Roundup: Drama Desks, Drama League, Helen Hayes Awards, and Other Honors

The Helen Hayes Awards at the Anthem in Washington, D.C. on May 18. (Photo by Nina Palazzolo)

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May 21, 2026 American Theatre Editors Leave a comment

Drama Desks, Drama League, Helen Hayes Awards, and More

A roundup of prizes, fellowships, and other recognitions.

By American Theatre Editors

NEW YORK CITY: The 2026 Drama Desk Awards have been announced. Schmigadoon! won Outstanding Musical, and The Balusters won Outstanding Play. Death of a Salesman was awarded in the Outstanding Revival of a Play category, and Ragtime won for Outstanding Revival of a Musical. The winners of the gender-free leading performance categories were John Lithgow for Giant and Lesley Manville for Oedipus in the play category, and Joshua Henry and Caissie Levy for Ragtime in the musical category. The winning directors were Joe Mantello for Death of a Salesman and Lear deBessonet for Ragtime . Christopher Gattelli of Schmigadoon! and Arturo Lyons and Omari Wiles of Cats: The Jellicle Ball tied for the outstanding choreography award.

Outstanding book and music went to Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson for Mexodus , with outstanding lyrics awarded to Jim Barne and Kit Buchan for  Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) . Special awards were given to the creative team of Initiative at the Public Theater, and to Diane Paulus and the team behind Masquerade Off-Broadway. The full list of nominations and winners can be found on the Drama Desk website.

NEW YORK CITY: The 2026 Outer Critics Circle Awards winners have been announced. The top winners were Schmigadoon! and Lincoln Center Theater’s Ragtime , which each won five awards. Following close behind were Audible Theater’s Mexodus and Broadway’s Death of a Salesman , with four awards each. The Balusters won for Outstanding Broadway Play, Meet the Cartozians won for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play, and Death of a Salesman won for Outstanding Revival of a Play. Schmigadoon! won for Outstanding New Broadway Musical, Mexodus won for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical, Ragtime won Outstanding Revival of a Musical, and Cold War Choir Practice by Ro Reddick and Well, I’ll Let You Go by Bubba Weiler tied for the John Gassner Award for a new American play. Daniel Radcliffe won for Best Solo Performance for Every Brilliant Thing. The Lost Boys won for two design categories: Dane Laffrey’s scenic design and Jen Schriever and Michael Arden’s lighting design. The winners will be celebrated on May 21 in a ceremony at Manhattan Movement & Arts Center .

Schmigadoon! ’s additional awards include outstanding book for Cinco Paul, outstanding choreography for Christopher Gattelli, outstanding orchestrations for Doug Besterman and Mike Morris, and outstanding costume design for Linda Cho. Lear deBessonet won outstanding direction for Ragtime , with Joshua Henry winning outstanding leading performance in a musical and Ben Levi Ross winning outstanding featured performance in a musical, and outstanding projection design for 59 Studio. More awards for Mexodus included outstanding lead performance in a musical for Nygel D. Robinson, outstanding score for Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson, and outstanding sound design for Mikhail Fiksel. Death of a Salesman ’s awards included outstanding direction of a play for Joe Mantello, outstanding leading performance for Nathan Lane, and outstanding featured performance for Laurie Metcalf.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: TheatreWashington’s 42nd Helen Hayes Awards , which celebrated theatre in the Washington, D.C. area in 2025, were presented in a ceremony at the Anthem on the District Wharf on May 18. It was hosted by actors Felicia Curry, Awa Sal Secka, and Derrick D. Truby Jr., with performances by the Helen Hayes ensemble directed by Holly Twyford and Ashleigh King and music-directed by Chris Wingert. The most-awarded productions included Damn Yankees from Arena Stage with eight honors, followed by The Inheritance: Parts One and Two from Round House Theatre , and Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Show from Spooky Action Theater , each with five honors. The show’s two categories of awards are Helen, for smaller theatre productions, and Hayes, for shows at larger theatres.

Outstanding Productions in 2025 went to Kimberly Akimbo from Broadway at the National Theatre (Non-Resident Production), Not Your Mother’s Goose! from Adventure Theatre MTC (Theatre for Young Audiences), Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Show from Spooky Action Theater (Musical, Helen), Damn Yankees from Arena Stage (Musical, Hayes), The Immigrant from Synetic Theater in association with Theater J (Play, Helen), and The Inheritance: Parts One and Two from Round House Theatre (Play, Hayes).

Additional highlights included honors for Lili-Anne Brown for Outstanding Director of a Musical, Hayes, for Play On! at Signature Theatre ; Tom Story for Outstanding Director of a Play, Hayes, for The Inheritance: Parts One and Two at Round House Theatre, as well as multiple wins for Inheritance ’s leading and featured actors, David Gow, Jordi Bertrán Ramirez, and Adam Poss; and Alexandria Wailes for Outstanding Director of a Musical, Helen, for A Strange Loop from Visionaries of the Creative Arts and Deaf Austin Theatre , and Autumn Angelettie for Outstanding Director of Play, Helen, for Furlough’s Paradise from Theater Alliance , as well as wins for both leading performers in Furlough’s : Renea S. Brown and Hilary Jones.

The evening also featured the presentation of the inaugural Transformative Cultural Impact Award to philanthropist, business leader, and arts advocate Adrienne Arsht, in recognition of her decades-long commitment to advancing arts and culture nationally and internationally. Arsht’s support of cultural institutions includes investments in the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and initiatives supporting civic engagement, resilience, and the arts.

NEW YORK CITY: The 92nd annual Drama League Awards winners were announced in a ceremony on May 15 hosted by Frank DiLella. Top winners were Liberation on Broadway for Outstanding Play, Death of a Salesman on Broadway for Outstanding Revival of a Play, Ragtime at Lincoln Center Theater for Outstanding Revival of a Musical, and Mexodus at Minetta Lane Theatre/Daryl Roth Theatre for Outstanding Production of a Musical—marking the first time an Off-Broadway musical has won that honor in 30 years.

Director Joe Mantello was honored for directing Death of a Salesman and Little Bear Ridge Road , with Lear deBessonet also winning for directing Ragtime . Actor Joshua Henry won the Distinguished Performance category for his performance in Ragtime . Special recognitions were awarded: Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre to actress Caissie Levy for her performance in Ragtime , the Founders Award for Excellence in Directing to David Cromer, Contribution to the Theatre to Kamilah Forbes, and the Gratitude Award to Scott Ellis.

SPRING GREEN, WISC.: The Tony Awards Administration Committee has announced that the 2026 Regional Theatre Tony Award will be awarded to American Players Theatre (APT) in Spring Green, Wisconsin, based on the recommendation of the American Theatre Critics Association . The honor, recognizing a regional theatre company that has displayed a continuous level of artistic achievement contributing to the growth of theatre nationally, is accompanied by a grant of $25,000, made possible by City National Bank. American Players Theatre (APT) is a professional outdoor repertory theatre devoted to great and future classics, founded in 1979.

CHICAGO: Nia Akilah Robinson has won American Blues Theater ’s 2026 Blue Ink Award for Overnight at the Museum . As part of the award, Robinson receives a $3,000 cash prize and an opportunity to further develop her script as part of the 2026 Blue Ink Playwriting Festival, along with new work by finalists Benjamin Benne ( and thou shalt be healed ) and Claire Crowley ( The Scouts of America Don’t Sell Cookies, B*tch ). Robinson’s play is a heist story about two Black men, working as night guards at a museum, who scheme to steal Ghanaian artifacts from a gentrified American neighborhood.

Robinson is a Harlem-based playwright and actor whose work has been seen at Soho Rep and NextStop Theatre , as well as in co-productions at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and Company One Theatre , Urbanite Theatre , Theatre503 , Theatre Exile , and The Hearth .

RHINEBECK, N.Y.: The 2026 Rhinebeck Writers Retreat writing teams have been announced. They include: Amanda D’Archangelis and Sami Horneff ( Bandit Queen) ; Jaime Lozano, Florencia Cuenca, and Adrian Alexander Alea ( Él y Ella) ; joseph webb, Cris Eli Blak, Igmar Thomas, and Adesola Osakalumi ( Lovers’ Rock); Selda Sahin and Derek Gregor ( Modern) ; Chief Joseph Boudreaux Jr. and Kevin Merritt ( The Rumble ); Jocelyn Mackenzie, Jeremy Lloyd-Styles, and Neena Beber ( Rutka ); Emielyn Das and Harrison Lewis ( Seven Steps Around the Fire ); Samora la Perdida, Josiah Handelman, Mobéy Lola Irizarry, and Matthew Zwiebel ( Spanglish Sh!t ); and Eric Emauni, a.k. payne, Ashley M. Thomas, and Nora Schell ( Sweet Canaan).

The cohort includes Broadway performers, award-winning playwrights, and renowned musical artists. Together they make up the most genre-spanning residency cohort to date, with roots in hip-hop, Afro-Caribbean dance, indie folk, Indian classical music, contemporary pop, and New Orleans funk. Each writing team receives a residency in the idyllic Hudson Valley , with all expenses covered, including travel, food, writing supplies, a stipend for each writer, a dedicated artistic mentor from RWR’s Sounding Board, and a $1,000 Kathy Evans Writers’ Choice Grant to support further development.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.: PlayGround has announced the winners of the 2026 Young Playwrights Contest , which provides high school playwrights with staged readings during the PlayGround Festival of New Works . The winning plays and playwrights are Tales of the City: A Waymo Carol by Rover Djikstra (Galileo Academy of Science and Technology), The End of the Line by Juan Li Chen (Galileo Academy of Science and Technology), The Tramp of the Galaxy by Christiana Rajakumar (Crystal Springs Uplands School), and There Is No Elevator to Success, You Must Take the Stairs by Chloe Schoenfeld (Ruth Asawa School of the Arts). Staged readings with professional actors will be held on May 29 at 7 p.m. at Potrero Stage and Simulcast . Honorable mentions went to Passion Projects by Taishi Rector (Galileo Academy of Science and Technology) and Apricots by Andrew Strong (Heritage High School).

NEW YORK CITY: PlayCo has announced that writer, composer, and performer Kate Douglas is the U.S.-based artist for the second iteration of the PlayCo and Sala Beckett Playwright Residency Exchange , July 2-23 in Barcelona. This international residency program began last year .

“I am thrilled for this opportunity to be in dialogue with other artists from around the world about what theatre can do and be in these strange times,” Douglas said in a statement. “I hope this is only the beginning of meaningful global exchange in my career, especially around themes I continue to return to over and over: awe, interconnectedness, and estrangement from the natural world.”

NEW YORK CITY: The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music has announced the winners of the 28th annual Lotte Lenya Competition, which took place on Sat. May 9 at Kilbourn Hall in Rochester, New York. Lila Chrisp took home the first prize of $25,000. She is the second winner in many years from the United Kingdom. Claire Griffin and Ilanna Starr finished in a virtual tie and were each awarded a $20,000 second prize. The final performances can be streamed on the Kurt Weill Foundation website.

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_Originally reported by [American Theatre](https://www.americantheatre.org/2026/05/21/drama-desks-drama-league-helen-hayes-awards-and-more/)._