2025 Drama League Awards winners announced: Nicole Scherzinger takes Distinguished Performance

Yahoo

17-05-2025

Winners of the 2025 Drama League Awards were announced today in a ceremony hosted by Emmy-winning NY1 reporter Frank DiLella at the Ziegfeld Ballroom. In a competitive year for theater awards, both Maybe Happy Ending and Sunset Boulevard added important feathers to their caps on their march to the Tony Awards.
Nicole Scherzinger took home the Drama League's highly coveted Distinguished Performance prize for her radical reinterpretation of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. Actors can only win this catch-all performance award once in their careers.
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The winner of this award repeats that victory at the Tonys more often than not. Last year, Sarah Paulson won the Drama League before clinching a Tony win for her role in the play Appropriate. Other recent Drama League winners who went on to win a Tony in the same year include Danny Burstein (Moulin Rouge!), Bryan Cranston (Network), Glenda Jackson (Three Tall Women), Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hansen), and Neil Patrick Harris (Hedwig and the Angry Inch). It's worth noting that Scherzinger's main Tony competition, Audra McDonald, was not eligible for the Drama League having already claimed the Distinguished Performance prize for Porgy and Bess in 2012.
Sunset Boulevard also won the group's award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical, but director Jamie Lloyd lost the director prize to Maybe Happy Ending helmer Michael Arden. That tuner also won Outstanding New Musical. A win for this android love story here is important, because it was up against all of its Tony Awards rivals. Tony nominees Buena Vista Social Club and Dead Outlaw weren't nominated at some other awards bodies like the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards, having already competed for their Off-Broadway runs. So this is one of very few precursor awards where Maybe Happy Ending faced all of it's Best Musical Tony competition (and then some), and it showed great strength with voters.
As for plays, Oh, Mary! continued its awards season dominance with wins for Outstanding Production of a Play and Director of a Play for Sam Pinkleton. Of more interest for awards watchers is a rare tie in Outstanding Revival of a Play between Manhattan Theatre Club's Eureka Day and the Off-Broadway production of Vanya, starring Andrew Scott. This is the first tie in this category in Drama League history, indicating that none of this year's revivals are going to steamroll their way to a Tony. Eureka Day is certainly timely with its thoughtful discussion of vaccine mandates in schools, but there's room in this flexible race for other Tony nominees like Yellow Face, Our Town, or Romeo + Juliet to make their case.
Here is the complete list of Drama League Award winners:
OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A PLAY
— WINNER The Antiquities Becoming Eve English Good Bones Good Night, and Good Luck Here There Are Blueberries John Proctor Is the Villain Liberation The Picture of Dorian Gray Purpose Stranger Things: The First Shadow Walden
OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A PLAY
— WINNER (tie) — WINNER The Cherry Orchard Ghosts Glengarry Glen Ross Home Othello Romeo + Juliet A Streetcar Named Desire Wine in the Wilderness Yellow Face
OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION OF A MUSICAL
— WINNER Boop! The Musical Buena Vista Social Club Dead Outlaw Death Becomes Her Drag: The Musical Just in Time Macbeth in Stride Operation Mincemeat Real Women Have Curves Smash Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends
OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL
Sunset Boulevard — WINNER Cats: The Jellicle Ball Floyd Collins Gypsy The Last Five Years Once Upon a Mattress The Marriage of Figaro Pirates! The Penzance Musical Urinetown
OUTSTANDING DIRECTION OF A PLAY
Sam Pinkleton — WINNER Knud Adams, English Saheem Ali, Good Bones David Cromer, Good Night, and Good Luck Tyne Rafaeli, Becoming Eve Anna D. Shapiro, Eureka Day Danya Taymor, John Proctor is The Villain Whitney White, Liberation Kip Williams, The Picture of Dorian Gray Sam Yates, Vanya
OUTSTANDING DIRECTION OF A MUSICAL
Michael Arden, — WINNER Saheem Ali, Buena Vista Social Club Christopher Gattelli, Death Becomes Her Robert Hastie, Operation Mincemeat Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, Cats: The Jellicle Ball Jamie Lloyd, Sunset Boulevard Jerry Mitchell, Boop! The Musical Susan Stroman, Smash Alex Timbers, Just In Time Annie Tippe, Three Houses Sergio Trujillo, Real Women Have Curves George C. Wolfe, Gypsy
Distinguished Performance Award
Nicole Scherzinger, — WINNER Tala Ashe, English Brooks Ashmanskas, Smash Stori Ayers, Home Natalie Venetia Belcon, Buena Vista Social Club George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck Kit Connor, Romeo + Juliet Tatianna Córdoba, Real Women Have Curves Darren Criss, Maybe Happy Ending Kieran Culkin, Glengarry Glen Ross André De Shields, Cats: The Jellicle Ball Tommy Dorfman, Becoming Eve Robert Downey Jr., McNeal Adam Driver, Hold on to Me Darling Andrew Durand, Dead Outlaw Cole Escola, Oh, Mary! Mia Farrow, The Roommate Tom Francis, Sunset Blvd. Amber Gray, Eureka Day David Greenspan, I'm Assuming You Know David Greenspan Jonathan Groff, Just in Time Jake Gyllenhaal, Othello Ryan J. Haddad, Hold Me in the Water Megan Hilty, Death Becomes Her Robyn Hurder, Smash LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Purpose Nick Jonas, The Last Five Years Ramin Karimloo, Pirates! The Penzance Musical Gracie Lawrence, Just in Time Beth Leavel, Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends Justina Machado, Real Women Have Curves Jak Malone, Operation Mincemeat Louis McCartney, Stranger Things: The First Shadow Idina Menzel, Redwood Paul Mescal, A Streetcar Named Desire Jinkx Monsoon, Pirates! The Penzance Musical Marjan Neshat, English Sandra Oh, The Welkin Lily Rabe, Ghosts Jasmine Amy Rogers, Boop! The Musical Lea Salonga, Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends Andrew Scott, Vanya Helen J. Shen, Maybe Happy Ending Jennifer Simard, Death Becomes Her Sarah Snook, The Picture of Dorian Gray Ephraim Sykes, Our Town Alaska Thunderfuck, Drag: The Musical Adrienne Warren, The Last Five Years Denzel Washington, Othello Joy Woods, Gypsy Kara Young, Purpose and Table 17
The Drama League also acknowledged the previous recipients of the Distinguished Performance Award who appeared in Broadway or Off-Broadway productions this season. They are:
Annaleigh Ashford, All In Danny Burstein, Gypsy Norbert Leo Butz, Vladimir Sutton Foster, Once Upon A Mattress Neil Patrick Harris, Shit. Meet. Fan. Patti LuPone, The Roommate Audra McDonald, Gypsy Lin-Manuel Miranda, All In Bernadette Peters, Stephen Sondheim: Old Friends
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