Winners of the 2023 Drama League Awards
Monochromatic headshots of five different dramatists
Amy Herzog, Matthew López, Amber Ruffin, Marc Shaiman, and Scott Wittman

New York, NY – Winners for the 2023 Drama League Awards were revealed in a daytime May 19, 2023 ceremony at the Ziegfeld Ballroom. Some Like It Hot and Leopoldstadt took the mantle as the season’s Outstanding Production of a Broadway or off-Broadway Musical and Play, respectively. Current Sweeney Todd star Annaleigh Ashford took the Distinguished Performance Award.

Winning for Outstanding Revival categories were Into the Woods for Broadway or off-Broadway Musical, and A Doll’s House for Broadway or off-Broadway Play. Anne Kauffman won Outstanding Direction of a Play for her work on The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, and Lear deBessonet took Outstanding Direction of a Musical for Into the Woods.

See below for the full list of winners and nominees.

DISTINGUISHED PERFORMANCE AWARD
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Topdog/Underdog
Hiran Abeysekera, Life of Pi
WINNER - Annaleigh Ashford, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Sara Bareilles, Into the Woods
Stephanie Berry, the bandaged place
Brittany Bradford, Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story In Black And White
Danielle Brooks, The Piano Lesson
Rachel Brosnahan, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window
Marylouise Burke, Epiphany
D’Arcy Carden, The Thanksgiving Play
Jessica Chastain, A Doll’s House
Sharon D. Clarke, Death of a Salesman
Jodie Comer, Prima Facie
Jordan E. Cooper, Ain’t No Mo’
Lorna Courtney, & Juliet
Micaela Diamond, Parade
K. Todd Freeman, Downstate
J. Harrison Ghee, Some Like It Hot
Josh Groban, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Ryan J. Haddad, Dark Disabled Stories
Corey Hawkins, Topdog/Underdog
Sean Hayes, Good Night, Oscar
Stephen McKinley Henderson, Between Riverside and Crazy
Oscar Isaac, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window
Tarra Conner Jones, White Girl in Danger
Esco Jouléy, Wolf Play
Somi Kakoma, Dreaming Zenzile
David Krumholtz, Leopoldstadt
Linda Lavin, You Will Get Sick
Laura Linney, Summer, 1976
Jefferson Mays, A Christmas Carol
Patina Miller, Into the Woods
Marla Mindelle, Titanique
Arian Moayed, A Doll’s House
Gargi Mukherjee, Public Obscenities
Alex Newell, Shucked
Jeremy Pope, The Collaboration
Colton Ryan, New York, New York
Phillipa Soo, Camelot
Marcel Spears, Fat Ham
Katy Sullivan, Cost of Living
Will Swenson, A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical
John Douglas Thompson, Endgame
Anna Uzele, New York, New York
John David Washington, The Piano Lesson
Betsy Wolfe, & Juliet
David Zayas, Cost of Living

The League also acknowledges previous Distinguished Performance Award winners, ineligible to win the honor again, showing exemplary work in Broadway and Off-Broadway productions this season, including Danny Burstein in Pictures From Home, Norbert Leo Butz in Cornelia Street, Kathleen Chalfant in The Year of Magical Thinking, Neil Patrick Harris in Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Nathan Lane in Pictures From Home, Audra McDonald in Ohio State Murders, Bebe Neuwirth in The Bedwetter, and Ben Platt in Parade.

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A PLAY
the bandaged place by Harrison David Rivers
Cost of Living by Martyna Majok
Dark Disabled Stories by Ryan J. Haddad
Downstate by Bruce Norris
Elyria by Deepa Purohit
Fat Ham by James Ijames
Good Night, Oscar by Doug Wright
WINNERLeopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard
Life of Pi adapted by Lolita Chakrabarti based on the novel by Yann Martel
Peter Pan Goes Wrong by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields
Prima Facie by Suzie Miller
Public Obscenities by Shayok Misha Chowdhury
Summer, 1976 by David Auburn

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A PLAY
WINNER - A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, adapted by Amy Herzog
Ohio State Murders by Adrienne Kennedy
Hamlet/Oresteia by William Shakespeare/Aeschylus
The Piano Lesson by August Wilson
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window by Lorraine Hansberry
The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa FastHorse
Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks
Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White by Alice Childress
Wolf Play by Hansol Jung

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A MUSICAL
& Juliet by David West Read, music and lyrics by Max Martin
A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical book by Anthony McCarten, music by Neil Diamond, lyrics by various artists
Dreaming Zenzile by Somi Kakoma
New York, New York book by David Thompson and Sharon Washington, music and lyrics by John Kander and Fred Ebb, additional lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Kander
Shucked book by Robert Horn, music and lyrics by Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally
WINNER - Some Like It Hot book by Matthew López and Amber Ruffin, music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman
Titanique book by Tye Blue, Marla Mindelle, and Constantine Rousouli
White Girl in Danger book, music, and lyrics by Michael R. Jackson
Wise Children’s Wuthering Heights based on the novel by Emily Brontë, adapted by Emma Rice

OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL
Bob Fosse’s Dancin’
Camelot music by Frederick Loewe, lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner, new book by Aaron Sorkin 
WINNER - Into the Woods music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by James Lapine
A Man of No Importance, book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens
Parade, book by Alfred Uhry, music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
1776 music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards, book by Peter Stone
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, book by Hugh Wheeler, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

OUTSTANDING DIRECTION OF A PLAY
Jo Bonney, Cost of Living
Shayok Misha Chowdhury, Public Oscenities
WINNER - Anne Kauffman, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window
Kenny Leon, Topdog/Underdog
Jamie Lloyd, A Doll’s House
David Mendizábal, the bandaged place
Awoye Timpo, Elyria and Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White
Dustin Wills, Wolf Play

OUTSTANDING DIRECTION OF A MUSICAL
Lileana Blain-Cruz, Dreaming Zenzile and White Girl in Danger
WINNER - Lear DeBessonet, Into the Woods
Thomas Kail, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Casey Nicholaw, Some Like It Hot
Jack O’Brien, Shucked
Barlett Sher, Camelot
Susan Stroman, New York, New York

Off-Broadway’s Merrily We Roll Along will be considered next season, in conjunction with its upcoming Broadway transfer. Kimberly Akimbo was eligible during its 2021 Off-Broadway run, making the Broadway transfer ineligible this season. Cost of Living was deemed a transfer of the earlier Off-Broadway production, and thus was ruled eligible in the Outstanding Production of a Play categories. Between Riverside and Crazy, The Thanksgiving Play, and Wolf Play were deemed different enough from earlier runs that they were ruled eligible in the revival categories.

The Drama League Awards are among the oldest theatrical honors in America, having been first presented in 1922 and subsequently formalized in 1935. It recognizes work playing Broadway and Off-Broadway. The awards are determined by Drama League members, a group that includes award-winning actors, designers, directors, playwrights, producers, industry veterans, critics and dedicated audiences from across the nation.