May 16, 2022: Nominations for the 66th AnnualDrama Desk Awards were announced today, and the full list of nominees is available below.
In keeping with the Drama Desk‘s mission, the nominators considered shows that opened on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off Broadway during the 2021-2022 New York theater season, that the Drama Desk determined ended as of May 1, 2022. Only live performances were eligible – if performances were also available for streaming, 21 or more unique live performances were required.
Due to the realities of Covid, the 2022 Drama Desk Awards ceremony will be different this year. Winners will be announced the week of June 6. The Awards will be presented during an abbreviated ceremony at Sardi’s (234 West 44th Street) on Tuesday, June 14 from 3:00 – 6:00PM.
The Drama Desk Awards are produced by Tony Award winner Scott Mauro/Scott Mauro Entertainment and the show is being written by six-time Emmy Award winner Bruce Vilanch.
In determining eligibility of the Broadway productions of A Strange Loop, For Colored Girls, Hangmen, Is This a Room, Skeleton Crew, and The Lehman Trilogy which had recent Off-Broadway runs in previous seasons, the nominating committee considered only those elements that constituted new work.
Additional productions on and off Broadway not eligible as they were considered in their entirety in prior seasons included Beyond Babel, Coal Country, Dana H., Get on Your Knees, Girl from the North Country, The Patsy, and What to Send Up When It Goes Down.
Trouble in Mind was considered a revival due to its Drama Desk-eligible 1955 off-Broadway production.
The 2021-2022 Drama Desk Nominating Committee is composed of: Martha Wade Steketee (Chair; freelance, UrbanExcavations.com), Peter Filichia (Broadway Radio), Kenji Fujishima (freelance: TheaterMania), Juan Michael Porter II (TheBody.com; freelance: TDF Stages, Did They Like It?, New York Theatre Guide, Queerty), Ayanna Prescod (freelance: Variety, New York Theatre Guide, Today Tix), Zachary Stewart (TheaterMania), and Diep Tran (freelance: Backstage, American Theatre, Broadway News, New York Theatre Guide).
Follow the Drama Desk Awards: @DramaDeskAwards on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for updates * * *
The Drama Desk was founded in 1949 to explore key issues in the theater and to bring together critics and writers in an organization to support the ongoing development of theater in New York. The organization began presenting its awards in 1955, and it is the only critics’ organization to honor achievement in the theater with competition among Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway productions in the same categories.
| 2022 DRAMA DESK NOMINATIONS: Outstanding Play Cullud Wattah, by Erika Dickerson-Despenza, The Public Theater English, by Sanaz Toossi, Atlantic Theater Company Prayer for the French Republic, by Joshua Harmon, Manhattan Theatre Club Sanctuary City, by Martyna Majok, New York Theatre Workshop Selling Kabul, by Sylvia Khoury, Playwrights Horizons The Chinese Lady, by Lloyd Suh, The Public Theater Outstanding Musical Harmony, National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene Intimate Apparel, Lincoln Center Theater Kimberly Akimbo, Atlantic Theater Company Six The Hang, HERE Outstanding Revival of a Play for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf How I Learned to Drive, Manhattan Theatre Club Lackawanna Blues, Manhattan Theatre Club Skeleton Crew, Manhattan Theatre Club Trouble in Mind, Roundabout Theatre Company Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, Signature Theatre Outstanding Revival of a Musical Assassins, Classic Stage Company Baby, Out of the Box Theatrics Caroline, or Change, Roundabout Theatre Company Company Outstanding Actor in a Play Brandon J. Dirden, Skeleton Crew, Manhattan Theatre Club Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Take Me Out, Second Stage Theater Jacob Ming-Trent, Merry Wives, The Public Theater (Free Shakespeare in the Park) Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Lackawanna Blues, Manhattan Theatre Club John Douglas Thompson, The Merchant of Venice, Theatre for a New Audience Outstanding Actress in a Play Tala Ashe, English, Atlantic Theater Company Ruth Negga, Macbeth Andrea Patterson, Cullud Wattah, The Public Theater Phylicia Rashad, Skeleton Crew, Manhattan Theatre Club Shannon Tyo, The Chinese Lady, The Public Theater Michelle Wilson, Confederates, Signature Theatre Outstanding Actor in a Musical Billy Crystal, Mr. Saturday Night Myles Frost, MJ Rob McClure, Mrs. Doubtfire Jaquel Spivey, A Strange Loop Chip Zien, Harmony, National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene Outstanding Actress in a Musical Kearstin Piper Brown, Intimate Apparel, Lincoln Center Theater Victoria Clark, Kimberly Akimbo, Atlantic Theater Company Sharon D. Clarke, Caroline, or Change, Roundabout Theatre Company Jeanna de Waal, Diana Joaquina Kalukango, Paradise Square Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play Joshua Boone, Skeleton Crew, Manhattan Theatre Club Chuck Cooper, Trouble in Mind, Roundabout Theatre Company Daniel K. Isaac, The Chinese Lady, The Public Theater Billy Eugene Jones, On Sugarland, New York Theatre Workshop Ron Cephas Jones, Clyde’s, Second Stage Theater Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play Francis Benhamou, Prayer for the French Republic, Manhattan Theatre Club Stephanie Berry, On Sugarland, New York Theatre Workshop Sonnie Brown, what you are now, Ensemble Studio Theatre Page Leong, Out of Time, NAATCO and The Public Theater Kenita R. Miller, for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf Kara Young, Clyde’s, Second Stage Theater Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical Justin Austin, Intimate Apparel, Lincoln Center Theater Justin Cooley, Kimberly Akimbo, Atlantic Theater Company Matt Doyle, Company Jared Grimes, Funny Girl Tavon Olds-Sample, MJ Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical Judy Kuhn, Assassins, Classic Stage Company Tamika Lawrence, Black No More, The New Group Patti LuPone, Company Bonnie Milligan, Kimberly Akimbo, Atlantic Theater Company Jennifer Simard, Company Outstanding Director of a Play Knud Adams, English, Atlantic Theater Company Saheem Ali, Merry Wives, The Public Theater (Free Shakespeare in the Park) Rebecca Frecknall, Sanctuary City, New York Theatre Workshop Taibi Magar, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, Signature Theatre Whitney White, On Sugarland, New York Theatre Workshop Outstanding Director of a Musical John Doyle, Assassins, Classic Stage Company Marianne Elliott, Company Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage, Six Bartlett Sher, Intimate Apparel, Lincoln Center Theater Jessica Stone, Kimberly Akimbo, Atlantic Theater Company Outstanding Choreography Ayodele Casel (tap choreography), Funny Girl Carrie-Anne Ingrouille, Six Bill T. Jones, Garrett Coleman, and Jason Oremus (Irish + Hammerstep), Gelan Lambert and Chloe Davis (associates), Paradise Square Liam Steel, Company Christopher Wheeldon, Michael Balderrama (associate), Rich + Tone Taleuega (Michael Jackson movement), MJ Outstanding Music Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, Six Jason Howland, Paradise Square Matt Ray, The Hang, HERE Carrie Rodriguez, ¡Americano! Jeanine Tesori, Kimberly Akimbo, Atlantic Theater Company Outstanding Lyrics Amanda Green, Mr. Saturday Night Taylor Mac, The Hang, HERE Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, Six David Lindsay-Abaire, Kimberly Akimbo, Atlantic Theater Company Lynn Nottage, Intimate Apparel, Lincoln Center Theater Shaina Taub, Suffs, The Public Theater Outstanding Book of a Musical Billy Crystal, Lowell Ganz, and Babaloo Mandel, Mr. Saturday Night Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, Six Lynn Nottage, Intimate Apparel, Lincoln Center Theater Bruce Sussman, Harmony, National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene Outstanding Orchestrations Tom Curran, Six Greg Jarrett, Assassins, Classic Stage Company Mark Hartman and Yasuhiko Fukuoka, The Streets of New York, Irish Repertory Theatre Jason Michael Webb and David Holcenberg, MJ Outstanding Music in a Play Te’La and Kamauu, Thoughts of a Colored Man Bill Sims Jr., Lackawanna Blues, Manhattan Theatre Club Michael Thurber and Farai Malianga (drum compositions), Merry Wives, The Public Theater (Free Shakespeare in the Park) Outstanding Scenic Design for a Play Beowulf Boritt, Merry Wives, The Public Theater (Free Shakespeare in the Park) Wilson Chin, Pass Over Marsha Ginsberg, English, Atlantic Theater Company Takeshi Kata, Clyde’s, Second Stage Theater Junghyun Georgia Lee, Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord, New York Theatre Workshop Outstanding Scenic Design for a Musical Emma Bailey, Six Beowulf Boritt, Flying Over Sunset, Lincoln Center Theater Bunny Christie, Company David Zinn, Kimberly Akimbo, Atlantic Theater Company Outstanding Costume Design for a Play Linda Cho, The Chinese Lady, The Public Theater Gregory Gale, Fairycakes Tilly Grimes, The Alchemist, Red Bull Theater Qween Jean, On Sugarland, New York Theatre Workshop Jennifer Moeller, Clyde’s, Second Stage Theater Outstanding Costume Design for a Musical Machine Dazzle, The Hang, HERE Susan Hilferty, Funny Girl Santo Loquasto, The Music Man Gabriella Slade, Six Catherine Zuber, Intimate Apparel, Lincoln Center Theater Outstanding Lighting Design for a Play Christopher Akerlind, Clyde’s, Second Stage Theater Reza Behjat, English, Atlantic Theater Company Isabella Byrd, Sanctuary City, New York Theatre Workshop Amith Chandrashaker, Prayer for the French Republic, Manhattan Theatre Club Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew, Cullud Wattah, The Public Theater Outstanding Lighting Design for a Musical Natasha Katz, Diana Natasha Katz, MJ Bradley King, Flying Over Sunset, Lincoln Center Theater Jennifer Tipton, Intimate Apparel, Lincoln Center Theater Outstanding Projection Design 59 Productions, Flying Over Sunset, Lincoln Center Theater David Bengali, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, Signature Theatre Stephania Bulbarella and Alex Basco Koch, Space Dogs, MCC Theater Shawn Duan, The Chinese Lady, The Public Theater Sven Ortel, Thoughts of a Colored Man Outstanding Sound Design for a Play Tyler Kieffer, Seven Deadly Sins, Tectonic Theater Project and Madison Wells Live Hidenori Nakajo and Ryan Rumery, Autumn Royal, Irish Repertory Theatre Ben and Max Ringham, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Jamie Lloyd Company at Brooklyn Academy of Music Mikaal Sulaiman, Sanctuary City, New York Theatre Workshop Lee Kinney, Selling Kabul, Playwrights Horizons Outstanding Sound Design for a Musical Ian Dickinson for Autograph, Company Paul Gatehouse, Six Kai Harada, Kimberly Akimbo, Atlantic Theater Company Gareth Owen, MJ Outstanding Wig and Hair Matthew B. Armentrout, Paradise Square David Brian Brown, Mrs. Doubtfire Paul Huntley, Diana Charles G. LaPointe, MJ Outstanding Solo Performance Alex Edelman, Just for Us, Cherry Lane Theatre Arturo Luís Soria, Ni Mi Madre, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater Kristina Wong, Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord, New York Theatre Workshop Unique Theatrical Experience Seven Deadly Sins, Tectonic Theater Project & Madison Wells Live Outstanding Adaptation Merry Wives, by Jocelyn Bioh, The Public Theater (Free Shakespeare in the Park) The Alchemist, by Jeffrey Hatcher, Red Bull Theater Outstanding Puppet Design Amanda Villalobos, Wolf Play, Soho Rep. James Ortiz, The Skin of Our Teeth, Lincoln Center Theater Rockefeller Productions Winnie the Pooh, The Hundred Acre Theatre Harold S. Prince Lifetime Achievement Award: In four decades as playwright, novelist, actor, and director, Alice Childress (1912-1994) challenged racism with engrossing stories and memorable characters. When a New York producer demanded revisions to soften the impact of Trouble in Mind, after an initial run Off Broadway and prior to its Broadway debut, Childress withdrew the script. Sixty-five years later, the Drama Desk celebrates the long-delayed Broadway premiere of this timeless masterpiece and salutes Childress as a towering figure in contemporary theater history. Ensemble Award: In Six, Adrianna Hicks, Andrea Macasaet, Brittney Mack, Abby Mueller, Samantha Pauly, and Anna Uzele bring to musical life the women who married England’s King Henry VIII. The fanciful result is a buoyant dramatization of their individually purposeful and collectively empowering journeys. The Sam Norkin Off-Broadway Award: This season, as a woman hiding her brother from the Taliban in Sylvia Khoury’s Selling Kabul and an English instructor straddling two very different cultures in Sanaz Toossi’s English, Marjan Neshat embodied disparate characters so fully that it was hard to recognize the single actor in the two roles. Whether in drama or comedy, Neshat mines the playwright’s text for a vast panoply of emotions that yield vivid, intricate portrayals of the parts she undertakes. Additional Special Awards: Dede Ayite seems to have costumed half the actors of this theater season with her designs for Merry Wives, Seven Deadly Sins, The Last of the Love Letters, Chicken and Biscuits, Slave Play, Nollywood Dreams, American Buffalo, and How I learned to Drive. Whether dressing working-class Marylanders of the 1960s, amateur criminals of the 1970s, or West African immigrants in today’s Harlem, Ayite has a knack for conveying characters’ means, values, and aspirations before the actors utter a word. Adam Rigg enhanced storytelling through wildly varying scenic designs this season including: a house in wood, shadow, and reflective glass that draws the audience into the Flint, Michigan water crisis in Cullud Wattah; a community cul-de-sac where trauma and history are celebrated in On Sugarland; and the falling walls, flower-covered hillsides, and functional seaside fun ride of The Skin of Our Teeth. With the category-defying Oratorio for Living Things, Heather Christian aims to encompass all human existence in a single inventive and startlingly beautiful work. In times of pandemic, war, and social upheaval, Christian’s work (directed by Lee Sunday Evans and brought to life by a superb cast and creative team) is an awe-inspiring reminder that, even in the darkest times, there will always be artistic peaks to scale. Productions with multiple nominations: Six: 10 Kimberly Akimbo: 9 Company: 8 Intimate Apparel: 8 MJ: 7 Clyde’s: 5 English: 5 Merry Wives: 5 The Chinese Lady: 5 Assassins: 4 On Sugarland: 4 Paradise Square: 4 Sanctuary City: 4 Skeleton Crew: 4 The Hang: 4 Cullud Wattah: 3 Diana: The Musical: 3 Flying Over Sunset: 3 Funny Girl: 3 Harmony: 3 Lackawanna Blues: 3 Mr. Saturday Night: 3 Prayer For the French Republic: 3 Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992: 3 Caroline, Or Change: 2 for colored girls who considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf: 2 Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord: 2 Mrs. Doubtfire: 2 Selling Kabul: 2, Seven Deadly Sins: 2 The Alchemist: 2 Thoughts of a Colored Man: 2 Trouble in Mind: 2 |
