Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Scenic Design

Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Scenic Design
Awarded for	Outstanding Scenic Design
Location	New York City
Presented by	Outer Critics Circle
Currently held by	Miriam Buether, Jamie Harrison, and Chris Fisher, Stranger Things: The First Shadow (2025)
Website	OuterCriticsCircle.org

The Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Scenic Design is an honor presented at the Outer Critics Circle Awards, a ceremony established in 1950 for excellence in Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, to set designers of any production. The category was added to the ceremony in 1979 as the first technical award category as "Best Set Design" before being changed to "Outstanding Scenic Design" in 1999.

Robin Wagner has won the award the most times, with four wins, followed by Bob Crowley, Eugene Lee, David Gallo and Anthony Ward with two wins each. John Lee Beatty, however, holds the record for most nominations, with 12. Maria Bjornson was the first female scenic designer to win the award in 1988 for The Phantom of the Opera.

Award winners and nominees

Key

  and bold indicates the winner.

1970s

Year	Name	Work	Ref.
1979
	John Wulp	The Crucifer of Blood	[1]

1980s

Year	Name	Work	Ref.
1980
	John Lee Beatty	Hide and Seek and Talley's Folly	[2]
1981
	Robert Phillips^[disambiguation needed]	Journey's End	[3]
1982	No award given.
1983
	Ming Cho Lee	K2	[4]
1984	No award given.
1985
	Tony Straiges	Diamonds and Sunday in the Park with George	[5]
1986
	Bob Shaw	The Mystery of Edwin Drood	[6]
1987
	John Napier	Les Misérables	[7]
1988
	Maria Bjornson	The Phantom of the Opera	[8]
1989
	Tony Walton	Lend Me a Tenor	[9]

1990s

Year	Name	Work	Ref.
Note: award given as "Best Set, Costume and Lighting Design"
1990
	Robin Wagner	City of Angels	[10][11]
1991
	Heidi Landesman	The Secret Garden	[12]
1992
	Robin Wagner	Crazy for You	[13][14]
	Joe Vanck	Dancing at Lughnasa
	Richard Pilbrow	Four Baboons Adoring the Sun
	John Lee Beatty	Song of Singapore
1993
	John Arnone	The Who's Tommy	[15][16]
1994
	Bob Crowley	Carousel	[17]
1995
	Eugene Lee	Show Boat	[18][19]
1996
	Brian Thomson	The King and I	[20][21]
1997 (tie)
	David Gallo	Bunny Bunny	[22][23]
	Stewart Laing	Titanic
	Tony Walton	Steel Pier
	John Lee Beatty	The Little Foxes
1998
	Richard Hudson	The Lion King	[24][25]
	Eugene Lee	Ragtime
	Tony Straiges	Golden Child
	Heidi Ettinger	The Sound of Music
Note: award given as "Outstanding Scenic Design"
1999
	Richard Hoover	Not About Nightingales	[26][27]
	James Noone	Night Must Fall
	Bob Crowley	The Iceman Cometh
	John Lee Beatty	The Mystery of Irma Vep

2000s

Year	Name	Work	Ref.
2000
	Robin Wagner	Kiss Me, Kate	[28][29]
	William Dudley	Amadeus
	John Lee Beatty	An Experiment with an Air Pump
	Thomas Lynch	The Music Man
2001
	Robin Wagner	The Producers	[30][31]
	Douglas Schmidt	42nd Street
	Heidi Ettinger	The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
	Bob Crowley	The Invention of Love
2002
	Anthony Ward	Oklahoma!	[32][33]
	Douglas Stein	36 Views
	John Lee Beatty	Morning's at Seven
	Allen Moyer	The Dazzle
2003
	Catherine Martin	La Bohème	[34][35]
	Tony Straiges	Enchanted April
	David Rockwell	Hairspray
	John Lee Beatty	Dinner at Eight
	Scott Pask	Nine
2004
	Eugene Lee	Wicked	[36][37]
	John Lee Beatty	Twentieth Century
	Vicki Mortimer	Jumpers
	Ralph Funicello	Henry IV
2005
	Anthony Ward	Chitty Chitty Bang Bang	[38][39]
	Michael H. Yeargan	The Light in the Piazza
	Robert Brill	A Streetcar Named Desire
	Scott Pask	The Pillowman
	Tim Hatley	Spamalot
2006
	David Gallo	The Drowsy Chaperone	[40][41]
	John Lee Beatty	The Color Purple
	William Dudley	The Woman in White
	Allen Moyer	Grey Gardens
2007
	Bob Crowley and Scott Pask	The Coast of Utopia	[42][43]
	Ti Green and Melly Still	Coram Boy
	Bob Crowley	Mary Poppins
	Derek McLane	The Voysey Inheritance
2008
	David Farley and Tim Bird	Sunday in the Park with George	[44][45]
	Scott Pask	Les Liaisons Dangereuses
	Robin Wagner	Young Frankenstein
	Michael H. Yeargan	South Pacific
2009
	Tim Hatley	Shrek the Musical	[46][47]
	Derek McLane	33 Variations
	Ian MacNeil	Billy Elliot
	Santo Loquasto	Waiting for Godot
	Walt Spangler	Desire Under the Elms

2010s

Year	Name	Work	Ref.
2010
	Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch	The Addams Family	[48][49]
	John Lee Beatty	The Royal Family
	Donyale Werle	Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson
	Beowulf Boritt	Sondheim on Sondheim
2011
	Neil Murray	Brief Encounter	[50][51]
	Derek McLane	Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo
	Todd Rosenthal	The Motherfucker with the Hat
	Desmond Heeley	The Importance of Being Earnest
2012
	George Tsypin	Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark	[52][53]
	Bob Crowley	Once
	Christopher Oram	Evita
	Derek McLane	Nice Work If You Can Get It
2013
	Rob Howell	Matilda	[54][55]
	Scott Pask	Pippin
	John Lee Beatty	The Nance
	Michael H. Yeargan	Golden Boy
	David Korins	Here Lies Love
2014
	Christopher Barreca	Rocky	[56][57]
	Beowulf Boritt	Act One
	Es Devlin	Machinal
	Alexander Dodge	A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder
	Bob Crowley	Aladdin
2015
	Bunny Christie	The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time	[58][59]
	David Rockwell	On the Twentieth Century
	Bob Crowley	An American in Paris
	Michael H. Yeargan	The King and I
	Scott Pask	Something Rotten!
2016
	David Rockwell	She Loves Me	[60][61][62]
	Beowulf Boritt	Thérèse Raquin
	David Korins	Misery
	Mimi Lien	John
	Walt Spangler	Tuck Everlasting
2017
	Mimi Lien	Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812	[63][64]
	Scott Pask	The Little Foxes
	Nigel Hook	The Play That Goes Wrong
	Douglas W. Schmidt	The Front Page
	Alexander Dodge	Anastasia
2018
	Christine Jones	Harry Potter and the Cursed Child	[65][66]
	Myung Hee Cho	In the Body of the World
	Michael H. Yeargan	My Fair Lady
	David Zinn	SpongeBob SquarePants
	Miriam Buether	Three Tall Women
2019
	David Korins	Beetlejuice	[67][68]
	Bunny Christie	Ink
	Beowulf Boritt	Bernhardt/Hamlet
	Rachel Hauck	Hadestown
	Rob Howell	The Ferryman

2020s

Year	Name	Work	Ref.
2020 (Hon.)	Rob Howell	A Christmas Carol	[69]
	Clint Ramos	Grand Horizons
	Derek McLane	Moulin Rouge!
	Tim Mackabee	Seared
	Anthony Ward	The Height of the Storm
2021	No award given due to COVID-19 pandemic.
2022
	Adam Rigg	The Skin of Our Teeth	[70]
	Es Devlin	The Lehman Trilogy
	Beowulf Boritt	Flying Over Sunset
	Scott Pask	American Buffalo
	David Zinn	The Minutes
2023
	Beowulf Boritt	New York, New York	[71]
	Simon Scullion	Peter Pan Goes Wrong
	John Lee Beatty	Epiphany
	Jason Ardizzone-West and Beowulf Boritt	Wedding Band
	Mimi Lien	Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
2024 (tie)
	Paul Tate dePoo III	The Great Gatsby	[72]
	David Zinn	Stereophonic
	Paul Tate dePoo III	The Cottage
	dots (Andrew Moerdyk, Kimie Nishikawa and Santiago Orjuela-Laverde)	Appropriate
	David Korins	Here Lies Love
2025
	Miriam Buether, Jamie Harrison and Chris Fisher	The Great Gatsby	[73][74]
	Dane Laffrey	Maybe Happy Ending
	Rachel Hauck	Swept Away
	Rob Howell	The Hills of California
	Derek McLane	Death Becomes Her

Multiple wins

4 wins

• Robin Wagner

2 wins

• Bob Crowley
• Eugene Lee
• David Gallo
• Anthony Ward

Multiple nominations

12 nominations

• John Lee Beatty

8 nominations

• Bob Crowley
• Scott Pask

7 nominations

• Beowulf Boritt

6 nominations

• Derek McLane

5 nominations

• Michael Yeargan

4 nominations

• David Korins
• Rob Howell

3 nominations

• Tony Straiges
• Eugene Lee
• Anthony Ward
• David Rockwell
• Mimi Lien

2 nominations

• Tony Walton
• David Gallo
• Heidi Ettinger
• Douglas Schmidt
• Allen Moyer
• Tim Hatley
• William Dudley
• Walt Spangler
• Paul Tate dePoo III
• Rachel Hauck
• Es Devlin
• Alexander Dodge
• Bunny Christie

See also

• Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Play
• Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Musical
• Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design
• Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Scenic Design

References

1. "1978–1979 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
2. "1979–1980 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
3. "1980–1981 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
4. "1982–1983 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
5. "1984–1985 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
6. "1985–1986 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
7. "1986–1987 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
8. "1987–1988 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
9. "1988–1989 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
10. "1989–1990 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
11. Rich, Frank (May 1, 1990). "Outer Critics Awards to Grapes and Angels". The New York Times. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
12. "1990–1991 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
13. "1991–1992 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
14. "Dancing at Lughnasa Wins Outer Critics Circle Award". The New York Times. April 28, 1992. Retrieved September 21, 2025.
15. "1992–1993 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
16. Rich, Frank (April 27, 1993). "Outer Critics Circle Names Award Winners". The New York Times. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
17. "1993–1994 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
18. "Outer Critics Float Show Boat". Variety. April 1995. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
19. "1994–1995 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
20. "Extra, Extra! Late‑Breaking News from the World of Entertainment". NY Daily News. April 16, 1996. Retrieved September 21, 2025.
21. "1995–1996 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
22. Lefkowitz, David (May 5, 1997). "Outer Critics Circle Award Winners Announced". Playbill. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
23. "1996–1997 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
24. Viagas & Lefkowitz (April 27, 1998). "Lion King Roars With Six Outer Critics Circle Awards". Playbill. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
25. "1997–1998 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
26. "Nightingales, Wit, Iceman & Fosse Win Outer Critics Awards; Ceremony May 28". Playbill. April 26, 1999. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
27. "1998–1999 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
28. "Contact and Kiss Me, Kate Big Winners of 2000 Outer Critics Awards". Playbill. April 30, 2000. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
29. "1999–2000 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
30. Simonson & Lefkowitz (May 24, 2001). "2001 Outer Critics Circle Awards Held at Sardi's, May 24". Playbill. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
31. "2000–2001 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
32. "The 2001–2002 Outer Critics Circle Award Winners". TheaterMania. April 29, 2002. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
33. "2001–2002 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
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35. "2002-2003 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
36. "Wicked, Wonderful Town, I Am My Own Wife Top 2004 Outer Critics Circle Awards". Playbill. May 2, 2004. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
37. "2003–2004 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
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39. "2004–2005 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
40. Hernandez, Ernio (May 14, 2006). "The Drowsy Chaperone and The History Boys Top Outer Critics Awards". Playbill. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
41. "2005–2006 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
42. Gans, Andrew (May 24, 2007). "Outer Critics Circle Awards Are Presented by Clark, Young and Mitchell May 24". Playbill. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
43. "2006–2007 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
44. Gans, Andrew (May 12, 2008). "South Pacific Is Big Winner in Outer Critics Circle Awards". Playbill. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
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46. "Outer Critics Circle 2008–09 Award Winners". New York Theatre Guide. May 11, 2009. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
47. "2008–2009 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
48. "MEMPHIS & LA CAGE Top Outer Critics Circle Winners". BroadwayWorld. May 17, 2010. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
49. "2009–2010 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
50. "The Book of Mormon, War Horse and Anything Goes Top 2011 Outer Critics Circle Awards". Broadway.com. May 16, 2011. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
51. "2010–2011 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
52. Gans, Andrew (May 14, 2012). "Outer Critics Circle Winners Announced; Once and One Man, Two Guvnors Are Top Winners". Playbill. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
53. "2011–2012 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
54. "Outer Critics Circle 2013 Award Winners". New York Theatre Guide. May 13, 2013. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
55. "2012–2013 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
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57. "2013–2014 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
58. "Outer Critics Circle Awards 2015: Full List". Variety. April 27, 2015. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
59. "2014–2015 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
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61. Viagas, Robert (May 9, 2016). "Bright Star and The Humans Win Top 2016 NY Outer Critics Circle Awards". Playbill. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
62. "2015–2016 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
63. Lefkowitz, Andy (May 8, 2017). "2017 Outer Critics Circle Awards: Come From Away & More Win Top Prizes". Broadway.com. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
64. "2016–2017 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
65. McPhee, Ryan (May 7, 2018). "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, My Fair Lady Win Big at 2018 Outer Critics Circle Awards". Playbill. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
66. "2017–2018 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
67. Lefkowitz, Andy (May 13, 2019). "Hadestown Leads Winners of 2019 Outer Critics Circle Awards". Broadway.com. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
68. "2018–2019 Awards". Outer Critics Circle. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
69. Clement, Olivia (May 11, 2020). "Moulin Rouge! Leads 2020 Outer Critics Circle Award Honorees". Playbill. Retrieved September 3, 2025.
70. "The Lehman Trilogy Leads 2022 Outer Critics Circle Awards, Six Wins; See the Complete List of Winners". Playbill. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
71. Culwell-Block, Logan (May 16, 2023). "Some Like It Hot Dominates 2023 Outer Critics Circle Awards; See the Full List of Winners". Playbill. Retrieved September 1, 2025.
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73. Culwell-Block, Logan (May 12, 2025). "Maybe Happy Ending Leads 2025 Outer Critics Circle Awards; See the Full List of Winners". Playbill. Retrieved September 1, 2025.
74. Evans, Greg (2025-04-25). "'Death Becomes Her' Broadway Musical Leads Outer Critics Circle Award Nominees – Complete List". Deadline. Retrieved 2025-09-01.