Earlier this month, on May 4, awards season (theater’s version!) kicked off at NYU Skirball, where the 40th Lucille Lortel Awards recognized the créme of the off-Broadway season. (Moises Kaufman and Amanda Gronich’s Here There Are Blueberries, Dave Malloy’s Three Houses, and Sam Yates and Andrew Scott’s Vanya were among the night’s victors.) Trailing them were the 78th Theatre World Awards, the announcement of this year’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama (Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Purpose!), and the 89th New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards, all on May 5; and, just this past Monday, the 75th Outer Critics Circle Awards.
This Friday, the best and brightest of the New York theater community convened yet again for the 91st Annual Drama League Awards, heralding productions both off and on the Great White Way—and anointing exactly one actor with the hallowed prize for distinguised performance, an award they can recieve only once in their career. (Sarah Paulson took it last year for her barnstorming turn in Appropriate.)
Ahead of all their evening shows, the starry group of 2025 Drama League nominees—announced back in April by The Great Gatsby’s Sarah Hyland and Cabaret’s Orville Peck—descened on the Ziegfeld Ballroom in midtown for the four-hour ceremony, festively attired and in high spirits. But who came away with hardware? See all the winners from the Drama League Awards, hosted by Frank DiLella, below.
Drama League Awards Special Recognition Honorees
Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theater: Lea Salonga
Founders Award for Excellence in Directing: Whitney White
Gratitude Award: Robert Greenblatt and Neil Meron
Contribution to the Theater: Kate Navin and Audible Theater
Outstanding Production of a Play
WINNER: Oh, Mary!
The Antiquities
Becoming Eve
English
Good Bones
Good Night, And Good Luck
Here There Are Blueberries
John Proctor is the Villain
Liberation
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Purpose
Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Walden
Outstanding Revival of a Play
WINNER: Eureka Day
WINNER: Vanya
The Cherry Orchard
Ghosts
Glengarry Glen Ross
Home
Othello
Romeo + Juliet
A Streetcar Named Desire
Wine in the Wilderness
Yellow Face
Outstanding Production of a Musical
WINNER: Maybe Happy Ending
BOOP! The Musical
Buena Vista Social Club
Dead Outlaw
Death Becomes Her
Drag: The Musical
Just in Time
Macbeth in Stride
Operation Mincemeat
Real Women Have Curves
Smash
Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends
Outstanding Revival of a Musical
WINNER: Sunset Blvd.
Cats: “The Jellicle Ball”
Floyd Collins
Gypsy
The Last Five Years
Once Upon a Mattress
The Marriage of Figaro
Pirates! The Penzance Musical
Urinetown
Outstanding Direction of a Play
WINNER: Sam Pinkleton, Oh, Mary!
Knud Adams, English
Saheem Ali, Good Bones
David Cromer, Good Night, And Good Luck
Tyne Rafaeli, Becoming Eve
Anna D. Shapiro, Eureka Day
Danya Taymor, John Proctor is The Villain
Whitney White, Liberation
Kip Williams, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Sam Yates, Vanya
Outstanding Direction of a Musical
WINNER: Michael Arden, Maybe Happy Ending
Christopher Gattelli, Death Becomes Her
Robert Hastie, Operation Mincemeat
Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, Cats: “The Jellicle Ball”
Jamie Lloyd, Sunset Blvd.
Jerry Mitchell, BOOP! The Musical
Susan Stroman, Smash
Alex Timbers, Just In Time
Annie Tippe, Three Houses
Sergio Trujillo, Real Women Have Curves
George C. Wolfe, Gypsy
Distinguished Performance
WINNER: Nicole Scherzinger, Sunset Blvd.
Tala Ashe, English
Brooks Ashmanskas, Smash
Stori Ayers, Home
Natalie Venetia Belcon, Buena Vista Social Club
George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck
Kit Connor, Romeo + Juliet
Tatianna Córdoba, Real Women Have Curves
Darren Criss, Maybe Happy Ending
Kieran Culkin, Glengarry Glen Ross
André De Shields, Cats: “The Jellicle Ball”
Tommy Dorfman, Becoming Eve
Robert Downey, Jr., McNeal
Adam Driver, Hold On To Me Darling
Andrew Durand, Dead Outlaw
Cole Escola, Oh, Mary!
Mia Farrow, The Roommate
Tom Francis, Sunset Blvd.
Amber Gray, Eureka Day
David Greenspan, I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan
Jonathan Groff, Just In Time
Jake Gyllenhaal, Othello
Ryan J. Haddad, Hold Me In The Water
Megan Hilty, Death Becomes Her
Robyn Hurder, Smash
LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Purpose
Nick Jonas, The Last Five Years
Ramin Karimloo, Pirates! The Penzance Musical
Gracie Lawrence, Just In Time
Beth Leavel, Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends
Justina Machado, Real Women Have Curves
Jak Malone, Operation Mincemeat
Louis McCartney, Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Idina Menzel, Redwood
Paul Mescal, A Streetcar Named Desire
Jinkx Monsoon, Pirates! The Penzance Musical
Marjan Neshat, English
Sandra Oh, The Welkin
Lily Rabe, Ghosts
Jasmine Amy Rogers, BOOP! The Musical
Lea Salonga, Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends
Andrew Scott, Vanya
Helen J. Shen, Maybe Happy Ending
Jennifer Simard, Death Becomes Her
Sarah Snook, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Ephraim Sykes, Our Town
Alaska Thunderfuck, Drag: The Musical
Adrienne Warren, The Last Five Years
Denzel Washington, Othello
Joy Woods, Gypsy
Kara Young, Purpose and Table 17
See photos from inside the 2025 Drama League Awards:
