Drama Desk Nominations 2020

Christian Lewis
7 min readApr 21, 2020

The Drama Desk Awards celebrate achievements both Broadway and off-Broadway for a season — this year, of course, that season was cut off quite short. The shut down of theatres due to COVID-19 dramatically impacted what shows were already open, and therefore eligible, for awards this year. This was especially the case for Broadway, since most Broadway shows had not opened yet by the time of the shutdown. The result is that off-Broadway is represented much more in nominations than usual. Even with a condescend theatrical season, off-Broadway in particular had so much to offer, evidenced not only by the large number of shows represented in the nominations below, but also by the number of high-profile shows that did not get nominated at all. Nominations are led by

The Drama Desk Awards will be announced on May 31st (more information forth coming on how). Here are all the nominations for the 65th Annual Drama Desk Awards:

Outstanding Play
Cambodian Rock Band, by Lauren Yee, Signature Theatre
Greater Clements, by Samuel D. Hunter, Lincoln Center Theater
Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven, by Stephen Adly Guirgis, Atlantic Theater Company/LAByrinth Theater Company
Heroes of the Fourth Turning, by Will Arbery, Playwrights Horizons
The Inheritance, by Matthew Lopez

Outstanding Musical
Octet, Signature Theatre
The Secret Life of Bees, Atlantic Theater Company
Soft Power, The Public Theater
A Strange Loop, Playwrights Horizons/Page 73 Productions
The Wrong Man, MCC Theater

Outstanding Revival of a Play
Fefu and Her Friends, Theatre for a New Audience
for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, The Public Theater
Mac Beth, Red Bull Theater/Hunter Theater Project
Much Ado About Nothing, The Public Theater
A Soldier’s Play, Roundabout Theatre Company

Outstanding Revival of a Musical
Little Shop of Horrors
The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Transport Group
West Side Story

Christian Lewis

Theater Critic. Vassar College alum, current PhD candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center.