Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play | |
---|---|
Awarded for | Outstanding Actress in a Play |
Location | New York City |
Country | United States |
Presented by | Drama Desk |
First awarded | 1975 |
Last awarded | 2022 |
Website | dramadesk.org (defunct) |
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play was an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements in the theatre across collective Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. The award was one of eight new acting awards first presented in 1975, when Drama Desk retired an earlier award that had made no distinction between work in plays and musicals, nor between actors and actresses, nor between lead performers and featured performers.
After the 2022 ceremony, all eight acting categories introduced in 1975 were retired. The award for Outstanding Actress in a Play, along with Outstanding Actor in a Play, were replaced in 2023 with the gender neutral category of Outstanding Lead Performance in a Play.
Winners and nominees
1970s
Year | Actress | Play | Character |
---|---|---|---|
1975 | |||
Ellen Burstyn | Same Time, Next Year | Doris | |
Elizabeth Ashley | Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | Maggie | |
Female Ensemble | Women Behind Bars | Female Ensemble | |
Tovah Feldshuh | Yentl | Yentl | |
Rita Moreno | The Ritz | Googie Gomez | |
Diana Rigg | The Misanthrope | Celimene | |
Maggie Smith | Private Lives | Amanda Prynne | |
Liv Ullmann | A Doll's House | Nora Helmer | |
1976 | |||
Rosemary Harris | The Royal Family | Julie Cavendish | |
Fran Brill | What Every Woman Knows | Maggie Wylie | |
Tovah Feldshuh | Yentl | Yentl | |
Lois Nettleton | They Knew What They Wanted | Amy | |
Meryl Streep | 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, A Memory of Two Mondays, Secret Service and Trelawny of the 'Wells' | Various Characters | |
1977 | |||
Irene Worth | The Cherry Orchard | Ranevskaya | |
Trazana Beverley | For Colored Girls | Lady in Red | |
Blythe Danner | The New York Idea | Cynthia Karslake | |
Cara Duff-MacCormick | The Philanderer | Julia Craven | |
Diane Ladd | Lu Ann Hampton Laverly | Lu Ann Hampton | |
Sofia Landon | Peg o' My Heart | Peg | |
Dorothy McGuire | The Night of the Iguana | Hannah | |
1978 | |||
Jessica Tandy | The Gin Game | Fonsia Dorsey | |
Helen Burns | Catsplay | Mrs. Bela Orban | |
Patricia Elliott | Tartuffe | Dorine | |
Tammy Grimes | Tartuffe | Elmire | |
Carol Mayo Jenkins | Zinnia | Zinnia | |
Shirley Knight | Landscape of the Body | Betty | |
1979 | |||
Constance Cummings | Wings | Emily Stilson | |
Carole Shelley | The Elephant Man | Madge Kendal | |
Kate Reid | Bosoms and Neglect | Henny | |
Frances Sternhagen | On Golden Pond | Ethel Thayer | |
Susan Stevens | The Price of Genius | Unknown |
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
Year | Actress | Play | Character |
---|---|---|---|
2010 | |||
Jan Maxwell | The Royal Family | Julie Cavendish | |
Ayesha Antoine | My Wonderful Day | Winnie Barnstairs | |
Melissa Errico | Candida | Candida | |
Anne Hathaway | Twelfth Night | Viola | |
Kristen Johnston | So Help Me God! | Lily Darnley | |
Laura Linney | Time Stands Still | Sarah Goodwin | |
2011 | |||
Frances McDormand | Good People | Margie Walsh | |
Nina Arianda | Born Yesterday | Emma 'Billie' Dawn | |
Stockard Channing | Other Desert Cities | Polly Wyeth | |
Laurie Metcalf | The Other Place | Juliana Smithton | |
Michele Pawk | A Small Fire | Emily Bridges | |
Lily Rabe | The Merchant of Venice | Portia | |
2012 | |||
Tracie Bennett | End of the Rainbow | Judy Garland | |
Sanaa Lathan | By the Way, Meet Vera Stark | Vera Stark | |
Linda Lavin | The Lyons | Rita Lyons | |
Jennifer Lim | Chinglish | Xi Yan | |
Kim Martin-Cotten | A Moon for the Misbegotten | Josie Hogan | |
Carey Mulligan | Through a Glass Darkly | Karin | |
Joely Richardson | Side Effects | Lindy | |
2013 | |||
Cicely Tyson | The Trip to Bountiful | Carrie Watts | |
Maria Dizzia | Belleville | Abby | |
Amy Morton | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? | Martha | |
Julia Murney | Falling | Tami | |
Vanessa Redgrave | The Revisionist | Maria | |
Miriam Silverman | Finks | Natalie | |
2014 | |||
Audra McDonald | Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill | Billie Holiday | |
Barbara Andres | I Remember Mama | Mama | |
Tyne Daly | Mothers and Sons | Katharine Gerard | |
Laurie Metcalf | Domesticated | Judy Pulver | |
J. Smith-Cameron | Juno and the Paycock | Juno Boyle | |
Harriet Walter | Julius Caesar | Brutus | |
2015 | |||
Helen Mirren | The Audience | Queen Elizabeth II | |
Brooke Bloom | You Got Older | Mae | |
Kathleen Chalfant | A Walk in the Woods | Irina Botvinnik | |
Kristin Griffith | The Fatal Weakness | Ollie Espenshade | |
Jan Maxwell | The City of Conversation | Hester Ferris | |
Carey Mulligan | Skylight | Kyra Holis | |
Tonya Pinkins | Rasheeda Speaking | Jaclyn Spaulding | |
2016 | |||
Jessica Lange | Long Day's Journey into Night | Mary Tyrone | |
Georgia Engel | John | Mertis | |
Mamie Gummer | Ugly Lies the Bone | Jess | |
Marin Ireland | Ironbound | Darja | |
Nicola Walker | A View from the Bridge | Beatrice Carbone | |
2017 | |||
Laura Linney | The Little Foxes | Regina Giddens | |
Cate Blanchett | The Present | Anna Petrovna | |
Laurie Metcalf | A Doll's House, Part 2 | Nora | |
Amy Ryan | Love, Love, Love | Sandra | |
Harriet Walter | The Tempest | Prospero | |
2018 | |||
Glenda Jackson | Three Tall Women | A | |
Carrie Coon | Mary Jane | Mary Jane | |
Denise Gough | People, Places and Things | Emma | |
Laurie Metcalf | Three Tall Women | B | |
Billie Piper | Yerma | Her | |
2019 | |||
Elaine May | The Waverly Gallery | Gladys | |
Midori Francis | Usual Girls | Kyeoung | |
Zainab Jah | Boesman and Lena | Lena | |
Laurie Metcalf | Hillary and Clinton | Hillary Clinton | |
Heidi Schreck | What the Constitution Means to Me | Heidi |
2020s
Year | Actress | Play | Character |
---|---|---|---|
2020 | |||
Liza Colón-Zayas | Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven | Sarge | |
Rose Byrne | Medea | Medea | |
Emily Davis | Is This a Room | Reality Winner | |
April Matthis | Toni Stone | Toni Stone | |
Ruth Negga | Hamlet | Hamlet | |
2021 | No awards: New York theatres shuttered, March 2020 to September 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City[1] | ||
2022 | |||
Phylicia Rashad | Skeleton Crew | Faye | |
Tala Ashe | English | Elham | |
Ruth Negga | Macbeth | Lady Macbeth | |
Andrea Patterson | Cullud Wattah | Ainee | |
Shannon Tyo | The Chinese Lady | Afong Moy | |
Michelle Wilson | Confederates | Sandra |
Multiple wins
- 3 wins
- 2 wins
See also
- Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress
- Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
References
- ^ Evans, Greg (2021-05-05). "Broadway To Reopen Sept. 14, Says Gov. Andrew Cuomo; Broadway League "Cautiously Optimistic"". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on 2023-06-02. Retrieved 2023-12-03.
External links
- v
- t
- e
- Ellen Burstyn (1975)
- Rosemary Harris (1976)
- Irene Worth (1977)
- Jessica Tandy (1978)
- Constance Cummings / Carole Shelley (1979)
- Pat Carroll (1980)
- Joan Copeland (1981)
- Zoe Caldwell (1982)
- Jessica Tandy (1983)
- Joan Allen (1984)
- Rosemary Harris (1985)
- Lily Tomlin (1986)
- Linda Lavin (1987)
- Stockard Channing (1988)
- Pauline Collins (1989)
- Geraldine James (1990)
- Mercedes Ruehl (1991)
- Laura Esterman (1992)
- Jane Alexander (1993)
- Myra Carter (1994)
- Cherry Jones (1995)
- Zoe Caldwell (1996)
- Janet McTeer (1997)
- Cherry Jones (1998)
- Kathleen Chalfant (1999)
- Eileen Heckart (2000)
- Mary-Louise Parker (2001)
- Lindsay Duncan (2002)
- Vanessa Redgrave (2003)
- Viola Davis / Phylicia Rashad (2004)
- Cherry Jones (2005)
- Lois Smith (2006)
- Eve Best (2007)
- Deanna Dunagan (2008)
- Janet McTeer (2009)
- Jan Maxwell (2010)
- Frances McDormand (2011)
- Tracie Bennett (2012)
- Cicely Tyson (2013)
- Audra McDonald (2014)
- Helen Mirren (2015)
- Jessica Lange (2016)
- Laura Linney (2017)
- Glenda Jackson (2018)
- Elaine May (2019)
- Liza Colón-Zayas (2020)
- No Award (2021)
- Phylicia Rashad (2022)