New York Drama Critics Circle

New York Drama Critics Circle. While discussions about forming an association of local critics were initiated as early as 1927, the group was not officially organized until 1935. No small part of the impetus at that time came from dissatisfaction with the drama selections of the Pulitzer Prize committee. The first winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award was Winterset. In later years the group added other awards, including those for best foreign play and best musical. The Circle also holds regular meetings to examine problems of contemporary theatre. It should be noted that in many years a foreign play was selected as the overall best play and that some of the American entries won awards only after a clear majority could not decide, and so a “weighted” ballot was taken. All of the American plays and musicals that won a NYDCC Award have their own entries. The complete list of winners and the year the award was given follows. 1936: Winterset; 1937: High Tor; 1938: Of Mice and Men, Shadow and Substance; 1939: The White Steed; 1940: The Time of Your Life; 1941: Watch on the Rhine, The Corn Is Green; 1942: Blithe Spirit; 1943: The Patriots; 1944: Jacobowsky and the Colonel; 1945: The Glass Menagerie; 1946: Carousel; 1947: All My Sons, No Exit, Brigadoon; 1948: A Streetcar Named Desire, The Winslow Boy; 1949: Death of a Salesman, South Pacific, The Madwoman of Chaillot; 1950: The Member of the Wedding, The Consul, The Cocktail Party; 1951: Darkness at Noon, Guys and Dolls, The Lady's Not for Burning; 1952: I Am a Camera, Pal Joey, Venus Observed; 1953: Picnic, Wonderful Town, The Love of Four Colonels; 1954: Teahouse of the August Moon, The Golden Apple, Ondine; 1955: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Saint of Bleecker Street, Witness for the Prosecution; 1956: The Diary of Anne Frank, My Fair Lady, Tiger at the Gates; 1957: Long Day's Journey into Night, The Most Happy Fella, The Waltz of the Toreadors; 1958: Look Homeward, Angel, The Music Man, Look Back in Anger; 1959: A Raisin in the Sun, The Visit, La Plume de Ma Tante; 1960: Toys in the Attic, Fiorello!, Five Finger Exercise; 1961: All the Way Home, Carnival!, A Taste of Honey; 1962: The Night of the Iguana, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, A Man for All Seasons; 1963: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Beyond the Fringe; 1964: Hello, Dolly!, Luther; 1965: The Subject Was Roses, Fiddler on the Roof; 1966: Man of La Mancha, Marat/Sade; 1967: Cabaret, The Homecoming; 1968: Your Own Thing, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; 1969: The Great White Hope, 1776; 1970: The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man‐in‐the‐Moon Marigolds, Company, Borstal Boy; 1971: The House of Blue Leaves, Follies, Home; 1972: That Championship Season, The Screens, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Sticks and Bones; 1973: The Hot l Baltimore, A Little Night Music, The Changing Room; 1974: Candide, The Contractor, Short Eyes; 1975: A Chorus Line, Equus, The Taking of Miss Janie; 1976: Streamers, Pacific Overtures, Travesties; 1977: American Buffalo, Annie, Otherwise Engaged; 1978: Ain't Misbehavin', Da; 1979: Sweeney Todd, The Elephant Man; 1980: Talley's Folly, Betrayal, Evita; 1981: Crimes of the Heart, A Lesson from Aloes; 1982: A Soldier's Play, The Life & Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby; 1983: Brighton Beach Memoirs, Plenty, Little Shop of Horrors; 1984: Glengarry Glen Ross, The Real Thing, Sunday in the Park with George; 1985: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom; 1986: A Lie of the Mind, Benefactors; 1987: Fences, Les Liasons Dangereuses, Les Misérables; 1988: Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Into the Woods, The Road to Mecca; 1989: The Heidi Chronicles, Aristocrats; 1990: The Piano Lesson, Privates on Parade, City of Angels; 1991: Six Degrees of Separation, The Will Rogers Follies, Our Country's Good; 1992: Two Trains Running, Dancing at Lughnasa; 1993: Angels in America, Millennium Approaches, Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, Kiss of the Spider Woman; 1994: Three Tall Women; 1995: Love! Valor! Compassion!, Arcadia; 1996: Seven Guitars, Rent, Molly Sweeney; 1997: How I Learned to Drive, Violet, Skylight; 1998: Pride's Crossing, Art, The Lion King; 1999: Wit, Parade, Closer; 2000: Jitney, James Joyce's The Dead, Copenhagen; 2001: Proof, The Producers, The Invention of Love; 2002: The Goat; 2003: Take Me Out, Hairspray, Talking Heads.