Nominations for the 89th Annual Drama League Awards were announced April 25 by Roger Bart and Justin Guarini at an event at the New York Library for the Performing Arts. The honors will be handed out May 19 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom.
The Drama League Awards are among the oldest theatrical honors in America, having been first presented in 1922 and subsequently formalized in 1935. The ceremony culminates in the presentation of the Distinguished Performance Award, which goes to one artist a year and can only be won once in an artist’s lifetime. Recent winners have included Glenda Jackson for Three Tall Women, Ben Platt for Dear Evan Hansen, and Lin-Manuel Miranda for Hamilton.
As previously announced, the League will also honor André De Shields, Lear deBessonet, The Drama Book Shop, and Darin Oduyoye as 2023 special recognition honorees at the May 19 ceremony.
See below for the full list of nominations.
Distinguished Performance Award
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Topdog/Underdog
Hiran Abeysekera, Life of Pi
Annaleigh Ashford, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Sara Bareilles, Into the Woods
Stephanie Berry, the bandaged place
Brittany Bradford, Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story In Black And White
Danielle Brooks, The Piano Lesson
Rachel Brosnahan, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window
Marylouise Burke, Epiphany
D’Arcy Carden, The Thanksgiving Play
Jessica Chastain, A Doll's House
Sharon D. Clarke, Death of a Salesman
Jodie Comer, Prima Facie
Jordan E. Cooper, Ain't No Mo'
Lorna Courtney, & Juliet
Micaela Diamond, Parade
K. Todd Freeman, Downstate
J. Harrison Ghee, Some Like It Hot
Josh Groban, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Ryan J. Haddad, Dark Disabled Stories
Corey Hawkins, Topdog/Underdog
Sean Hayes, Good Night, Oscar
Stephen McKinley Henderson, Between Riverside and Crazy
Oscar Isaac, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window
Tarra Conner Jones, White Girl in Danger
Esco Jouléy, Wolf Play
Somi Kakoma, Dreaming Zenzile
David Krumholtz, Leopoldstadt
Linda Lavin, You Will Get Sick
Laura Linney, Summer, 1976
Jefferson Mays, A Christmas Carol
Patina Miller, Into the Woods
Marla Mindelle, Titanique
Arian Moayed, A Doll's House
Gargi Mukherjee, Public Obscenities
Alex Newell, Shucked
Jeremy Pope, The Collaboration
Colton Ryan, New York, New York
Phillipa Soo, Camelot
Marcel Spears, Fat Ham
Katy Sullivan, Cost of Living
Will Swenson, A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical
John Douglas Thompson, Endgame
Anna Uzele, New York, New York
John David Washington, The Piano Lesson
Betsy Wolfe, & Juliet
David Zayas, Cost of Living
The League also acknowledges previous Distinguished Performance Award winners, ineligible to win the honor again, showing exemplary work in Broadway and Off-Broadway productions this season, including Danny Burstein in Pictures From Home, Norbert Leo Butz in Cornelia Street, Kathleen Chalfant in The Year of Magical Thinking, Neil Patrick Harris in Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Nathan Lane in Pictures From Home, Audra McDonald in Ohio State Murders, Bebe Neuwirth in The Bedwetter, and Ben Platt in Parade.
Outstanding Production of a Play
The Bandaged Place
Cost of Living
Dark Disabled Stories
Downstate
Elyria
Fat Ham
Good Night, Oscar
Leopoldstadt
Life of Pi
Peter Pan Goes Wrong
Prima Facie
Public Obscenities
Summer, 1976
Outstanding Revival of a Play
A Doll's House
Ohio State Murders
Hamlet/Oresteia
The Piano Lesson
A Raisin in the Sun
The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window
The Thanksgiving Play
Topdog/Underdog
Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White
Wolf Play
Outstanding Production of a Musical
& Juliet
A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical
Dreaming Zenzile
New York, New York
Shucked
Some Like It Hot
Titanique
White Girl in Danger
Wise Children's Wuthering Heights
Outstanding Revival of a Musical
Bob Fosse's Dancin'
Camelot
Into the Woods
A Man of No Importance
Parade
1776
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Outstanding Direction of a Play
Jo Bonney, Cost of Living
Shayok Misha Chowdhury, Public Oscenities
Anne Kauffman, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window
Kenny Leon, Topdog/Underdog
Jamie Lloyd, A Doll's House
David Mendizábal, the bandaged place
Awoye Timpo, Elyria and Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White
Dustin Wills, Wolf Play
Outstanding Direction of a Musical
Lileana Blain-Cruz, Dreaming Zenzile and White Girl in Danger
Lear DeBessonet, Into the Woods
Thomas Kail, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Casey Nicholaw, Some Like It Hot
Jack O'Brien, Shucked
Barlett Sher, Camelot
Susan Stroman, New York, New York
Off-Broadway's Merrily We Roll Along will be considered next season, in conjunction with its upcoming Broadway transfer. Kimberly Akimbo was eligible during its 2021 Off-Broadway run, making the Broadway transfer ineligible this season. Cost of Living was deemed a transfer of the earlier Off-Broadway production, and thus was ruled eligible in the Outstanding Production of a Play categories. Between Riverside and Crazy, The Thanksgiving Play, and Wolf Play were deemed different enough from earlier runs that they were ruled eligible in the revival categories.
