The Outer Critics Circle, the organisation for writers of New York theatre for out-of-town newspapers and national publications, has announced the winners of its 72nd annual Outer Critics Circle Awards 2023, which honour the 2022-2023 Broadway and Off-Broadway season.
The awards ceremony honouring the winners will take place on 25 May 2023 at 3pm in the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center’s New York Public Library for The Performing Arts.
It was a good day for British theatre, with the West End to Broadway transfers of Leopoldstadt, Life of Pi, Prima Facie and Merrily We Roll Along all winning awards.
Leopoldstadt won 3 awards including Outstanding New Broadway Play, Outstanding Director of a Play for Patrick Marber, and Outstanding Featured Performer in a Broadway Play for Brandon Uranowitz.
Life of Pi scooped 2 awards, for Outstanding Lighting Design (Play or Musical) for Tim Lutkin, and Outstanding Video or Projection Design (Play or Musical) for Andrzej Goulding.
Jodie Comer took home Outstanding Solo Performance for her role in Prima Facie.
Maria Friedman’s production of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along won 2 awards, with Outstanding Lead Performer in an Off-Broadway Musical for Jonathan Groff, and Outstanding Featured Performer in an Off-Broadway Musical for Lindsay Mendez.
Nominations were announced last month, with West End transfers Peter Pan Goes Wrong, & Juliet and Death of a Salesman also nominated but failing to win any awards.
Broadway musical Some Like It Hot won the most awards, taking 5 including Outstanding New Broadway Musical.
Founded during the 1949-50 Broadway season by respected theatre journalist John Gassner, The Outer Critics Circle has members affiliated with more than ninety newspapers, magazines, broadcast stations, and online news organisations, in America and abroad.
This is the first awards where the Outer Critics Circle has removed gender specifications from its awards, and expanded the awards to include off-Broadway performers.
2023 Outer Critics Circle Awards – Full list of winners
The Marjorie Gunner Award for Outstanding New Broadway Musical
& Juliet
A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical
New York, New York
Shucked
Some Like It Hot – WINNER
Outstanding New Broadway Play
Good Night, Oscar
Leopoldstadt – WINNER
Life of Pi
Peter Pan Goes Wrong
Summer, 1976
Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical
The Bedwetter
Between the Lines
The Harder They Come – WINNER
Only Gold
Without You
Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play
Becomes a Woman
A Case for the Existence of God
Chester Bailey
Downstate – WINNER
Letters from Max, a ritual
John Gassner Award for New American Play (Preferably by a New Playwright)
Dark Disabled Stories by Ryan J. Haddad
Epiphany by Brian Watkins
Fat Ham by James Ijames – WINNER
Wolf Play by Hansol Jung
You Will Get Sick by Noah Diaz
Outstanding Revival of a Play (Broadway or Off-Broadway)
Death of a Salesman
Endgame
Ohio State Murders
Topdog/Underdog – WINNER
Wedding Band
Outstanding Revival of a Musical (Broadway or Off-Broadway)
A Man of No Importance
Into the Woods
Merrily We Roll Along
Parade – WINNER
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Outstanding Lead Performer in a Broadway Musical
Micaela Diamond – Parade
J. Harrison Ghee – Some Like It Hot – WINNER
Caroline Innerbichler – Shucked
Colton Ryan – New York, New York
Anna Uzele – New York, New York
Outstanding Featured Performer in a Broadway Musical
Kevin Del Aguila – Some Like It Hot
Julia Lester – Into the Woods
Alex Newell – Shucked – WINNER
NaTasha Yvette Williams – Some Like It Hot
Betsy Wolfe – & Juliet
Outstanding Lead Performer in a Broadway Play
Hiran Abeysekera – Life of Pi
Jessica Chastain – A Doll’s House
Corey Hawkins – Topdog/Underdog
Sean Hayes – Good Night, Oscar – WINNER
Audra McDonald – Ohio State Murders
Outstanding Featured Performer in a Broadway Play
Danielle Brooks – The Piano Lesson
Sharon D Clarke – Death of a Salesman
Michael Potts – The Piano Lesson
Brandon Uranowitz – Leopoldstadt – WINNER
David Zayas – Cost of Living
Outstanding Lead Performer in an Off-Broadway Play
Ephraim Birney – Chester Bailey
Brittany Bradford – Wedding Band
Marylouise Burke – Epiphany
Bill Irwin – Endgame – WINNER
Emma Pfitzer Price – Becomes a Woman
Outstanding Featured Performer in an Off-Broadway Play
Veanne Cox – Wedding Band
Glenn Davis – Downstate
K. Todd Freeman – Downstate – WINNER
Francis Guinan – Downstate
Susanna Guzman – Downstate
Outstanding Lead Performer in an Off-Broadway Musical
Nicholas Barasch – The Butcher Boy
Callum Francis – Kinky Boots
Jonathan Groff – Merrily We Roll Along – WINNER
Natey Jones – The Harder They Come
Marla Mindelle – Titanique
Outstanding Featured Performer in an Off-Broadway Musical
Vicki Lewis – Between the Lines
Lindsay Mendez – Merrily We Roll Along – WINNER
Daniel Radcliffe – Merrily We Roll Along
A.J. Shively – A Man of No Importance
Mare Winningham – A Man of No Importance
Outstanding Solo Performance
Mike Birbiglia – The Old Man & the Pool
Jodie Comer – Prima Facie – WINNER
Jefferson Mays – A Christmas Carol
Sam Morrison – Sugar Daddy
Anthony Rapp – Without You
Outstanding New Score
Kate Anderson and Elyssa Samsel – Between the Lines
Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally – Shucked
John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Lin-Manuel Miranda – New York, New York
Adam Schlesinger and Sarah Silverman – The Bedwetter
Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman – Some Like It Hot – WINNER
Outstanding Book of a Musical
Tye Blue, Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli – Titanique
Robert Horn – Shucked – WINNER
Matthew López and Amber Ruffin – Some Like it Hot
Suzan-Lori Parks – The Harder They Come
David West Read – & Juliet
Outstanding Scenic Design (Play or Musical)
Jason Ardizzone-West – Wedding Band
John Lee Beatty – Epiphany
Beowulf Boritt – New York, New York – WINNER
Mimi Lien – Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Simon Scullion – Peter Pan Goes Wrong
Outstanding Costume Design (Play or Musical)
Dede Ayite – Topdog/Underdog
Gregg Barnes – Some Like it Hot – WINNER
Brigitte Reiffenstuel – Leopoldstadt
Paloma Young – & Juliet
Donna Zakowska – New York, New York
Outstanding Lighting Design (Play or Musical)
Neil Austin – Leopoldstadt
Ken Billington – New York, New York
Ben Stanton – A Christmas Carol
Natasha Katz – Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Tim Lutkin – Life of Pi – WINNER
Outstanding Sound Design (Play or Musical)
John Gromada – Jasper
Kai Harada – New York, New York
Daniel Kluger – Epiphany
André Pluess – Good Night, Oscar
Joshua D. Reid – A Christmas Carol – WINNER
Outstanding Video or Projection Design (Play or Musical)
Christopher Ash and Beowulf Boritt – New York, New York
Andrzej Goulding – Life of Pi – WINNER
Lucy Mackinnon – A Christmas Carol
Isaac Madge – Leopoldstadt
Sven Ortel – Parade
Outstanding Orchestrations
Bryan Carter and Charlie Rosen – Some Like It Hot – WINNER
Sam Davis and Daryl Waters – New York, New York
Jason Howland – Shucked
Dominic Fallacaro and Bill Sherman – & Juliet
Jonathan Tunick – Merrily We Roll Along
Outstanding Director of a Musical
Michael Arden – Parade – WINNER
Maria Friedman – Merrily We Roll Along
Casey Nicholaw – Some Like It Hot
Jack O’Brien – Shucked
Susan Stroman – New York, New York
Outstanding Choreography
Andy Blankenbuehler – Only Gold
Edgar Godineaux – The Harder They Come
Casey Nicholaw – Some Like It Hot
Susan Stroman – New York, New York – WINNER
Jennifer Weber – & Juliet
Outstanding Director of a Play
Kenny Leon – Topdog/Underdog
Pam MacKinnon – Downstate
Patrick Marber – Leopoldstadt – WINNER
Adam Meggido – Peter Pan Goes Wrong
Max Webster – Life of Pi
Special Achievement Award
To B.H. Barry, one of the world’s foremost fight directors, in recognition of a distinguished six-decade career capped off with Camelot at Lincoln Center Theater.
Winner Tally Card
5 – Some Like It Hot
3 – Leopoldstadt
2 – Downstate
2 – Life of Pi
2 – Merrily We Roll Along
2 – New York, New York
2 – Parade
2 – Shucked
1 – A Christmas Carol
1 – Endgame
1 – Fat Ham
1 – Good Night, Oscar
1 – Prima Facie
1 – The Harder They Come
1 – Topdog/Underdog
Awards Notes
The Broadway productions considered in full during this cycle are (in order of opening) Macbeth, The Kite Runner, Into the Woods, Leopoldstadt, 1776, Death of a Salesman, The Piano Lesson, Topdog/Underdog, Walking with Ghosts, Almost Famous, Kimberly Akimbo, Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man & the Pool, & Juliet, A Christmas Carol, KPOP, A Beautiful Noise, Ohio State Murders, Some Like It Hot, The Collaboration, Pictures from Home, A Doll’s House, Parade, Bob Fosse’s Dancin’, Bad Cinderella, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Life of Pi, Shucked, Fat Ham, Camelot, Peter Pan Goes Wrong, The Thanksgiving Play, Prima Facie, Good Night, Oscar, Summer, 1976, New York, New York, and The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window.
Only new elements of Cost of Living, Kimberly Akimbo, Ain’t No Mo’, Between Riverside and Crazy, and Kinky Boots were considered.
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