New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards Heroes of the Fourth Turning and A Strange Loop as the Best of the Season

The New York Drama Critics’ Circle today named Will Arbery’s Heroes of the Fourth Turning best play of the 2019-20 season. The award for best musical went to Michael R. Jackson’s A Strange Loop. The selections were made at the organization’s 85th annual voting meeting on April 15.

The awards will be presented in a virtual ceremony on Tuesday, April 28.

The award for best play carries a cash prize of $2,500. The prize is made possible by a grant from the Lucille Lortel Foundation.

Special citations were voted to David Byrne and the Broadway production of American Utopia; Deirdre O’Connell for career excellence including her performance in Dana H.; and the New York theater community for perseverance in the face of loss during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Heroes of the Fourth Turning, written by Will Arbery and directed by Danya Taymor, had its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons on October 7, 2019 and closed on November 17, 2019.

A Strange Loop, book, music and lyrics by Michael R. Jackson, directed by Stephen Brackett, had its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons on June 17, 2019 and closed on July 28, 2019.

The New York Drama Critics’ Circle comprises 20 drama critics from newspapers, magazines, wire services and websites based in the New York metropolitan area. The New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, which has been awarded every year since 1936 to the best new play of the season (with optional awards for foreign or American plays, musicals, and special achievements), is the nation’s second-oldest theater award, after the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

Adam Feldman, theater critic and editor for Time Out New York, has served as president of the NYDCC since 2005. Joe Dziemianowicz serves as vice president; Zachary Stewart is treasurer.

In addition to Feldman, Dziemianowicz, and Stewart, the members of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle are as follows: David Cote, Vinson Cunningham, David Finkle, Jeremy Gerard, Charles Isherwood, Chris Jones, Christopher Kelly, Soraya Nadia McDonald, David Rooney, Frank Scheck, Alexandra Schwartz, Helen Shaw, David Sheward, Marilyn Stasio, Terry Teachout, Elisabeth Vincentelli and Matt Windman. Emeritus members include Melissa Rose Bernardo, Michael Feingold, Robert Feldberg, Elysa Gardner, Brian Scott Lipton, Jesse Oxfeld, Michael Sommers, Steven Suskin, Linda Winer and Richard Zoglin.

For more information on the New York Drama Critics’ Circle, please visit www.dramacritics.org. A full breakdown of this year’s voting has been posted on the organization’s website.