The 59th Annual Drama Desk Awards



The 59th Annual Drama Desk Awards winners were announced on Sun 01 June 2014 at an award ceremony hosted by Laura Benanti at The Town Hall in Manhattan.

The musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, currently playing an open run at the Walter Kerr Theatre, was the most honored production of the evening, winning a total of seven awards, including Outstanding Musical.

Robert Schenkkan's All The Way, playing at Broadway's Neil Simon Theatre through to 29 Jun 2014, was named Outstanding Play - along with Outstanding Actor in a Play for Bryan Cranston.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch, currently playing an open run at the Belasco Theatre, was named Outstanding Revival of a Musical, winning a total of two awards, also for Leading Actor in a Musical for performer Neil Patrick Harris.

The Outstanding Revival of a Play Award was presented to Shakespeare's Globe's revival of Twelfth Night (now closed), which also won the award for Best Director of a Play.


The 2014 Drama Desk Award winnersby category:
Winners are indicated in bold font.

Outstanding Play:

  • Nell Benjamin: The Exlorers 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 & 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

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 & Murder
  • Steven Pasquale, The Bridges of Madison County
  • Bryce Pinkham, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & 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: The Musical
  • 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 (tie)
  • Adriane Lenox, After Midnight
  • Sydney Lucas, Fun Home
  • Laura Osnes, The Threepenny Opera
  • Jennifer Simard, Disaster!
  • Lauren Worsham, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder (tie)

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: The Musical
  • Alex Timbers, Rocky
  • Darko Tresnjak, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & 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: The Musical
  • 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 & 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 & 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 & 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 & 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 & Murder
  • Richard Hoover, Small Engine Repair
  • Santo Loquasto, Bullets Over Broadway: The Musical
  • 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: The Musical
  • 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 & 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: The Musical
  • Peter Hylenski, Rocky
  • Brian Ronan, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
  • Dan Moses Schreier, A Gentleman's Guide to Love & 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 Performnce:

  • 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.

The following awards were voted by the nominating committee and will be presented by the Drama Desk at its awards ceremony: Special Awards:
Each year, the Drama Desk votes special awards to recognize excellence and significant contributions to the theater. For 2013/2014, these awards are presented to:

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.
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.
Individual artists and productions singled out for these special awards are not eligible in their competitive categories.


Awards by show:

A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder
(7 wins)
Outstanding Musical
Outstanding Actor in a Musical
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical
Outstanding Director of a Musical
Outstanding Lyrics
Outstanding Book of a Musical
Outstanding Projection Design
 
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
(3 wins)
Outstanding Actress in a Musical
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical
Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical
 
Twelfth Night
(2 wins)
Outstanding Music
Outstanding Revival of a Play
Outstanding Director of a Play
 
After Midnight
(2 wins)
Outstanding Choreography
Outstanding Revue
 
All The Way
(2 wins)
Outstanding New Play
Outstanding Leading Actor in a Play
 
The Bridges of Madison County
(2 wins)
Outstanding Music
Outstanding Orchestrations
 
The Glass Menagerie
(2 wins)
Outstanding Music in a Play
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play
 
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
(2 wins)
Outstanding Actor in a Musical
Outstanding Revival
 
Rocky
(2 wins)
Outstanding Set Design of a Musical
Outstanding Lighting Design
 
Outstanding MusicalOutstanding PlayOutstanding Revival of a MusicalOutstanding Revival of a PlayA Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder (7 wins)Outstanding Musical Outstanding Actor in a Musical Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical Outstanding Director of a Musical Outstanding Lyrics Outstanding Book of a Musical Outstanding Projection Design Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (3 wins)Outstanding Actress in a Musical Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical Twelfth Night (2 wins)Outstanding Music Outstanding Revival of a Play Outstanding Director of a Play After Midnight (2 wins)Outstanding Choreography Outstanding Revue All The Way (2 wins)Outstanding New Play Outstanding Leading Actor in a Play The Bridges of Madison County (2 wins)Outstanding Music Outstanding Orchestrations The Glass Menagerie (2 wins)Outstanding Music in a Play Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2 wins)Outstanding Actor in a Musical Outstanding Revival Rocky (2 wins)Outstanding Set Design of a Musical Outstanding Lighting Design 

Originally published on

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