Although the Tony Awards is the most prominent awards show for the Broadway theater industry, there are other award programs in the United States that recognize excellence among directors, producers, actors, choreographers, and other theater professionals. These include the Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography, New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards, and the Drama League Awards.
Awarded every year since 1935, the Drama League Awards honors the best plays and musicals of the recent theater season. Members of the Drama League, which include distinguished performers, directors, playwrights, and critics living throughout the US, vote on the awards every year. The Drama League also often presents special honors at its annual awards ceremony.
The 2023 Drama League Awards took place on May 19 at the Ziegfeld Ballroom. Below is a look at four individuals who won major awards.
1. Anne Kauffman
Director Anne Kauffman won the Drama League award for Outstanding Direction of a Play for The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window. Seven other directors, including Awoye Timpo (Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story in Black and White) and Shayok Misha Chowdhury (Public Obscenities), were nominated for the award. A revival of the original play that debuted on Broadway in 1964, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window was also nominated for Outstanding Revival of a Play, while stars Oscar Isaac and Rachel Brosnahan were nominated for the Distinguished Performance Award.
The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window opened at James Earl Jones Theatre on April 27 and was the first showing of the play on Broadway in more than five decades. It was first shown at the BAM Harvey Theater, where it broke all of the venue’s attendance and sales records. The tragicomical satire play is set in 1960s Greenwich Village and details Sidney (Isaac) and Iris Brustein’s (Brosnahan) marital struggles in a rapidly changing world.
Kauffman, once referred to by The New York Times as “one of the leading lights of downtown theater,” has produced more than 15 off-Broadway productions since 2004. The Drama League award was the second major honor of her career after winning Outstanding Director at The Lortels in 2018 for the off-Broadway play Mary Jane.
2. Lear deBessonet
Into the Woods, a Stephen Sondheim revival based on the book by James Lapine, received four nominations at the 2023 Drama League Awards. It won Outstanding Revival of a Musical and its director, Lear deBessonet, beat six others, including Thomas Kail (Sweeney Todd) and Casey Nicholaw (Some Like It Hot), to win Outstanding Direction of a Musical. Sara Bareilles and Patina Miller were nominated for the Distinguished Performance Award. The limited engagement Broadway revival also received six Tony nominations and its cast won the Grammy for Best Musical Theatre Album.
deBessonent, who also won the Founders Award for Excellence in Directing “for her incredible contributions to the field of directing,” is nominated for the 2023 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical and won an Obie Award in 2013 for The Good Person of Szechwan. Her other directorial credits include The Winter’s Tale, Venus, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Miss You Like Hell.
3. Annaleigh Ashford
Annaleigh Ashford (Sweeney Todd) won the Distinguished Performance Award, the Drama League’s only award for actors and actresses. Forty-six other performers, including David Zayas (Cost of Living), Jefferson Mays (A Christmas Carol), Marcel Spears (Fat Ham), and Stephen McKinley Henderson (Between Riverside and Crazy) were considered for the award.
Ashford, whose credits also include TV and film projects like FX’s American Crime Story: Impeachment, CBS’ B Positive, and the upcoming horror thriller Dust, is a Tony Award-winning performer who has worked with several renowned directors and actors. She won the Tony for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play in 2015 for You Can’t Take it with You. Her other stage credits include Sunday in the Park with George, Sylvia, and Kinky Boots.
4. André De Shields
André De Shields was given awarded the Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theater Award for his “outstanding work on stage as part of the musical theater community.” De Shields has received multiple Tony Award nominations during his distinguished 50-year career and was honored with the National Black Theatre Festival’s Living Legend Award in 2009. He most recently starred as Ben Loman in the 2022 Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman and his other credits include Hadestown, The Full Monty, and The Wiz.
“Excellence in musical theatre requires a lot of excellence from a performer. You have to act with the integrity of character and depth and skepticism and elegance that any play requires,” said Rachel Chavkin, who directed Hadestown and presented De Shields with the award. “You have to sing, and with a voice that is not simply strong and mostly true in pitch, but also with a voice that is uniquely your own . . . Andre, you are beyond excellence.”