Drama League 2014 Award Winners

The winners of the 80th Annual Drama League Awards were announced on 16 May 2014 at a luncheon hosted by Jesse Tyler Ferguson at the Grand Ballroom of the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square.

Neil Patrick Harris won the Distinguished Performance Award (which can be won only once in an actor's career) for his role as 'Hedwig' in 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch.'

'A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder' won Distinguished Production of a Musical, 'All The Way' won Distinguished Production of a Play, 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch' won Distinguished Revival of a Musical and 'The Glass Menagerie' won Distinguished Revival of a Play.

The Drama League also presented its three previously announced special recognitions:

Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre Award went to Barbara Cook
Founders Award for Excellence in Directing went to John Tiffany
The Unique Contribution to the Theatre Award went to Key Brand Entertainment/Broadway Across America: John Gore

The winners of the Drama League Awards and nominations are listed below:
Winners are in bold.

Outstanding Production of a B'way or Off-B'way Play:

• All That Fall
  by Samuel Beckett
  
• All The Way
  by Robert Schenkkan
  
• Case Valentina
  by Harvey Fierstein
  
• Domesticated
  by Bruce Norris
  
• Mothers and Sons
  by Terrence McNally
  
• Mr Burns, A Post-Electic Play
  by Anne Washburn
  
• The Open House
  by Will Eno
  
• The Realistic Joneses
  by Will Eno
  

Distinguished Production of a B'way or Off-B'way Musical

• After Midnight (Off-B'way)
  Conceived by Jack Viertel
  
• Aladdin
  Music Alan Menken
  Lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice
  
• Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
  Music by Barry Mann and Carole King
  Lyrics by Cynthia Weil and Gerry Goffin
  
• The Bridges of Madison County
  Book by Book by Marsha Norman
  Music and Lyrics by Jason Robert Brown
  
• Bullets Over Broadway
  Book by Woody Allen
  Music Adaptation and Additional Lyrics by Glen Kelly
  
• Fun Home
  Music by Jeanine Tesori
  Book and Lyrics by Lisa Kron
  
• A Gentleman's Guide To Love And Murder
  Book and Lyrics by Robert L. Freedman
  Music and Lyrics by Steven Lutvak
  
• Murder For Two
  Book and Music by Joe Kinosian
  Book and Lyrics by Kellen Blair
  
• Rocky
  Book by Thomas Meehan and Sylvester Stallone
  Music by Stephen Flaherty, Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens
  

Distinguished Revival of a B'way or Off-B'way Play:

• The Cripple of Inishmaan
  by Martin McDonagh
  
• The Glass Menagerie
  by Tennessee Williams
  
• Good Person of Szechwan
  by Bertolt Brecht, translated by John Willett
  
• The Mutilated
  by Tennessee Williams
  
• Of Mice and Men
  By John Steinbeck
  
• A Raisin in the Sun
  By Lorraine Hansberry
  
• Twelfth Night, or What You Will
  By William Shakespeare
  
• Waiting For Godot
  By Samuel Beckett
  

Distinguished Revival of a B'way or Off-B'way Musical

• Hedwig and the Angry Inch
  Book by John Cameron Mitchell
  Music and Lyrics by Stephen Trask
  
• Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill
  by Lanie Robertson
  
• Les Misérables
  Music by Claude-Michel Schonberg Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer
  
• Violet
  Music by Jeanine Tesori
  Book and Lyrics by Brian Crawley
  

The Distinguished Performance Award
The list of nominees:

• Reed Birney, Casa Valentina
• Steven Boyer, Hand to God
• Zach Braff, Bullets over Broadway
• Arnie Burton, The Mystery of Irma Vep
• Michael Cerveris, Fun Home
• Nick Cordero, Bullets over Broadway
• Bryan Cranston, All the Way
• Alan Cumming, Cabaret
• Tyne Daly, Mothers and Sons
• Mary Bridget Davies, A Night With Janis Joplin
• Gabriel Ebert, Casa Valentina
• Carson Elrod, The Heir Apparent
• Jesse Tyler Ferguson, The Comedy of Errors
• Sutton Foster, Violet
• James Franco, Of Mice and Men
• Peter Friedman, The Open House
• Michael C. Hall, The Realistic Joneses
• Lena Hall, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
• Neil Patrick Harris, Hedwig and the Angry Inch
• Joshua Henry, Violet
• James Monroe Iglehart, Aladdin
• LaTanya Richardson Jackson, A Raisin in the Sun
• Ramin Karimloo, Les Misérables
• Andy Karl, Rocky
• Adriane Lenox, After Midnight
• Tracy Letts, The Realistic Joneses
• Zachary Levi, First Date
• Sydney Lucas, Fun Home
• Taylor Mac, Good Person of Szechwan
• Jefferson Mays, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
• Idina Menzel, If/Then
• Laurie Metcalf, Domesticated
• Jessie Mueller, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
• Chris O'Dowd, Of Mice and Men
• Kelli O'Hara, The Bridges of Madison County
• Estelle Parsons, The Velocity of Autumn
• Steven Pasquale, The Bridges of Madison County
• Jeremy Pope, Choir Boy
• Zachary Quinto, The Glass Menagerie
• Daniel Radcliffe, The Cripple of Inishmaan
• Ruben Santiago-Hudson, How I Learned What I Learned
• Margo Seibert, Rocky
• Robert Sella, The Mystery of Irma Vep
• Tony Shalhoub, Act One
• Jennifer Simard, Disaster!
• Brian J. Smith, The Glass Menagerie
• Patrick Stewart, Waiting for Godot
• John Douglas Thompson, Satchmo at the Waldorf
• Denzel Washington, A Raisin in the Sun
• Michelle Williams, Cabaret

In addition, six past recipients of the Distinguished Performance Award were honored for their work this season. However, because an individual can only receive the Distinguished Performance Award once in his/her lifetime, they are ineligible for award consideration this year:

• Eileen Atkins, All That Fall
• Norbert Leo Butz, Big Fish
• Kathleen Chalfant, Somewhere Fun/Tales From Red Vienna
• Cherry Jones, The Glass Menagerie
• Audra McDonald, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill
• Ian McKellen, Waiting For Godot/No Man's Land
• Frank Langella, King Lear
• Mary-Louise Parker, The Snow Geese
• Mark Rylance, Twelfth Night, Or What You Will/Richard III

First awarded in 1922 and formalized in 1935, The Drama League Awards are the oldest theatrical honors in America. They are the only major theatregoer awards chosen by audience members — specifically, by the thousands of Drama League members nationwide who attend Broadway and Off-Broadway productions.

- by Dom O'Hanlon