The Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience 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.
The category was first presented at the 1975 ceremony. Due to their unusual nature, these productions cannot be categorized in the regular plays or musicals categories.
Winners and nominees Key
1970s Year Production 1975 London Assurance A Letter for Queen Victoria Bette Midler's Clams on the Half Shell Revue Flowers Saturday Sunday Monday The Charles Pierce Show The Rocky Horror Show Women Behind Bars 1976 The Norman Conquests The Belle of Amherst Me and Bessie The Robber Bridegroom The Threepenny Opera Yentl 1977 No Man's Land The Club Dylan Thomas Growing Up For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf Hold Me! Mummenschanz Nightclub Cantata Side by Side by Sondheim 1978 Miss Margarida's Way The 2nd Greatest Entertainer Housewife Superstar Molière in Spite of Himself 1979 An Evening with Quentin Crisp Bleacher Bums Streetsongs
1980s Year Production 1980 1981 Request Concert Aaah Oui Genty! The Amazin' Casey Stengel Blackstone! Pericles Texts 1982 Whistler Shiro 1983 1984 La Tragedie de Carmen The Gospel at Colonus Hey, Ma...Kaye Ballard Orgasmo Adulto Escapes from the Zoo Rockaby Secret Honor 1985 The Garden of Earthly Delights The Golden Land The Normal Heart 1986 The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe Tango Argentino 1987, 1988 1989 Largely New York I'll Go On Saved from Obscurity
1990s Year Production 1990 1991 Cirque du Soleil: Nouvelle Expérience 1992 Blue Man Group: Tubes Lypsinka! A Day in the Life Pageant 1993 Fool Moon Les Atrides 1994 Stomp Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants 1995, 1996 1997 The Waste Land The Beckett Plays Chimere The Three Lives of Lucie Cabrol yousaywhatimeanbutwhatyoumeanisnotwhatisaid 1998 Quidam The Number 14 Paul McKenna's Hypnotic World 1999 Swan Lake De La Guarda Ennio Symphonie Fantastique The Umbilical Brothers - Thwack!
2000s Year Production 2000 Charlie Victor Romeo Do You Come Here Often? Shockheaded Peter 2001 Mnemonic And God Created Great Whales The Laramie Project 2002 2003 The Exonerated The Play What I Wrote Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway Varekai 2004 Loud Mouth Carnival Knowledge Ramayana 2K3 2005 Slava's Snowshow all wear bowlers Belle Epoque The Mysteries Play Without Words Typo 2006 Christine Jorgensen Reveals The Frog Bride Golden Dragon Acrobats Peer Gynt Rain The Stones 2007 Edward Scissorhands Absinthe Amajuba: Like Doves We Rise Be Brundibér/But the Giraffe Hell House 2008 The 39 Steps Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea Cut to the Chase Fabrik: The Legend of M. Rabinowitz Traces 2009 Celebrity Autobiography: In Their Own Words Absinthe Arias with a Twist Désir Soul of Shaolin Surrender
2010s Year Production Ref. 2010 Love, Loss, and What I Wore Fêtes de la Nuit Hansel and Gretel John Tartaglia's ImaginOcean The Provenance of Beauty Stuffed and Unstrung 2011 Sleep No More Being Harold Pinter Circus Incognitus Gatz Play Dead Room 17B 2012 Gob Squad's Kitchen (You've Never Had It So Good) The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill, Vol. 1: Early Plays/Lost Plays Give Me Your Hand Noctu The Ryan Case 1873 White 2013 Cirque Du Soleil: Totem Bello Mania Chris March's The Butt-Cracker Suite! A Trailer Park Ballet The Fazzino Ride The Man Who Laughs That Play: A Solo Macbeth 2014 Cirkopolis Charlatan The Complete & Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill Vol. 2 Mother Africa Nothing to Hide Nutcracker Rouge 2015 Queen of the Night Catch Me! Everybody Gets Cake The Human Symphony Rap Guide to Religion 2016 That Physics Show ADA/AVA Antigona (dance-theater, based on Sophocles' play Antigone) The Very Hungry Caterpillar ShowYOUARENOWHERE 2017 The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart CasablancaBox The Ephemera Trilogy The Paper Hat Game 2018Derren Brown: Secret MasterSay Something Bunny! 2019All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914Love's Labour's LostThe B-Side: "Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons"What to Send Up When It Goes Down
2020s Year Production Ref. 2020 Is This A Room Beyond Babel Feral Midsummer: A Banquet 2021 colspan="2" 2022 Seven Deadly Sins 2023Peter Pan Goes WrongAsi Wind's Inner CirclePlays for the Plague YearZephyr 2024Grenfell: in the words of survivorsA Eulogy for RomanA SimulacrumADRIFT: A Medieval Wayward FollyI Love You So Much I Could Die2025The Picture of Dorian GrayOdd Man OutThe 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy [redux]The Voices in Your HeadThe Wind and the Rain: A story about Sunny’s Bar2026Burnout ParadiseAmazeColor Theoriesha ha ha ha ha ha haRheologySlanted Floors
See also Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event
References
External links