| Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Unique Theatrical Experience |
| Location | New York City |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Drama Desk |
| First awarded | 1975 |
| Currently held by | Grenfell: in the words of survivors (2024) |
| Website | dramadesk.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.
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.
| Year | Production |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| Year | Production |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| Year | Production |
|---|---|
| 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! |
| Year | Production |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| Year | Production |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| Year | Production | |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | ||
| Is This A Room | ||
| Beyond Babel | ||
| Feral | ||
| Midsummer: A Banquet | ||
| 2021 | No 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 | ||
| 2024 | ||
| Grenfell: in the words of survivors | ||
| A Eulogy for Roman | ||
| A Simulacrum | ||
| ADRIFT: A Medieval Wayward Folly | ||
| I Love You So Much I Could Die | ||
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor 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.
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical was 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. 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.
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.
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical was 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. 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.
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical was 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. 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.
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor 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.
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical was 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. 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.
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play is 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 awards were established in 1955, with the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director being presented each year to a director from any play or musical production. Starting in 1975, the singular director's award was replaced by separate play and musical categories.
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical 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. The awards were established in 1955, with the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director being presented each year to a director from any play or musical production. Starting in 1975, the singular director's award was replaced by separate play and musical categories.
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The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical is 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 first presented at the 1994 ceremony, after Drama Desk retired the Outstanding Revival category (1955–1992), a singular award covering achievement by either a play or a musical production. The accompanying Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play was also created, though it was first presented at the 1993 ceremony.
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The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Sound Design for a Musical 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.
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Scenic Design for a Play 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.
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Scenic Design for a Musical 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.
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Sound Design for a Play 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.
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for a Musical 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.
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design for a Play 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.
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design for a Play 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.
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design for a Musical 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.