This is a list of winners of the
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director introduced in 1955 to honour directors of plays and directors of musicals. From 1968, multiple awards were presented for each season. In 1975 the category was retired and divided into
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play and
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical is an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements in the theatre among Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway productions. The awards were established in 1955, ...
, with each discipline receiving its own.
Award winners
1950s
* 1955:
Jack Landau – ''
The Clandestine Marriage
''The Clandestine Marriage'' is a comedy by George Colman the Elder and David Garrick, first performed in 1766 at Drury Lane. It is both a comedy of manners and a comedy of errors. The idea came from a series of pictures by William Hogarth entit ...
'' / ''
The White Devil''
** ''No nominees''
* 1956:
José Quintero
José Benjamín Quintero (15 October 1924 – 26 February 1999) was a Panamanian theatre director, producer and pedagogue best known for his interpretations of the works of Eugene O'Neill.
Biography
Early years
Quintero was born in Panama C ...
– ''
The Iceman Cometh''
** ''No nominees''
* 1959:
William Ball – ''
Ivanov''
** ''No nominees''
1960s
* 1965:
Ulu Grosbard
Israel "Ulu" Grosbard (9 January 1929 – 19 March 2012) was a Belgian-born, naturalized American theatre and film director and film producer.
Life and career
Born in Antwerp, Grosbard was the son of Rose (Tenenbaum) and Morris Grosbard, who wo ...
– ''
A View from the Bridge''
** ''No nominees''
* 1967:
Joseph Hardy – ''
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown''
** ''No nominees''
* 1968:
Robert Moore – ''
The Boys in the Band'' and
Tom O'Horgan – ''
Tom Paine
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...
''
** ''No nominees''
* 1969:
Tom O'Horgan – ''Futz''
*
Neal Kenyon – ''
Dames at Sea
''Dames at Sea'' is a 1966 musical with book and lyrics by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller and music by Jim Wise.
The musical is a parody of large, flashy 1930s Busby Berkeley-style movie musicals in which a chorus girl, newly arrived off the ...
''
*
Alan Arkin
Alan Wolf Arkin (born March 26, 1934) is an American actor, director and screenwriter known for his performances on stage and screen. Throughout his career spanning over six decades, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award ...
– ''
Little Murders
''Little Murders'' is a 1971 American black comedy film directed by Alan Arkin, in his feature film directorial debut, and starring Elliott Gould and Marcia Rodd. Based on the stage play of the same name by Jules Feiffer, it is the story of a ...
''
*
Michael Schultz
Michael Schultz (born November 10, 1938) is an American director and producer of theater, film and television.
Life and career
Schultz was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of an African-American mother Katherine Frances Leslie (1917-1995) ...
– ''
Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?
''Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?'' is a play written in 1969 by Don Petersen. It has three acts, and helped to launch the careers of actors Al Pacino and Ron Thompson.
Title
The title of the play is explained by the character Fullendorf, who sai ...
''
*
Gordon Davidson – ''In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer''
*
Edwin Sherin
Edwin Sherin (January 15, 1930 – May 4, 2017) was an American director and producer. He is best known as the director and executive producer of the NBC drama series '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' (1991–2005).
Early life
Sherin was ...
– ''
The Great White Hope
''The Great White Hope'' is a 1967 play written by Howard Sackler, later adapted in 1970 for a film of the same name.
The play was first produced by Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. and debuted on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre in October 1 ...
''
** ''No nominees''
1970s
* 1970:
Jerzy Grotowski – ''
The Apocalypse''
*
Alan Arkin
Alan Wolf Arkin (born March 26, 1934) is an American actor, director and screenwriter known for his performances on stage and screen. Throughout his career spanning over six decades, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award ...
– ''The White House Murder Case''
*
Ron Field – ''
Applause''
*
Joseph Hardy – ''
Child's Play''
*
Harold Prince – ''
Company''
** ''No nominees''
* 1971:
Robert Wilson – ''Deafman Glance''
*
Andre Gregory – ''
Alice in Wonderland''
*
Peter Brook
Peter Stephen Paul Brook (21 March 1925 – 2 July 2022) was an English theatre and film director. He worked first in England, from 1945 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, from 1947 at the Royal Opera House, and from 1962 for the Royal Sha ...
– ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream''
*
Michael Bennett – ''
Follies
''Follies'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman.
The plot takes place in a crumbling Broadway theater, now scheduled for demolition, previously home to a musical revue (based on the ''Ziegfeld Fol ...
''
*
Harold Prince – ''
Follies
''Follies'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman.
The plot takes place in a crumbling Broadway theater, now scheduled for demolition, previously home to a musical revue (based on the ''Ziegfeld Fol ...
''
*
Tom O'Horgan – ''Lenny''
*
Paul Sills – ''
Ovid's Metamorphoses'' and ''
Paul Sills' Story Theatre''
** ''No nominees''
* 1972:
Mel Shapiro – ''Older People''
*
Andrei Șerban – ''
Medea''
*
Peter Hall – ''
Old Times''
*
Jeff Bleckner – ''
Sticks and Bones''
*
A. J. Antoon – ''
That Championship Season
''That Championship Season'' is a 1972 play by Jason Miller. It was the recipient of the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 1973 Tony Award for Best Play.
Plot synopsis
The setting is 1972 at the Coach's home in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
O ...
''
*
Mel Shapiro – ''
Two Gentlemen of Verona''
** ''No nominees''
* 1973:
Victor Garcia – ''
Yerma''
*
Joseph Chaikin
Joseph Chaikin (September 16, 1935 – June 22, 2003) was an American theatre director, actor, playwright, and pedagogue.
Early life and education
The youngest of five children, Chaikin was born to a poor Jewish family living in the Borough Pa ...
– ''The Mutation Show''
*
Roberta Sklar – ''The Mutation Show''
*
Harold Prince – ''
A Little Night Music
''A Little Night Music'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the 1955 Ingmar Bergman film ''Smiles of a Summer Night'', it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a ...
''
*
Bob Fosse
Robert Louis Fosse (; June 23, 1927 – September 23, 1987) was an American actor, choreographer, dancer, and film and stage director. He directed and choreographed musical works on stage and screen, including the stage musicals ''The Pajam ...
– ''
Pippin
Pippin or Pepin may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Pippin (comics), ''Pippin'' (comics), a children's comic produced from 1966 to 1986
* Pippin (musical), ''Pippin'' (musical), a Broadway musical by Stephen Schwartz loosely based on the life ...
''
*
Michael Rudman – ''
The Changing Room''
*
Harold Prince – ''
The Great God Brown''
** ''No nominees''
* 1974:
José Quintero
José Benjamín Quintero (15 October 1924 – 26 February 1999) was a Panamanian theatre director, producer and pedagogue best known for his interpretations of the works of Eugene O'Neill.
Biography
Early years
Quintero was born in Panama C ...
– ''
A Moon for the Misbegotten
''A Moon for the Misbegotten'' is a play in four acts by Eugene O'Neill. The play is a sequel to O'Neill's '' Long Day's Journey into Night'', with the Jim Tyrone character as an older version of Jamie Tyrone. He began drafting the play late in ...
''
*
Harold Prince – ''
Candide''
*
Frank Dunlop – ''
Scapino''
*
Marvin Felix Camillo – ''
Short Eyes''
*
Harold Prince – ''
The Visit''
** ''No nominees''
See also
*
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play
*
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical is an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements in the theatre among Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway productions. The awards were established in 1955, ...
References
*
External links
Drama Desk official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drama Desk Award Director
Director