Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical

Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical
Awarded for	Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical
Location	New York City
Country	United States
Presented by	Drama Desk
First award	2023
Currently held by	Kecia Lewis, Bebe Neuwirth (2024)
Website	dramadesk.org

The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical is an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements in theatre across collective Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City.

From 1955 to 1974, acting awards were given only for lead performances, without making distinctions between roles in plays and musicals, nor between actors and actresses. From 1975 to 2022, acting awards were presented in eight categories: separate categories by gender; further divided by lead or featured performer; producing four acting awards each for plays and musicals.

In 2023, the Drama Desk organization announced that, starting with that year's awards, the eight acting categories had been retired and replaced with four gender neutral categories with twice the winners and nominees: separate categories by lead or featured performer; producing two acting categories each for plays and musicals.^[1] The former awards for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical and Featured Actress in a Musical were merged to create this Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical category.

Nominees

2020s

Year	Actor	Title	Character
2023[2]
	Kevin Del Aguila	Some Like It Hot	Osgood Fielding III
	Alex Newell	Shucked	Lulu
	Kevin Cahoon	Shucked	Peanut
	Robyn Hurder	A Beautiful Noise	Marcia Murphey
	Mark Jacoby	A Beautiful Noise	Neil Diamond (Now)
	Tarra Conner Jones	White Girl in Danger	Nell Gibbs
	Julia Lester	Into the Woods	Little Red Riding Hood
	Daniel Radcliffe	Merrily We Roll Along	Charley Kringas
	Phillipa Soo	Into the Woods	Cinderella
	Mare Winningham	A Man of No Importance	Lilly Byrne
2024[3]	Kecia Lewis	Hell's Kitchen	Miss Liza Jane
	Bebe Neuwirth	Cabaret	Fräulein Schneider
	Shoshana Bean	Hell's Kitchen	Jersey
	Natalie Venetia Belcon	Buena Vista Social Club	Omara Portuondo
	Dorian Harewood	The Notebook	Older Noah Calhoun
	Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer	Spamalot	Lady of the Lake
	Steven Pasquale	Teeth	Pastor Bill O'Keefe
	Maryann Plunkett	The Notebook	Older Allison "Allie" Calhoun
	Thom Sesma	Dead Outlaw	Thomas Noguchi
	Emily Skinner	Suffs	Alva Belmont / Phoebe Burn
2025[4]	Brooks Ashmanskas	Smash	Nigel
	Nicholas Barasch	Pirates! The Penzance Musical	Frederic
	André De Shields	Cats: "The Jellicle Ball"	Old Deuteronomy
	John El-Jor	We Live in Cairo	Karim
	Jason Gotay	Floyd Collins	Homer Collins
	Gracie Lawrence	Just in Time	Connie Francis
	Jak Malone	Operation Mincemeat	Hester Leggatt & others
	Lesli Margherita	Gypsy	Tessie Tura
	Zachary Noah Piser	See What I Wanna See	The Janitor and A Priest
	Jenny Lee Stern	Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole a Song
	Michael Urie	Once Upon a Mattress	Prince Dauntless
	Natalie Walker	The Big Gay Jamboree	Flora

References

1. Culwell-Block, Logan (April 26, 2023). "Drama Desk Awards Go Gender Neutral". Playbill. Archived from the original on April 27, 2023. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
2. Gordon, David (April 27, 2023). "Shucked, Some Like It Hot Lead 2023 Drama Desk Award Nominations". Retrieved May 8, 2023.
3. "Stereophonic Leads 2024 Drama Desk Awards with 7 Wins Including Outstanding Play - Playbill.com". 2024-06-10. Retrieved 2024-06-13.
4. Culwell-Block, Logan (April 30, 2025). "Boop! Leads 2025 Drama Desk Award Nominations With 11 Nods Including Outstanding Musical; Read the Full List Here". Retrieved May 4, 2025.