(TJV) The winners of the 2023 Outer Critics Circle Awards were announced on May 16. Jewish themed shows took home a total of 5 awards.

 Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt, set in the first half of the 20th century and follows the lives of a prosperous Jewish family who had fled the pogroms in the East took home three awards, including Outstanding New Broadway Play. Brandon Uranowitz won Outstanding Featured Performer in a Broadway Play and Patrick Marber was recognized as Outstanding Director of a Play.

Meanwhile, musical revivial Parade about the 1915 lynching, of Jewish American Leo Frank in Georgia, nabbed 2 awards.

Lopoldstadt is a play by Sir Tom Stoppard, originally directed by Patrick Marber, which premiered on 25 January 2020 at Wyndham’s Theatre in London’s West End.

According to Stoppard, the play “took a year to write, but the gestation was much longer. Quite a lot of it is personal to me, but I made it about a Viennese family so that it wouldn’t seem to be about me.” All four of Stoppard’s grandparents were Jews murdered by Nazis in concentration camps. On 2 October 2022, the production opened on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre with Marber directing.

Parade is a musical with a book by Alfred Uhry and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. The musical is a dramatization of the 1913 trial and imprisonment, and 1915 lynching, of Jewish American Leo Frank in Georgia.

The musical premiered on Broadway in December 1998 and won Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Original Score (out of nine nominations) and six Drama Desk Awards. After closing on Broadway in February 1999, the show has had a US national tour and a few professional productions in the US and UK, as well as a critically well-received revival on Broadway in 2023.

The Outer Critics Circle was founded during the 1949-50 Broadway season by theatre journalist John Gassner and boasts members affiliated with more than 90 newspapers, magazines, broadcast stations, and online new organizations in the United States and abroad. It is led by current president David Gordon.

Below is the full list of winners and nominees (winners in bold)

The Marjorie Gunner Award for Outstanding New Broadway Musical
Some Like It Hot
& Juliet
A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical
New York, New York
Shucked

Outstanding New Broadway Play
Leopoldstadt
Good Night, Oscar
Life of Pi
Peter Pan Goes Wrong
Summer, 1976

Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical
The Harder They Come
The Bedwetter
Between the Lines
Only Gold
Without You

Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play
Downstate
Becomes a Woman
A Case for the Existence of God
Chester Bailey
Letters from Max, a ritual

John Gassner Award for New American Play (Preferably by a New Playwright)
Fat Ham by James Ijames
“Dark Disabled Stories” by Ryan J. Haddad
“Epiphany” by Brian Watkins
“Wolf Play” by Hansol Jung
“You Will Get Sick” by Noah Diaz

Outstanding Revival of a Play (Broadway or Off-Broadway)
Topdog/Underdog
Death of a Salesman
Endgame
Ohio State Murders
Wedding Band

Outstanding Revival of a Musical (Broadway or Off-Broadway)
Parade
A Man of No Importance
Into the Woods
Merrily We Roll Along
Sweeney Todd

Outstanding Lead Performer in a Broadway Musical
J. Harrison Ghee, Some Like It Hot
Micaela Diamond, Parade
Caroline Innerbichler, Shucked
Colton Ryan, New York, New York
Anna Uzele, New York, New York

Outstanding Featured Performer in a Broadway Musical
Alex Newell, Shucked
Kevin Del Aguila, Some Like It Hot
Julia Lester, Into the Woods
NaTasha Yvette Williams, Some Like It Hot
Betsy Wolfe, & Juliet

Outstanding Lead Performer in a Broadway Play
Sean Hayes, Good Night, Oscar
Hiran Abeysekera, Life of Pi
Jessica Chastain, A Doll’s House
Corey Hawkins, Topdog/Underdog
Audra McDonald, Ohio State Murders

Outstanding Featured Performer in a Broadway Play
Brandon Uranowitz, Leopoldstadt
Danielle Brooks, The Piano Lesson
Sharon D. Clarke, Death of a Salesman
Michael Potts, The Piano Lesson
David Zayas, Cost of Living

Outstanding Lead Performer in an Off-Broadway Play
Bill Irwin, Endgame
Ephraim Birney, Chester Bailey
Brittany Bradford, Wedding Band
Marylouise Burke, Epiphany
Emma Pfitzer Price, Becomes a Woman

Outstanding Featured Performer in an Off-Broadway Play
K. Todd Freeman, Downstate
Veanne Cox, Wedding Band
Glenn Davis, Downstate
Francis Guinan, Downstate
Susanna Guzman, Downstate

Outstanding Lead Performer in an Off-Broadway Musical
Jonathan Groff, Merrily We Roll Along
Nicholas Barasch, The Butcher Boy
Callum Francis, Kinky Boots
Natey Jones, The Harder They Come
Marla Mindelle, Titanique

Outstanding Featured Performer in an Off-Broadway Musical
Lindsay Mendez, Merrily We Roll Along
Vicki Lewis, Between the Lines
Daniel Radcliffe, Merrily We Roll Along
A.J. Shively, A Man of No Importance
Mare Winningham, A Man of No Importance

Outstanding Solo Performance
Jodie Comer, Prima Facie
Mike Birbiglia, The Old Man & the Pool
Jefferson Mays, A Christmas Carol
Sam Morrison, Sugar Daddy
Anthony Rapp, Without You

Outstanding New Score
Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, Some Like It Hot
Kate Anderson and Elyssa Samsel, Between the Lines
Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, Shucked
John Kander, Fred Ebb and Lin-Manuel Miranda, New York, New York
Adam Schlesinger and Sarah Silverman, The Bedwetter

Outstanding Book of a Musical
Robert Horn, Shucked
Tye Blue, Marla Mindelle and Constantine Rousouli, Titanique
Matthew López and Amber Ruffin, Some Like It Hot
Suzan-Lori Parks, The Harder They Come
David West Read, & Juliet

Outstanding Scenic Design (Play or Musical)
Beowulf Boritt, New York, New York
Jason Ardizzone-West, Wedding Band
John Lee Beatty, Epiphany
Mimi Lien, Sweeney Todd
Simon Scullion, Peter Pan Goes Wrong

Outstanding Costume Design (Play or Musical)
Gregg Barnes, Some Like It Hot
Dede Ayite, Topdog/Underdog
Brigitte Reiffenstuel, Leopoldstadt
Paloma Young, & Juliet
Donna Zakowska, New York, New York

Outstanding Lighting Design (Play or Musical)
Tim Lutkin, Life of Pi
Neil Austin, Leopoldstadt
Ken Billington, New York, New York
Ken Elliott and Ben Stanton, A Christmas Carol
Natasha Katz, Sweeney Todd

Outstanding Sound Design (Play or Musical)
Joshua D. Reid, A Christmas Carol
John Gromada, Jasper
Kai Harada, New York, New York
Daniel Kluger, Epiphany
André Pluess, Good Night, Oscar

Outstanding Video or Projection Design (Play or Musical)
Andrzej Goulding, Life of Pi
Christopher Ash and Beowulf Boritt, New York, New York
Lucy Mackinnon, A Christmas Carol
Isaac Madge, Leopoldstadt
Sven Ortel, Parade

Outstanding Orchestrations
Bryan Carter and Charlie Rosen, Some Like It Hot
Sam Davis and Daryl Waters, New York, New York
Jason Howland, Shucked
Dominic Fallacaro and Bill Sherman, & Juliet
Jonathan Tunick, Merrily We Roll Along

Outstanding Director of a Musical
Michael Arden, Parade
Maria Friedman, Merrily We Roll Along
Casey Nicholaw, Some Like It Hot
Jack O’Brien, Shucked
Susan Stroman, New York, New York

Outstanding Choreography
Susan Stroman, New York, New York
Andy Blankenbuehler, Only Gold
Edgar Godineaux, The Harder They Come
Casey Nicholaw, Some Like It Hot
Jennifer Weber, & Juliet

Outstanding Director of a Play
Patrick Marber, Leopoldstadt
Kenny Leon, Topdog/Underdog
Pam MacKinnon, Downstate
Adam Meggido, Peter Pan Goes Wrong
Max Webster, Life of Pi