Illinoise, Merrily We Roll Along, and Oh, Mary! came out on top in GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics’ second annual Dorian Theater Awards which were announced this week. Voted for by the group’s 39 theater wing members, the awards honor the best of the 2023-24 season’s Broadway and Off-Broadway productions.
Merrily We Roll Along took four Dorian Awards, including Outstanding Broadway Musical Revival, Best Lead Performance in a Musical for star Jonathan Groff and Best Featured Performance in a Musical for Daniel Radcliffe, who also won GALECA’s Broadway Showstopper Award for his dynamic interpretation of “Franklin Sheppard, Inc.” in the show.
The 1970s-set Stereophonic won both Outstanding Broadway Play and Outstanding Broadway Ensemble, and in a tie, the production’s costar Sarah Pidgeon and Purlie Victorious’s Kara Young shared the Doiran for Outstanding Featured Performance in a Broadway Play.
Jackie Sibblies Drury’s new musical, Illinoise, inspired by Sufjan Stevens’ titular, semi-autobiographical album, took the Dorians for both Outstanding Broadway Musical and Outstanding LGBTQ Broadway Production.
Sarah Paulson (who won a Dorian in 2017 for Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story) won Outstanding Lead Performance in a Broadway Play for Appropriate, which was named Outstanding Broadway Play Revival.
Cole Escola’s outlandish comedy, Oh, Mary!, dominated the group’s Off-Broadway categories, winning both outstanding production and outstanding LGBTQ production, with Escola recognised with a Dorian for their starring turn as Mary Todd Lincoln alongside Conrad Ricamora as their stage husband, Abe. Additionally, Escola was named LGBTQ Theater Artist of the Season.
GALECA’s LGBTQ Theater Trailblazer Award went to playwright Paula Vogel whose latest work, the four-Dorian nominated Mother Play starring Celia Keenan-Bolger, Jim Parsons, and Jessica Lange, is running at Broadway’s Hayes Theater until June 16th, 2024.
“We’re thrilled to be able to pay respect to Ms. Vogel’s lifelong contributions to the American theater, as well as to her ongoing support of the LGBTQ community,” said Cary Wong, the group’s Off-Broadway Lead. Vogel won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1999 for her play, How I Learned to Drive and her body of work includes The Baltimore Waltz, Hot ’N Throbbing, The Mineola Twins and Indecent, which garnered Vogel her first Tony nomination for Best Play in 2017.
2024 Dorian Theater Awards—List of Winners:
Outstanding Broadway Musical
Here Lies Love
Hell’s Kitchen
Illinoise – WINNER
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 – WINNER
Outstanding Broadway Musical Revival
Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club
Merrily We Roll Along – WINNER
The Who’s Tommy
Outstanding Broadway Play Revival
Appropriate – WINNER
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 – WINNER
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 – WINNER
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 – WINNER
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 – WINNER
Kara Young, Purlie Victorious – WINNER
Outstanding LGBTQ Broadway Production
Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club
Illinoise – WINNER
Lempicka
Mother Play
Outstanding Broadway Ensemble
Here Lies Love
Illinoise
Jaja’s African Hair Braiding
Merrily We Roll Along
Suffs
Stereophonic – WINNER
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.” – WINNER
The Outsiders, “The Rumble”
Outstanding Off-Broadway Production
All the Devils Are Here
The Ally
The Connector
Oh, Mary! – WINNER
Primary Trust
Teeth
Outstanding LGBTQ Off-Broadway Production
Bark of Millions
Eddie Izzard’s Hamlet
Make Me Gorgeous
Oh, Mary! – WINNER
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 – WINNER
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
Taylor Mac
Paula Vogel – WINNER
GALECA Theater Wing members, 2023-2024 season:
Frank J. Avella – Edge Media Network, Awards Daily
Drew Burnett Gregory – Autostraddle
Kerensa Cadenas – Elle, Vogue
Chris Carpenter – Rage magazine, MovieDearest
Sam Eckmann (co-chair) – Gold Derby
Murtada Elfadl – The A.V. Club, Variety
Adam Feldman – Time Out
Brian Eugenio Herrera – #TheatreClique (Substack)
Marshall Heyman (Broadway lead) – Dujour, Town & Country
Merryn Johns (co-chair) – Queer Forty
James Kleinmann – The Queer Review
Naveen Kumar – them, The Daily Beast
Ryan Leeds – Metro Weekly, Manhattan Digest
Christian Lewis – Variety, TheaterMania
Brian Scott Lipton – Cititour, Theater Pizzazz
Jonathan Mandell – New York Theater
Meg Masseron – Playbill
Abby Monteil – them
Michael Musto – The Village Voice
Charles O’Keefe – E! News
Louis Peitzman – High Drama (Substack)
Juan Michael Porter II – The Body, TDF Stages
Juan A. Ramirez – Theatrely, The New York Times
Mathew Rodriguez – them
Nathaniel Rogers – The Film Experience
Gillian Russo – New York Theatre Guide
Paul Ryan – USA Today Michael Schulman – The New Yorker
Marcus Scott – National Black Theatre Cohort, 2023-24
Joey Sims – Theatrely, The Brooklyn Rail
Jose Solís – Dorian Theater Awards Diversity Liaison
Ashley Steves – Today on Broadway podcast, Broadway Radio
Tim Teeman – The Daily Beast
Kyle Turner – New York Theatre Guide
Lindsey Weber – Not Broadway (Substack)
Matthew Wexler – Q Digital
Abbey White – The Hollywood Reporter
Cary Wong (Off-Broadway lead) – Film Score Monthly, The Interested Bystander
Curtis Wong – HuffPost
GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics is a core member of CGEM: Critics Groups for Equality in Media, an alliance of underrepresented entertainment journalists organizations.
Follow GALECA @DorianAwards on X, Facebook, and Instagram, and subscribe to their YouTube channel. Visit GALECA.org.