU Skirball)

May 21--Outer Critics Circle Awards ceremony

May--The Emporium (CSC)

: Girls : Chance : Music (Vineyard Theater)

Animal Wisdom (Signature Theater Company)

Indian Princesses (Atlantic Theater Co.)

No Singing in the Navy (Playwrights Horizons)

Rheology (Playwrights Horizons)

2026-27

Let the Good Times Roll: A New Orleans Gumbo

Private Lives

Summer 2026

June 7--Tony Awards (Radio City Music Hall/CBS)

June 17--La Cage Aux Folles (Encores!/City Center)

June 24--Birthright (MCC)

July 14--The Whoopi Monologues (LCT/Mitzi Newhouse)

Bocking (New Group/Theater at St. Clements)

Fall 2026

Dreamgirls

Jackals (New Group/Theater at St. Clements)

Future--10 Things I Hate About You; Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death; Beat Street; Black Orpheus; Coal Miner's Daughter; Come Fall in Love--The DDLJ Musical; Crazy Rich Asians; The Devil Wears Prada; Ella: An American Miracle; Eurovision Song Contest; Everybody's Talking About Jamie; Fahrenheit 451; The Fantasticks (Revised Version); Fire and Rain: The James Taylor Musical; Frida, the Musical; Game of Thrones; Get Happy; The Griswolds' Broadway Vacation; High Noon; Imitation of Life; The Interestings; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; The Karate Kid; La La Land; The Mousetrap; Nancy Drew and the Mystery at Spotlight Manor; The Nanny; The Normal Heart/The Destiny of Me; Pal Joey; Particle Fever; Purple Rain; The Queen's Gambit; Rear Window; The Secret Garden; Sing Street; Slumdog Millionaire; Soul Train; Studio 54; Waking Ned Devine; Working Girl.

2025-26 Broadway Season Breakdown

New Plays

All Out: Comedy About Ambition

The Balusters

Call Me Izzy

Cottonfield

Dog Day Afternoon

The Fear of 13

Giant

Liberation (transfer from Off-Broadway)

Little Bear Ridge Road

Oedipus

Punch

New Musicals

Beaches, A New Musical

The Lost Boys

Schmigadoon

Titanique (transfer from Off-Broadway)

Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

The Queen of Versailles

Play Revivals

Art

Becky Shaw

Bug

Death of a Salesman

Every Brilliant Thing

Fallen Angels

Joe Turner's Come and Gone

Marjorie Prime

Proof

Waiting for Godot

Musical Revivals

Beetlejuice

Cats: The Jellicle Ball

Chess

Mamma Mia!

Ragtime

The Rocky Horror Show

Solos/Specialties
Jeffrey Ross: Take a Banana for the Ride

Rob Lake Magic with Special Guests The Muppets 

Previously Announced to Open, but No Further Specific Details

Cottonfield

Dolly: An Original Musical

Montauk