2025 Drama Desk Award winners announced

Maybe Happy Ending led the winners with six prizes, while BOOP! The Musical, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, and The Picture of Dorian Gray won three each.

The 2025 Drama Desk Award winners have been announced, with the organization honoring the best of Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway theatre.

The Broadway musical Maybe Happy Ending led the pack with six wins, and the Broadway musical BOOP! The Musical and Broadway plays Stranger Things: The First Shadow and The Picture of Dorian Gray won three each.

Various special awards were distributed in addition to the competitive awards. The cast of Roundabout Theatre Company's Liberation off Broadway collectively earned the Ensemble Award. Stephen Michael Spencer won the Sam Norkin Off-Broadway Award for his performances in Medea: Re-Versed and Music City. The theatre companies Pregones and the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater, lighting designer Stacey Derosier, and the team behind the play Danger and Opportunity — playwright Ken Urban, director Jack Serio, and ensemble Juan Castano, Julia Chan, and Ryan Spahn — also earned special awards, Gavin Creel posthumously received the Harold S. Prince Award for Lifetime Achievement, and Brian Stokes Mitchell received the William Wolf Award.

The complete list of competitive Drama Desk Award winners and nominees is below.

Outstanding Play

• Blood of the Lamb, by Arlene Hutton
• Deep Blue Sound, by Abe Koogler
• Grangeville, by Samuel D. Hunter
• John Proctor Is the Villain, by Kimberly Belflower
• Liberation, by Bess Wohl
• Purpose, by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (WINNER)

Outstanding Musical

• BOOP! The Musical
• Death Becomes Her
• Just in Time
• Maybe Happy Ending (WINNER)
• Music City

Outstanding Revival of a Play

• Eureka Day (WINNER)
• Garside’s Career
• Home
• Wine in the Wilderness
• Yellow Face

Outstanding Revival of a Musical

• Cats: The Jellicle Ball
• Floyd Collins
• Gypsy (WINNER)
• Once Upon a Mattress
• See What I Wanna See
• Sunset Boulevard

Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play

• Betsy Aidem, The Ask
• Laura Donnelly, The Hills of California (WINNER)
• Patsy Ferran, A Streetcar Named Desire
• Danny J. Gomez, All of Me
• Doug Harris, Redeemed
• Patrick Keleher, Fatherland
• Louis McCartney, Stranger Things: The First Shadow
• Lily Rabe, Ghosts
• Jay O. Sanders, Henry IV (Theatre for a New Audience)
• Sarah Snook, The Picture of Dorian Gray (WINNER)
• Paul Sparks, Grangeville
• Olivia Washington, Wine in the Wilderness

Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical

• Tatianna Córdoba, Real Women Have Curves
• Darren Criss, Maybe Happy Ending, Maybe Happy Ending
• Sutton Foster, Once Upon a Mattress
• Tom Francis, Sunset Boulevard
• Jonathan Groff, Just in Time
• Grey Henson, Elf
• Jeremy Jordan, Floyd Collins
• Audra McDonald, Gypsy, Gypsy (WINNER)
• Jasmine Amy Rogers, BOOP! The Musical (WINNER)
• Nicole Scherzinger, Sunset Boulevard
• Helen J Shen, Maybe Happy Ending
• Jennifer Simard, Death Becomes Her

Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play

• Greg Keller, Pre-Existing Condition
• Julia Lester, All Nighter
• Adrienne C. Moore, The Blood Quilt
• Deirdre O’Connell, Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp.
• Maria-Christina Oliveras, Cymbeline
• Maryann Plunkett, Deep Blue Sound
• Michael Rishawn, Table 17
• Jude Tibeau, Bad Kreyòl
• Anjana Vasan, A Streetcar Named Desire
• Frank Wood, Hold On to Me Darling
• Amalia Yoo, John Proctor Is the Villain (WINNER)
• Kara Young, Purpose (WINNER)

Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical

• Brooks Ashmanskas, Smash (WINNER)
• Nicholas Barasch, Pirates! The Penzance Musical
• André De Shields, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
• John El-Jor, We Live in Cairo
• Jason Gotay, Floyd Collins
• Gracie Lawrence, Just in Time
• Jak Malone, Operation Mincemeat, Operation Mincemeat (WINNER)
• Lesli Margherita, Gypsy
• Zachary Noah Piser, See What I Wanna See
• Jenny Lee Stern, Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song
• Michael Urie, Once Upon a Mattress (WINNER)
• Natalie Walker, The Big Gay Jamboree

Outstanding Solo Performance

• David Greenspan, I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan
• Ryan J. Haddad, Hold Me in the Water
• Sam Kissajukian, 300 Paintings
• Mark Povinelli, The Return of Benjamin Lay
• Andrew Scott, Vanya (WINNER)

Outstanding Direction of a Play

• David Cromer and Caitlin Sullivan, The Antiquities
• Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin, Stranger Things: The First Shadow
• Tyne Rafaeli, Becoming Eve
• Jack Serio, Grangeville
• Danya Taymor, John Proctor Is the Villain (WINNER)
• Whitney White, Liberation
• Kip Williams, The Picture of Dorian Gray

Outstanding Direction of a Musical

• Michael Arden, Maybe Happy Ending (WINNER)
• Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
• Jamie Lloyd, Sunset Boulevard
• Jerry Mitchell, BOOP! The Musical
• Alex Timbers, Just in Time
• George C. Wolfe, Gypsy

Outstanding Choreography

• Camille A. Brown, Gypsy
• Warren Carlyle, Pirates! The Penzance Musical
• Jakob Karr, Ain’t Done Bad
• Arturo Lyons and Omari Wiles, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
• Jerry Mitchell, BOOP! The Musical (WINNER)
• Sergio Trujillo, Real Women Have Curves

Outstanding Music

• Will Aronson and Hue Park, Maybe Happy Ending (WINNER)
• David Foster, BOOP! The Musical
• Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez, Real Women Have Curves
• Zoe Sarnak, The Lonely Few
• The Lazours, We Live in Cairo

Outstanding Lyrics

• Gerard Alessandrini, Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song
• Will Aronson and Hue Park, Maybe Happy Ending (WINNER)
• David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, and Zoë Roberts, Operation Mincemeat
• Adam Gwon, All the World’s a Stage
• Marla Mindelle and Philip Drennen, The Big Gay Jamboree
• Luis Quintero, Medea: Re-Versed

Outstanding Book of a Musical

• Will Aronson and Hue Park, Maybe Happy Ending (WINNER)
• David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, and Zoë Roberts, Operation Mincemeat
• Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver, Just in Time
• Bob Martin, BOOP! The Musical
• Marla Mindelle and Jonathan Parks-Ramage, The Big Gay Jamboree
• Marco Pennette, Death Becomes Her

Outstanding Orchestrations

• Will Aronson, Maybe Happy Ending
• Doug Besterman, BOOP! The Musical
• Joseph Joubert and Daryl Waters, Pirates! The Penzance Musical
• Andrew Resnick and Michael Thurber, Just in Time (WINNER)
• Michael Starobin, All the World’s a Stage

Outstanding Scenic Design of a Play

• Miriam Buether, Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp.
• Miriam Buether, and Jamie Harrison and Chris Fisher (illusions and visual effects), Stranger Things: The First Shadow (WINNER)
• Gabriel Hainer Evansohn and Grace Laubacher, Life and Trust
• Rob Howell, The Hills of California
• Johan Kølkjær, Dark Noon
• Matt Saunders, Walden

Outstanding Scenic Design of a Musical

• Clifton Chadick, Music City
• Rachel Hauck, Swept Away
• Dane Laffrey and George Reeve, Maybe Happy Ending (includes video design) (WINNER)
• Derek McLane, Just in Time
• David Rockwell and Finn Ross (projections), BOOP! The Musical

Outstanding Costume Design of a Play

• Brenda Abbandandolo, The Antiquities
• Dede Ayite, Our Town (WINNER)
• Christopher Ford, The Beastiary
• Camilla Lind, Dark Noon
• Karl Ruckdeschel, Twelfth Night

Outstanding Costume Design of a Musical

• Gregg Barnes, BOOP! The Musical (WINNER)
• Sarah Cubbage, The Big Gay Jamboree
• Toni-Leslie James, Gypsy
• Qween Jean, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
• Paul Tazewell, Death Becomes Her
• Catherine Zuber, Just in Time

Outstanding Lighting Design of a Play

• Isabella Byrd, Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp.
• Jon Clark, Stranger Things: The First Shadow (WINNER)
• Natasha Katz, John Proctor Is the Villain
• Tyler Micoleau, The Antiquities
• Paul Whitaker, SUMO

Outstanding Lighting Design of a Musical

• Kevin Adams, Swept Away
• Adam Honoré, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
• Jack Knowles, Sunset Boulevard (WINNER)
• Philip S. Rosenberg, BOOP! The Musical
• Scott Zielinski and Ruey Horng Sun (projections), Floyd Collins

Outstanding Sound Design of a Play

• Paul Arditti, Stranger Things: The First Shadow (WINNER)
• Johnny Gasper, Two Sisters Find a Box of Lesbian Erotica in the Woods
• Matt Otto, All of Me
• Bray Poor, Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp.
• Clemence Williams, The Picture of Dorian Gray
• Fan Zhang, Good Bones

Outstanding Sound Design of a Musical

• Adam Fisher, Sunset Boulevard
• Peter Hylenski, Just in Time (WINNER)
• Scott Lehrer, Gypsy
• Mick Potter, Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends
• Dan Moses Schreier, Floyd Collins

Outstanding Projection and Video Design

• Nathan Amzi and Joe Ransom, Sunset Boulevard
• Jake Barton, McNeal
• David Bergman, The Picture of Dorian Gray (WINNER)
• Jesse Garrison, The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy [redux]
• Hana S. Kim, Redwood

Outstanding Wig and Hair

• Alberto “Albee” Alvarado, SUMO
• Charles G. LaPointe, Death Becomes Her (WINNER)
• Sabana Majeed, BOOP! The Musical
• Nikiya Mathis, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
• Nikiya Mathis, Liberation

Outstanding Puppetry

• Dorothy James, Bill’s 44th
• Tom Lee, See What I Wanna See
• Simple Mischief Studio, Small Acts of Daring Invention
• Amanda Villalobos, Becoming Eve (WINNER)
• Kirjan Waage, Dead as a Dodo

Outstanding Fight Choreography

• Drew Leary, Romeo + Juliet
• Chelsea Pace and James Yaegashi, SUMO
• Rick Sordelet and Christian Kelly-Sordelet, Pirates! The Penzance Musical (WINNER)
• Bret Yount, King Lear

Outstanding Adaptation

• Becoming Eve, by Emil Weinstein
• Cymbeline, by Andrea Thome
• Medea: Re-Versed, by Luis Quintero
• Pirates! The Penzance Musical, by Rupert Holmes (WINNER)
• The Devil’s Disciple, by David Staller

Outstanding Revue

• Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song (WINNER)
• Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now!
• The Jonathan Larson Project
• The World According to Micki Grant

Unique Theatrical Experience

• Odd Man Out
• The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy [redux]
• The Picture of Dorian Gray (WINNER)
• The Voices in Your Head
• The Wind and the Rain: A story about Sunny’s Bar

Photo credit: Maybe Happy Ending on Broadway. (Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)