The 86th Annual Drama League Awards - And the Nominees are...

Check out our full list of nominees for The 86th Annual Drama League Awards...

Nominees for The 86th Annual Drama League Awards have been confirmed, with Beetlejuice favorites Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer and two-time Tony Award nominee Alex Brightman revealing the nominations during The Gratitude Awards Spring 2020 broadcast.

Voting for Drama League members closes on May 22 and the winners will be announced by Gabriel Stelian-Shanks and Bevin Ross via livestream in June.

As previously reported, the recipients of the 2020 special recognition awards are Pulitzer Prize and three-time Tony Award winner James Lapine (who will receive The Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theater Award), two-time Tony Award-winning director Marianne Elliott (who will receive The Founders Award for Excellence in Directing) and the late, great, mulitiple Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally (who will be honored posthumously with The Unique Contribution to Theater Award).

The 2020 nominees by category are:

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A BROADWAY OR OFF-BROADWAY PLAY

Cambodian Rock Band
Dana H.
Grand Horizons
The Hot Wing King
The Inheritance
The Michaels
Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow
one in two
Sea Wall/A Life
Seared
Slave Play
Stew

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A BROADWAY OR OFF-BROADWAY MUSICAL

Girl From the North Country
Jagged Little Pill
Moulin Rouge! The Musical
Octet
The Secret Life of Bees
Sing Street
SIX
Soft Power
A Strange Loop
Tina: The Tina Turner Musical

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A BROADWAY OR OFF-BROADWAY PLAY

Betrayal
for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf
Fires in the Mirror
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
Judgment Day
Medea
Native Son
The Rose Tattoo
A Soldier's Play
The Woman in Black

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A BROADWAY OR OFF-BROADWAY MUSICAL

Enter Laughing: The Musical
Little Shop of Horrors
Rock of Ages
The Unsinkable Molly Brown
West Side Story

DISTINGUISHED PERFORMANCE AWARD

(One winner is selected from this category. The recipient can only receive the award once during his or her career)

David Acton, The Woman in Black
Jeffrey Bean, Dublin Carol
Ato Blankson-Wood, The Rolling Stone and Slave Play
Christian Borle, Little Shop of Horrors
Danielle Brooks, Much Ado About Nothing
Danny Burstein, Moulin Rouge! The Musical
Rose Byrne, Medea 
Len Cariou, Harry Townsend's Last Stand
Patrice Johnson Chevannes, runboyrun & In Old Age
Liza Colón-Zayas, Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven
Kate del Castillo, the way she spoke
Edmund Donovan, Greater Clements
Raúl Esparza, Seared
Francesca Faridany, The Half-Life of Marie Curie
Halley Feiffer, The Pain of My Belligerence
Danyel Fulton, Broadbend, Arkansas
Annie Golden, Broadway Bounty Hunter
Donnetta Lavinia Grays, Where We Stand
David Alan Grier, A Soldier's Play
Jonathan Groff, Little Shop of Horrors
Jake Gyllenhaal, Sea Wall/A Life
Tom Hiddleston, Betrayal
Paul Hilton, The Inheritance
Kathryn Hunter, Timon of Athens
Galen Ryan Kane, Native Son
Brittney Mack, SIX
April Matthis, Toni Stone
Susannah Millonzi, The Crucible
Kate Mulgrew, The Half-Life of Marie Curie
Joe Ngo, Cambodian Rock Band
Deirdre O'Connell, Dana H.
Brenock O'Connor, Sing Street
Okwui Okpokwasili, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf
Karen Olivo, Moulin Rouge! The Musical
Larry Owens, A Strange Loop
Lauren Patten, Jagged Little Pill
Chris Perfetti, Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow
Ben Porter, The Woman in Black
Isaac Powell, West Side Story
Jonathan Pryce, The Height of the Storm
Elizabeth Rodriguez, Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven
Michael Shannon, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
Tom Sturridge, Sea Wall/A Life
Marisa Tomei, The Rose Tattoo
Blair Underwood, A Soldier's Play
Michael Urie, Grand Horizons
Adrienne Warren, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical
Michael Benjamin Washington, Fires in the Mirror
Portia, Stew

NOTE: The Drama League also wishes to acknowledge the previous recipients of the Distinguished Performance Award who appeared in New York productions this season. As the Award can only be won once in a performer's lifetime, they are ineligible this season. Their exemplary work, however, is recognized and applauded:

Harvey Fierstein, Bella Bella
Mary-Louise Parker, The Sound Inside
Audra McDonald, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune

Recipients of the coveted "Distinguished Performance Award" over the years has included a roster of theatre legends such as Audra McDonald, Liam Neeson, Hugh Jackman, Patti LuPone, Glenn Close, Liev Schreiber, Sir John Gielgud, Harvey Fierstein, Cherry Jones, Alec Guinness, James Earl Jones, Julie Harris, Helen Hayes, Jeremy Irons, Mary-Louise Parker, Sir Ian McKellen, Bernadette Peters, Nathan Lane, Chita Rivera, Neil Patrick Harris, Christopher Plummer, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Platt, Glenda Jackson, and Bryan Cranston.

The Drama League Awards were first awarded back in 1922 and were formalised as such in 1935, becoming the oldest theatrical honors in the United States. They remain the only major theatergoer awards chosen together by both industry professionals and audience members — specifically, by the thousands of Drama League members nationwide who attend Broadway and Off-Broadway productions.

^{(Photos by Manuel Harlan / Joan Marcus / Richard Hubert Smith / Matthew Murphy / Marc Brenner)}