Queer theatre critics association announces nominations for Dorian Theater Awards
Did you know there is a queer critics’ association keeping its queer eyes on Broadway and Off Broadway and making sure that the most relevant and remarkable theater productions and talent get their flowers? GALECA’s Dorian Theater Awards can reveal the nominations for 2023-2024 season!
GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics’ 39 theater wing members named their favorites in New York theater for the second annual Dorian Theater Awards, this time toasting the best in Broadway and Off-Broadway for the 2023-2024 season.
Like GALECA’s Dorian film and TV awards, the theater group, which is co-chaired by Merryn Johns and Sam Eckmann, was set up two years ago to honor both mainstream and LGBTQ+-themed productions. While it’s a widely-acknowledged cultural truth that there is an abundance of LGBTQ+ talent onstage, backstage and waiting in the wings, New York City thus far has lacked a critics’ group with an avowed ‘queer eye’. But not any more! This year, as last, there are plenty of shows to celebrate queer talent and trailblazers.
Leading on the Broadway side with six nominations each: The new play Stereophonic by David Adjmi and the Maria Friedman-helmed revival of Merrily We Roll Along. Dorian Award have four members of the Stereophonic cast competing for Outstanding Featured Performance in a Broadway Play, and three actors from Merrily We Roll Along in the run.
All Dorian Award performance categories are gender neutral.In Off-Broadway categories, Oh, Mary!, writer-star Cole Escola’s Broadway-bound play about Mary Todd Lincoln, ruled with five nominations. Teeth, Michael R. Jackson and Anna K. Jacobs’ musical about an evangelical teen girl with hidden talents, and Stephen Sondheim’s final musical, Here We Are—co-written with David Ives and adapted from two films by Luis Buñuel—each scored four nods.
For the wing’s special new accolade, LGBTQ Theater Artist of the Season, GALECA members nominated writer/actor Cole Escola, playwright-composer Michael R. Jackson, director Michael Greif, along with actors Jonathan Groff, Sarah Paulson and Conrad Ricamora.
The nominees for the group’s career achievement award, LGBTQ Theater Trailblazer, are awe-inspiring multi-hyphenate André De Shields and four distinctly legendary playwrights: Charles Busch, Christopher Durang (nominated posthumously), Taylor Mac and Paula Vogel.
“I think we’re all actually happy to say GALECA’s members had a daunting task of sifting through so many exciting plays and musical this season,” said Cary Wong, the group’s Off-Broadway lead. “Considering Broadway alone put up 38 productions this season, New York theater has definitely bounced back from 18 months of Covid closures. From popular adaptations like The Notebook to daring new works like Lempicka, Dorian Award voters and all theater goers had plenty to rave and dish about.”
“It gave me so much pleasure to see diverse historical and contemporary queer representation on Broadway mainstages this year with Suffs, Lempicka, Cabaret, and Mother Play, just to note a few of the highlights from this season, in addition to the rich experimentalism and risk-taking of Off-Broadway’s Cole Escola and the legendary Charles Busch. We are thrilled that our organization is up and on its feet and tracking every year with applause and maybe even a standing ovation or two,” said GALECA theater wing co-chair Merryn Johns.
GALECA will once again help kick off Pride Month by announcing this year’s Dorian Theater Awards on Monday, June 3, 2024.
2024 Dorian Theater Awards nominees:
Outstanding Broadway Musical
Here Lies Love
Hell’s Kitchen
Illinoise
Lempicka
The Outsiders
Suffs
Outstanding Broadway Play
Jaja’s African Hair Braiding
Just for Us
Mary Jane
Mother Play
Prayer for the French Republic
Stereophonic
Outstanding Broadway Musical Revival
Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club
Merrily We Roll Along
The Who’s Tommy
Outstanding Broadway Play Revival
Appropriate
An Enemy of the People
Purlie Victorious
Outstanding Lead Performance in a Broadway Musical
Ali Louis Bourzgui, The Who’s Tommy
Eden Espinosa, Lempicka
Brody Grant, The Outsiders
Jonathan Groff, Merrily We Roll Along
Brian d’Arcy James, Days of Wine and Roses
Maleah Joi Moon, Hell’s Kitchen
Kelli O’Hara, Days of Wine and Roses
Maryann Plunkett, The Notebook
Eddie Redmayne, Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club
Shaina Taub, Suffs
Outstanding Lead Performance in a Broadway Play
Betsy Aidem, Prayer for the French Republic
Alex Edelman, Just For Us
William Jackson Harper, Uncle Vanya
Jessica Lange, Mother Play
Leslie Odom Jr., Purlie Victorious
Rachel McAdams, Mary Jane
Laurie Metcalf, Grey House
Sarah Paulson, Appropriate
Outstanding Featured Performance in a Broadway Musical
Hannah Cruz, Suffs
Amber Iman, Lempicka
Kecia Lewis, Hell’s Kitchen
Nikki M. James, Suffs
Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer, Monty Python’s Spamalot
Lindsay Mendez, Merrily We Roll Along
Bebe Neuwirth, Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club
Conrad Ricamora, Here Lies Love
Daniel Radcliffe, Merrily We Roll Along
Ricky Ubeda, Illinoise
Outstanding Featured Performance in a Broadway Play
Brittany Adebumola, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding
Francis Benhamou, Prayer for the French Republic
Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Doubt
Alex Brightman, The Shark is Broken
Will Brill, Stereophonic
Elle Fanning, Appropriate
Eli Gelb, Stereophonic
Celia Keenan-Bolger, Mother Play
Jay O. Sanders, Purlie Victorious
Tom Pecinka, Stereophonic
Sarah Pidgeon, Stereophonic
Kara Young, Purlie Victorious
Outstanding LGBTQ Broadway Production
Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club
Illinoise
Lempicka
Mother Play
Outstanding Broadway Ensemble
Here Lies Love
Illinoise
Jaja’s African Hair Braiding
Merrily We Roll Along
Suffs
Stereophonic
The Broadway Showstopper Award — To a standout production number or scene
Appropriate, “Epilogue: The Plantation Decays”
Illinoise, “Chicago”
Lempicka, “Woman Is”
Merrily We Roll Along, “Franklin Shepard INC”
The Outsiders, “The Rumble”
Outstanding Off-Broadway Production
All the Devils Are Here
The Ally
The Connector
Oh, Mary!
Primary Trust
Teeth
Outstanding LGBTQ Off-Broadway Production
Bark of Millions
Eddie Izzard’s Hamlet
Make Me Gorgeous
Oh, Mary!
Teeth
Outstanding Lead Performance in an Off-Broadway Production
Charles Busch, Ibsen’s Ghost: An Irresponsible Biographical Fantasy
Nicholas Christopher, Jelly’s Last Jam
Cole Escola, Oh, Mary!
William Jackson Harper, Primary Trust
Moses Ingram, Sunset Baby
Rachel Bay Jones, Here We Are
Alyse Alan Louis, Teeth
Taylor Mac, Bark of Millions
Ruthie Ann Miles, The Light in the Piazza
Cynthia Nixon, The Seven Year Disappear
Patrick Page, All the Devils Are Here
Outstanding Featured Performance in an Off-Broadway Production
Susan Blommaert, Grief Hotel
Marylouise Burke, Infinite Life
Bobby Cannavale, Here We Are
Micaela Diamond, Here We Are
Joaquina Kalukango, Jelly’s Last Jam
Julia Lester, I Can Get it For You Wholesale
Steven Pasquale, Teeth
David Hyde Pierce, Here We Are
Conrad Ricamora, Oh, Mary!
James Scully, Oh, Mary!
Jennifer Van Dyck, Ibsen’s Ghost: An Irresponsible Biographical Fantasy
Anna Zavelson, The Light in the Piazza
LGBTQ Theater Artist of the Season
Cole Escola
Michael Greif
Jonathan Groff
Michael R. Jackson
Sarah Paulson
Conrad Ricamora
LGBTQ Theater Trailblazer Award — For a lifelong commitment to creating art that inspires empathy, truth and equity
Charles Busch
André De Shields
Christopher Durang (nominated posthumously)
Taylor Mac
Paula Vogel
About GALECA
GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics and its Dorian Awards honor the best in film, television and, under its theater wing, Broadway and Off-Broadway. More than 500 members strong, GALECA reminds society that the world values the informed Q+ eye on everything entertainment. A nonprofit organization, GALECA also advocates for better pay, access and respect for entertainment journalists, especially the underrepresented. Follow us @DorianAwards on social media, and find more information about who we are and what we do at GALECA.org.
GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment journalists is a core member of CGEM: Critics Groups for Equality in Media, an alliance of underrepresented entertainment journalists organizations.
