Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience

Last updated
Drama Desk Award
for Unique Theatrical Experience
Awarded forUnique Theatrical Experience
LocationNew York City
CountryUnited States
Presented byDrama Desk
First awarded1975
Currently held by Peter Pan Goes Wrong (2023)
Websitedramadesk.org (defunct)

The Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience is an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements in theatre across collective Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City.

Contents

The category was first presented at the 1975 ceremony. Due to their unusual nature, these productions cannot be categorized in the regular plays or musicals categories.

Winners and nominees

1970s

YearProduction
1975
London Assurance
A Letter for Queen Victoria
Bette Midler's Clams on the Half Shell Revue
Flowers
Saturday Sunday Monday
The Charles Pierce Show
The Rocky Horror Show
Women Behind Bars
1976
The Norman Conquests
The Belle of Amherst
Me and Bessie
The Robber Bridegroom
The Threepenny Opera
Yentl
1977
No Man's Land
The Club
Dylan Thomas Growing Up
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf
Hold Me!
Mummenschanz
Nightclub Cantata
Side by Side by Sondheim
1978
Miss Margarida's Way
The 2nd Greatest Entertainer
Housewife Superstar
Molière in Spite of Himself
1979
An Evening with Quentin Crisp
Bleacher Bums
Streetsongs

1980s

YearProduction
1980
1981
Request Concert
Aaah Oui Genty!
The Amazin' Casey Stengel
Blackstone!
Pericles
Texts
1982
Whistler
Shiro
1983
1984
La Tragedie de Carmen
The Gospel at Colonus
Hey, Ma...Kaye Ballard
Orgasmo Adulto Escapes from the Zoo
Rockaby
Secret Honor
1985
The Garden of Earthly Delights
The Golden Land
The Normal Heart
1986
The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe
Tango Argentino
1987, 1988
1989
Largely New York
I'll Go On
Saved from Obscurity

1990s

YearProduction
1990
1991
Cirque du Soleil: Nouvelle Expérience
1992
Blue Man Group: Tubes
Lypsinka! A Day in the Life
Pageant
1993
Fool Moon
Les Atrides
1994
Stomp
Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants
1995, 1996
1997
The Waste Land
The Beckett Plays
Chimere
The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol
yousaywhatimeanbutwhatyoumeanisnotwhatisaid
1998
Quidam
The Number 14
Paul McKenna's Hypnotic World
1999
Swan Lake
De La Guarda
Ennio
Symphonie Fantastique
The Umbilical Brothers - Thwack!

2000s

YearProduction
2000
Charlie Victor Romeo
Do You Come Here Often?
Shockheaded Peter
2001
Mnemonic
And God Created Great Whales
The Laramie Project
2002
2003
The Exonerated
The Play What I Wrote
Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway
Varekai
2004
Loud Mouth
Carnival Knowledge
Ramayana 2K3
2005
Slava's Snowshow
all wear bowlers
Belle Epoque
The Mysteries
Play Without Words
Typo
2006
Christine Jorgensen Reveals
The Frog Bride
Golden Dragon Acrobats
Peer Gynt
Rain
The Stones
2007
Edward Scissorhands
Absinthe
Amajuba: Like Doves We Rise
Be
Brundibér/But the Giraffe
Hell House
2008
The 39 Steps
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Cut to the Chase
Fabrik: The Legend of M. Rabinowitz
Traces
2009
Celebrity Autobiography: In Their Own Words
Absinthe
Arias with a Twist
Désir
Soul of Shaolin
Surrender

2010s

YearProduction
2010
Love, Loss, and What I Wore
Fêtes de la Nuit
Hansel and Gretel
John Tartaglia's ImaginOcean
The Provenance of Beauty
Stuffed and Unstrung
2011
Sleep No More
Being Harold Pinter
Circus Incognitus
Gatz
Play Dead
Room 17B
2012
Gob Squad's Kitchen (You've Never Had It So Good)
The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill, Vol. 1: Early Plays/Lost Plays
Give Me Your Hand
Noctu
The Ryan Case 1873
White
2013
Cirque Du Soleil: Totem
Bello Mania
Chris March's The Butt-Cracker Suite! A Trailer Park Ballet
The Fazzino Ride
The Man Who Laughs
That Play: A Solo Macbeth
2014
Cirkopolis
Charlatan
The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill Vol. 2
Mother Africa
Nothing to Hide
Nutcracker Rouge
2015
Queen of the Night
Catch Me!
Everybody Gets Cake
The Human Symphony
Rap Guide to Religion
2016
That Physics Show
ADA/AVA
Antigona (dance-theater, based on Sophocles' play Antigone )
The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show
YOUARENOWHERE
2017
The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart
CasablancaBox
The Ephemera Trilogy
The Paper Hat Game
2018
Derren Brown: Secret
Master
Say Something Bunny!
2019
All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914
Love's Labour's Lost
The B-Side: "Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons"
What to Send Up When It Goes Down

2020s

YearProduction
2020
Is This A Room
Beyond Babel
Feral
Midsummer: A Banquet
2021No awards: New York theatres shuttered, March 2020 to September 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City [1]
2022
Seven Deadly Sins
2023
Peter Pan Goes Wrong
Asi Wind's Inner Circle
Plays for the Plague Year
Zephyr

See also

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References

  1. 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.