The Outer Critics Circle has announced the winners for the 2025 Outer Critics Circle Awards, honoring the 2024-2025 Broadway and Off-Broadway season. The big winners included Maybe Happy Ending, John Proctor is the Villain, Boop! The Musical, Stranger Things: The First Shadow, Drag: The Musical, Cats: The Jellicle Ball, and more. The complete list of winners is below.
The awards ceremony will be held on Thursday, May 22, 2025 at Lincoln Center’s New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (111 Amsterdam Avenue, NYC). Award presenters at the celebration will include Natalie Venetia Belcon (Buena Vista Social Club), Victoria Clark (Kimberly Akimbo), Andrew Durand (Dead Outlaw), Steve Guttenberg (It Takes Two), and Thom Sesma (Dead Outlaw).
This year’s ceremony also commemorates the 75th anniversary of the organization’s founding, when the first-ever awards were presented to T.S. Elliot’s The Cocktail Party (Play), Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Consul, and performers Sheila Guyse (Lost in the Stars) and Daniel Reed (Come Back, Little Sheba).
2025 Outer Critics Circle Awards Winners: Outstanding New Broadway Play Cult of Love**John Proctor Is the Villain**
Outstanding New Broadway Musical Boop! The Musical**Maybe Happy Ending**
Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical The Big Gay Jamboree**Drag: The Musical**
Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play The Antiquities**Liberation**
John Gassner Award (new American play preferably by a new playwright) Amy Berryman, Walden**George Clooney and Grant Heslov, Good Night, and Good Luck**
Outstanding Revival of a Musical **Cats: The Jellicle Ball**
Outstanding Revival of a Play Beckett Briefs: From the Cradle to the Grave**Vanya**
Outstanding Lead Performer in a Broadway Play Kit Connor, Romeo + Juliet**Laura Donnelly, The Hills of California**
Outstanding Featured Performer in a Broadway Play Kieran Culkin, Glengarry Glen Ross**Francis Jue, Yellow Face**
Outstanding Lead Performer in a Broadway Musical Darren Criss, Maybe Happy Ending**Jasmine Amy Rogers, Boop! The Musical**
Outstanding Featured Performer in a Broadway Musical Danny Burstein, Gypsy**Jak Malone, Operation Mincemeat**
Outstanding Lead Performer in an Off-Broadway Musical ** Nick Adams, Drag: The Musical**
Outstanding Featured Performer in an Off-Broadway Musical Ali Louis Bourzgui, We Live in Cairo**André De Shields, Cats: The Jellicle Ball**
Outstanding Lead Performer in an Off-Broadway Play Caroline Aaron, Conversations with Mother**Adam Driver, Hold On to Me Darling**
Outstanding Featured Performer in an Off-Broadway Play Betsy Aidem, Liberation**Michael Rishawn, Table 17**
Outstanding Solo Performance David Greenspan, I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan**Sarah Snook, The Picture of Dorian Gray**
Outstanding Book of a Musical ** Will Aronson and Hue Park, Maybe Happy Ending**
Outstanding Score ** Will Aronson and Hue Park, Maybe Happy Ending**
Outstanding Orchestrations Will Aronson, Maybe Happy Ending**Andrew Resnick and Michael Thurber, Just in Time**
Outstanding Direction of a Musical ** Michael Arden, Maybe Happy Ending**
Outstanding Direction of a Play Trip Cullman, Cult of Love**Danya Taymor, John Proctor Is the Villain**
Outstanding Choreography Jenny Arnold, Operation Mincemeat**Jerry Mitchell, BOOP! the Musical**
Outstanding Scenic Design ** Miriam Buether, Jamie Harrison, and Chris Fisher, Stranger Things: The First Shadow**
Outstanding Costume Design ** Gregg Barnes, BOOP! The Musical**
Outstanding Lighting Design Kevin Adams, Swept Away**Jon Clark, Stranger Things: The First Shadow**
Outstanding Sound Design ** Paul Arditti, Stranger Things: The First Shadow**
Outstanding Video/Projections 59, Stranger Things: The First Shadow**David Bergman, The Picture of Dorian Gray**
Special Awards:
Patrick Hoffman, the recently retired curator of the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, in honor of over three decades of service to the theater community, during which time he ensured the preservation of over 1,200 productions.
Deals from
Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Marquis Theatre (Broadway)
In 1959 Hawkins, Indiana, the Creel family seeks a fresh start, especially their teenage son Henry, who is eager to escape his troubled past. Initially, things go well — he finds friendship and joins the school play. But when a wave of shocking crimes strikes the town, Henry is forced to confront a terrifying truth: is there something inside him that connects him to the horrors unfolding around him?
