Theater News

Drama Desk Award Winners Led by A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Robert Schenkkan’s ”All the Way” takes the award for Best Play and earns a Best Actor Award for Bryan Cranston.

Winners of the 59th Annual Drama Desk Awards were announced tonight from Town Hall.

Eligibility and award category designations for the productions under consideration this season were determined by the Drama Desk board of directors with recommendations from the nominating committee.

See below for the winners (indicated with an asterisk).

Outstanding Play
Nell Benjamin, The Explorers Club
Steven Levenson, Core Values
Conor McPherson, The Night Alive
Richard Nelson, Regular Singing
Bruce Norris, Domesticated
*Robert Schenkkan, All the Way
John Patrick Shanley, Outside Mullingar

Outstanding Musical
*A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Aladdin

Beautiful — The Carole King Musical
Fun Home


Love's Labour's Lost

Rocky
The Bridges of Madison County

Outstanding Revival of a Play
I Remember Mama
London Wall
No Man's Land
Of Mice and Men
The Cripple of Inishmaan
The Model Apartment
*Twelfth Night
(Shakespeare's Globe Production)

Outstanding Revival of a Musical
*Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Les Misérables
Violet

Outstanding Actor in a Play
*Bryan Cranston, All the Way
Hamish Linklater, The Comedy of Errors
Ian McKellen, No Man's Land
David Morse, The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin
Chris O'Dowd, Of Mice and Men
Daniel Radcliffe, The Cripple of Inishmaan
Denzel Washington, A Raisin in the Sun

Outstanding Actress in a Play
Barbara Andres, I Remember Mama

Tyne Daly, Mothers and Sons
*Audra McDonald, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill
Laurie Metcalf, Domesticated

J. Smith-Cameron, Juno and the Paycock

Harriet Walter, Julius Caesar

Outstanding Actor in a Musical
*Neil Patrick Harris, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Adam Jacobs, Aladdin
Andy Karl, Rocky
*Jefferson Mays, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
Steven Pasquale, The Bridges of Madison County
Bryce Pinkham, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Outstanding Actress in a Musical
Sutton Foster, Violet
Idina Menzel, If/Then
*Jessie Mueller, Beautiful — The Carole King Musical
Kelli O'Hara, The Bridges of Madison County
Margo Seibert, Tamar of the River
Barrett Wilbert Weed, Heathers The Musical

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play
*Reed Birney, Casa Valentina
Chuck Cooper, Choir Boy
Peter Maloney, Outside Mullingar
Bobby Moreno, Year of the Rooster
Bill Pullman, The Jacksonian
Brian J. Smith, The Glass Menagerie

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play

Betty Buckley, The Old Friends
Julia Coffey, London Wall
Diane Davis, The Model Apartment
*Celia Keenan-Bolger, The Glass Menagerie
Jan Maxwell, The Castle
Sophie Okonedo, A Raisin in the Sun

Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical

Danny Burstein, Cabaret

Nick Cordero, Bullets Over Broadway

Joshua Henry, Violet

*James Monroe Iglehart, Aladdin

Rory O’Malley, Nobody Loves You

Bobby Steggert, Big Fish

Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical
Stephanie J. Block, Little Miss Sunshine
*Anika Larsen, Beautiful — The Carole King Musical'
Adriane Lenox, After Midnight
Sydney Lucas, Fun Home
Laura Osnes, The Threepenny Opera
Jennifer Simard, Disaster!
*Lauren Worsham, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Outstanding Director of a Play
Joe Calarco, A Christmas Carol
*Tim Carroll, Twelfth Night
Thomas Kail, Family Furniture
Bill Rauch, All the Way
Anna D. Shapiro, Domesticated
Julie Taymor, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Outstanding Director of a Musical
Sam Gold, Fun Home
Michael Mayer, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Bartlett Sher, The Bridges of Madison County
Susan Stroman, Bullets Over Broadway
Alex Timbers, Rocky
*Darko Tresnjak, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Outstanding Choreography
*Warren Carlyle, After Midnight
Steven Hoggett, Kelly Devine, Rocky
Danny Mefford, Love's Labour's Lost
Casey Nicholaw, Aladdin
Susan Stroman, Bullets Over Broadway
Sonya Tayeh, Kung Fu

Outstanding Music
*Jason Robert Brown, The Bridges of Madison County
Andrew Lippa, Big Fish
Steven Lutvak, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
Alan Menken, Aladdin
Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe, Heathers The Musical
Jeanine Tesori, Fun Home

Outstanding Lyrics
Howard Ashman, Tim Rice, and Chad Beguelin, Aladdin
Jason Robert Brown, The Bridges of Madison County
*Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
Michael Friedman, Love's Labour's Lost
Michael Korie, Far From Heaven
Lisa Kron, Fun Home

Outstanding Book of a Musical
Chad Beguelin, Aladdin
*Robert L. Freedman, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
Joe Kinosian and Kellen Blair, Murder for Two
Lisa Kron, Fun Home
Douglas McGrath, Beautiful — The Carole King Musical
Marsha Norman, The Bridges of Madison County

Outstanding Orchestrations
*Jason Robert Brown, The Bridges of Madison County
John Clancy, Fun Home
Larry Hochman, Big Fish
Steve Sidwell, Beautiful — The Carole King Musical
Michael Starobin, If/Then
Jonathan Tunick, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Outstanding Music in a Play
Lewis Flinn, The Tribute Artist
Elliot Goldenthal, A Midsummer Night's Dream
Rob Kearns, The Life and Sort of Death of Eric Argyle
Tom Kochan, Almost, Maine
*Nico Muhly, The Glass Menagerie
Duncan Sheik, A Man's a Man

Outstanding Revue
*After Midnight
I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Musik From the Weimar and Beyond
Le Jazz Hot: How the French Saved Jazz
Til Divorce Do Us Part
What's It All About? Bacharach Reimagined

Outstanding Set Design
*Christopher Barreca, Rocky
Alexander Dodge, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
Richard Hoover, Small Engine Repair
Santo Loquasto, Bullets Over Broadway
Ian MacNeil, A Doll's House
Donyale Werle, The Explorers Club

Outstanding Costume Design
Constance Hoffman, A Midsummer Night's Dream
*William Ivey Long, Bullets Over Broadway

Zane Pihlstrom, Nutcracker Rouge

Loren Shaw, The Mysteries
Jenny Tiramani, Twelfth Night
David C. Woolard, The Heir Apparent

Outstanding Lighting Design
*Christopher Akerlind, Rocky
Jane Cox, Machinal
David Lander, The Civil War
Peter Mumford, King Lear

Brian Tovar, Tamar of the River

Japhy Weideman, Macbeth

Outstanding Projection Design
Robert Massicotte and Alexis Laurence, Cirkopolis
Sven Ortel, A Midsummer Night's Dream
*Aaron Rhyne, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Shawn Sagady, All the Way

Austin Switser, Sontag: Reborn

Ben Rubin, Arguendo

Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical
Kai Harada, Fun Home
Peter Hylenski, Bullets Over Broadway
Peter Hylenski, Rocky
*Brian Ronan, Beautiful — The Carole King Musical
Dan Moses Schreier, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Jon Weston, The Bridges of Madison County

Outstanding Sound Design in a Play

M.L. Dogg, The Open House
Katie Down, The Golden Dragon
Paul James Prendergast, All the Way

Dan Moses Schreier, Act One
Christopher Shutt, Love and Information
*Matt Tierney, Machinal

Outstanding Solo Performance
David Barlow, This Is My Office

Jim Brochu, Character Man

Hannah Cabell, Grounded

Debra Jo Rupp, Becoming Dr. Ruth
Ruben Santiago-Hudson, August Wilson's How I Learned What I Learned

*John Douglas Thompson, Satchmo at the Waldorf

Unique Theatrical Experience
Charlatan

*Cirkopolis
Mother Africa

Nothing to Hide
Nutcracker Rouge
The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill Vol. 2

Outstanding Ensemble Performance
"To the ensembles of off-Broadway's The Open House and Broadway's The Realistic Joneses and to the creator of both plays, Will Eno: for two
extraordinary casts and one impressively inventive playwright."

The Open House: Hannah Bos, Michael Countryman, Peter Friedman,
Danny McCarthy, and Carolyn McCormick.

The Realistic Joneses: Toni Collette, Michael C. Hall, Tracy Letts, and
Marisa Tomei.

Special Awards
Each year, the Drama Desk votes on special awards to recognize excellence and significant contributions to the theater. For 2013-2014, these awards are as follows:

"To Soho Rep.: For nearly four decades of artistic distinction, innovative
production, and provocative play selection."

"To Veanne Cox: For her ability to express the eccentricities, strengths, and
vulnerabilities of a range of characters, and notably for her comedic flair as
evidenced in this season's The Old Friends and The Most Deserving."

"To Ed Sylvanus Iskandar, the Sam Norkin Off-Broadway Award: For his
visionary directorial excellence. This season's The Golden Dragon and The Mysteries exemplify his bold and strikingly original imagination."