urban excavations

May 17, 2026 — Winners and honorees for the 2026 Annual Drama Desk Awards were celebrated this evening at The Town Hall (123 West 43rd Street). Titanique’s Marla Mindelle hosted the 70th annual awards ceremony for the organization, commemorated with the largest gathering of past and present winners and nominees it had ever assembled. The program was presented by the Drama Desk organization and produced by Drama Desk Awards Productions, a new venture of Scene Partners and The Season. A full listing of the 2025-2026 nominations and winners can be found here.

In keeping with the Drama Desk’s mission, the nominators considered shows that opened on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off Broadway during the 2025-2026 New York theater season, that the Drama Desk determined ended as of April 26, 2026. The 270 productions considered by the nominating committee during the season were required to run for 21 or more live performances to be eligible.

All performance categories have been gender-free for several seasons: Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play, Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical, Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play, and Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical. Each of the four categories has 10 or more nominations and 2 or more winners. In this year, the only tie award was in the category of Outstanding Choreography.

In determining the eligibility of plays or performances from prior seasons, the nominating committee considered only those elements that constituted new work. These productions include A Christmas Carol (Old Vic), CATS: The Jellicle Ball, Eurydice, Exorcistic: The Rock Musical, Heathers the Musical, Liberation, Marjorie Prime, Oratorio for Living Things, The Whole of Time, Titaníque, and You Got Older.

Productions deemed not eligible, either because they were considered in their entirety in prior seasons or because they did not invite awards consideration, include All Out: Comedy About Ambition, Beetlejuice, Creditors, Father Anonymous, Mamma Mia!, Pen Pals, Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes, Slam Frank, What Happened Was…, and What We Did Before Our Moth Days.

What sets the Drama Desk Awards apart is that they are voted on and bestowed by theater critics, journalists, editors, and publishers covering theater. The Drama Desk Awards honor all aspects of New York’s professional theater.

David Barbour and Charles Wright are the Drama Desk co-presidents. The 2025-2026 Drama Desk Nominating Committee is composed of: Martha Wade Steketee (Chair; freelance: UrbanExcavations.com), Linda Armstrong (New York Amsterdam News), Dan Dinero (Theatre is Easy), Peter Filichia (Broadway Radio), Kenji Fujishima (freelance: Theatermania), Margaret Hall (Playbill), Raven Snook (TDF Stages, freelance: Time Out New York), and Charles Wright, ex-officio.

For the nominating committee, the work seeing and discussing the theatrical offerings of the 2026-2027 season has already begun.