Nominations have been revealed for the 91st annual Drama League Awards. Sarah Hyland, who recently returned to Broadway in “The Great Gatsby,” and Orville Peck, currently making his Main Stem debut in “Cabaret,” announced the nominations on April 22 at the New York Library for the Performing Arts. Winners of the awards, which encompass productions that opened on or Off-Broadway during the 2024-2025 season, will be named in a ceremony on May 16 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom.
Thirty-three of the new Broadway productions from the 2024-2025 season received at least one nomination across seven competitive categories: Outstanding Production of a Play, Outstanding Revival of a Play, Outstanding Production of a Musical, Outstanding Revival of a Musical, Outstanding Direction of a Play, Outstanding Direction of a Musical and Distinguished Performance. Of those 33 productions, 26 received more than one nomination.
Leading the pack were the Main Stem productions of “Death Becomes Her,” “English,” “Just in Time,” “Maybe Happy Ending,” “Real Women Have Curves,” “Smash” and “Sunset Boulevard,” all of which received four nominations. Each production earned a nod in their respective best show category, as well as a directing nomination and two performance nominations.
Saheem Ali was the sole individual to earn two directing nominations. Ali was recognized for helming Broadway’s “Buena Vista Social Club” as well as the Off-Broadway production of “Good Bones.”
Several nominated directors and actors also saw shows they wrote receive nominations (although, it is important to note that nominations in the four production categories go to the producers, not the creatives). Whitney White, Kip Williams and Sam Yates all received nominations for Outstanding Direction of a Play, for “Liberation,” “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and “Vanya,” respectively. White wrote (and performed) Outstanding Production of a Musical nominee “Macbeth in Stride,” while Williams’ adaptation of “Dorian Gray” received an Outstanding Production of a Play nod and Yates’s co-adaptation (with Simon Stephens) of “Vanya” was nominated in the Outstanding Revival of a Play Category.
Three performers also saw shows they wrote nominated. Cole Escola, who wrote the Outstanding Production of a Play nominee “Oh, Mary!,” received a nod in the Distinguished Performance category. George Clooney, who co-wrote additional Outstanding Production of a Play nominee “Good Night, and Good Luck” with Grant Heslov, received a performance nod for starring in the drama. Finally, Alaska Thunderfuck, who co-created (along with Tomas Costanza and Ashley Gordon) the Outstanding Production of a Musical nominee “Drag: The Musical” (one of only two Off-Broadway musicals acknowledged in the category), was also cited in the Distinguished Performance category.
Also noteworthy is the nomination of the City Center Encores! production of “Urinetown” in the Outstanding Revival of a Musical category. This marks the first year that limited-run Encores! productions were eligible and nominated for Drama League Awards consideration.
As previously reported, Lea Salonga, White, Robert Greenblatt, Neil Meron, Audible Theater and Kate Navin are set to receive special, noncompetitive Drama League honors.
To be eligible for the 2025 awards, productions had to begin previews by April 20. It should be noted that the Drama League allows for Broadway transfers whose original Off-Broadway mounting was eligible in a past season to be eligible again. This year, the nominated productions of “Buena Vista Social Club,” “Dead Outlaw,” English” and “Oh, Mary!” were all also eligible during their Off-Broadway runs.
The 2025 awards committee is co-chaired by Bonnie Comley and Darin Oduyoye. The steering committee includes Trish Chambers, Irene Gandy, Sarah Hutton, Mary Jain, Paula Kaminsky Davis, Fred Siegel and Kumiko Yoshii. The awards honorary committee, still in formation, includes Annaleigh Ashford, Danny Burstein, Sutton Foster, Richard Kind, Patti LuPone, Audra McDonald, Lance Roberts and Will Swenson.
A complete list of nominees can be found below:
Outstanding Production of a Play
“The Antiquities”
“Becoming Eve”
“English”
“Good Bones”
“Good Night, and Good Luck”
“Here There Are Blueberries”
“John Proctor Is the Villain”
“Liberation”
“Oh, Mary!”
“The Picture of Dorian Gray”
“Purpose”
“Stranger Things: The First Shadow”
“Walden”
Outstanding Revival of a Play
“The Cherry Orchard”
“Eureka Day”
“Ghosts”
“Glengarry Glen Ross”
“Home”
“Othello”
“Romeo + Juliet”
“A Streetcar Named Desire”
“Vanya”
“Wine in the Wilderness”
“Yellow Face”
Outstanding Production of a Musical
“Boop! The Musical”
“Buena Vista Social Club”
“Dead Outlaw”
“Death Becomes Her”
“Drag: The Musical”
“Just in Time”
“Macbeth in Stride”
“Maybe Happy Ending”
“Operation Mincemeat”
“Real Women Have Curves”
“Smash”
“Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends”
Outstanding Revival of a Musical
“Cats: The Jellicle Ball”
“Floyd Collins”
“Gypsy”
“The Last Five Years”
“Once Upon a Mattress”
“The Marriage of Figaro”
“Pirates! The Penzance Musical”
“Sunset Boulevard”
“Urinetown”
Outstanding Direction of a Play
Knud Adams, “English”
Saheem Ali, “Good Bones”
David Cromer, “Good Night, and Good Luck”
Sam Pinkleton, “Oh, Mary!”
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
Michael Arden, “Maybe Happy Ending”
Saheem Ali, “Buena Vista Social Club”
Christopher Gattelli, “Death Becomes Her”
Robert Hastie, “Operation Mincemeat”
Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, “Cats: The Jellicle Ball”
Jamie Lloyd, “Sunset Boulevard”
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
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 Boulevard”
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”
Nicole Scherzinger, “Sunset Boulevard”
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”
Special Recognitions:
Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theater
Lea Salonga
Founders Award for Excellence in Directing
Whitney White
Contribution to the Theater
Kate Navin and Audible Theater
Gratitude Award
Robert Greenblatt and Neil Meron
Nominations by Broadway show:
“Death Becomes Her” — 4
“English” — 4
“Just in Time” — 4
“Maybe Happy Ending” — 4
“Real Women Have Curves” — 4
“Smash” — 4
“Sunset Boulevard” — 4
“Boop! The Musical” — 3
“Buena Vista Social Club” — 3
“Eureka Day” — 3
“Good Night, and Good Luck” — 3
“Gypsy” — 3
“Oh, Mary!” — 3
“Operation Mincemeat” — 3
“Othello” — 3
“Pirates! The Penzance Musical” — 3
“Purpose” — 3
“Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends” — 3
“The Last Five Years” — 3
“The Picture of Dorian Gray” — 3
“Dead Outlaw” — 2
“Glengarry Glen Ross” — 2
“Home” — 2
“John Proctor Is the Villain” — 2
“Romeo + Juliet” — 2
“Stranger Things: The First Shadow” — 2
“Floyd Collins” — 1
“McNeal” — 1
“Once Upon a Mattress” — 1
“Our Town” — 1
“Redwood” — 1
“The Roommate” — 1
“Yellow Face” — 1
As an individual can only win the Distinguished Performance Award once in their lifetime, the Drama League acknowledges this season’s work of previous recipients Annaleigh Ashford (“All In: Comedy About Love), Danny Burstein (“Gypsy”), Norbert Leo Butz (“Vladimir”), Sutton Foster (“Once Upon a Mattress”), Neil Patrick Harris (“Shit. Meet. Fan.”), Patti LuPone (“The Roommate”), Audra McDonald (“Gypsy”), Lin-Manuel Miranda (“All In: Comedy About Love”) and Bernadette Peters (“Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends”).
