2026 Drama Desk nominations: Beau and Mexodus lead with 10; Ragtime, The Balusters top Broadway with 8

Beau the Musical and Mexodus led the 2026 Drama Desk Award nominations with 10 nods each, as the 70th annual list was unveiled in New York City. The Seat of Our Pants followed with nine nominations, while Ragtime and The Balusters topped Broadway productions with eight apiece.

on YouTube from The Lambs Club, America’s oldest professional theatrical club, by Raúl Esparza and Helen J Shen. The awards, which honor excellence across New York City’s entire theatrical landscape, span Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway.

Among individual categories, nominees for Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical include Dulé Hill for Lights Out: Nat "King" Cole and Sam Tutty for Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York). In Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play, Edoardo Benzoni (Are the Bennett Girls OK?) and Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Joe Turner’s Come and Gone) were cited.

For Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical, nominees include Lilli Cooper and Jasmine Amy Rogers (both for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) and Savon Bartley (Holes in the Shape of My Father).

Nominees also reflect a wide range of creative work across productions including Lights Out: Nat "King" Cole, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Cats: The Jellicle Ball, The Lost Boys, Mexodus and Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York). In determining the eligibility of plays or performances from prior seasons, the nominating committee considered only those elements that constituted new work.

First presented in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Awards, the Drama Desk Awards are voted on by theater critics, journalists, editors and publishers who cover the industry.