The New York Drama Critics’ Circle has awarded Amy Herzog’s Mary Jane and Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen as Best Play and Best Foreign Play of the year, respectively. The 83rd annual awards were announced May 3 by Time Out New York critic Adam Feldman, who serves as president of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle.
No award was given for Best Musical this year. The selections were made at the organization’s 83rd annual voting meeting.
Herzog’s Mary Jane, seen Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop last fall, follows a single mother navigating life caring for a sick child. Carrie Coon starred in the title role. The play was commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre where it received its world premiere in April 2017.
Hangmen, McDonagh’s dark comedy about an English executioner who finds himself out of a job when hanging is abolished in the U.K., had its 2015 world premiere in a sold-out run at London’s Royal Court Theatre. The production subsequently transferred to the West End later that year. McDonagh won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Play. The Royal Court production was presented Off-Broadway by the Atlantic Theatre Company earlier this year.
The New York Drama Critics’ Circle awarded Special Citations to the Park Avenue Armory for adventurous theatre programming; as well as the Transport Group; and the staging, design and illusions of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
The awards—which include a cash prize of $2,500 for Best Play, made possible by a grant from the Lucille Lortel Foundation—will be presented during a May 10 cocktail reception.
Founded in 1935, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle comprises 19 drama critics from daily newspapers, magazines, wire services, and websites based in the New York metropolitan area.
The New York Drama Critics' Circle Award 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 theatre award, after the Pulitzer Prize for drama.