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The 74-member Outer Critics Circle (OCC) unveiled its 2025 award nominations on Friday morning, and the new Broadway musical Death Becomes Her stormed the field with a leading 12 citations, staking an early claim as this year’s most lauded Main Stem production. Winners will be announced May 12, two weeks ahead of the Tony nominations.
Death Becomes Her (12 nominations)
Maybe Happy Ending (9)
Boop! The Musical, Operation Mincemeat, Real Women Have Curves (multiple bids)
Among plays, the screen-to-stage thriller Stranger Things: The First Shadow emerged as the front-runner with seven nods, while Sam Mendes’ family epic The Hills of California followed closely with six.
The OCC’s gender-neutral acting categories—capped at five nominees—yielded the morning’s biggest drama. Celebrity-heavy titles such as George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck, Jake Gyllenhaal and Denzel Washington’s Othello, and Daniel Dae Kim’s Yellow Face were largely shut out of performance slots. Instead, voters elevated rising talent:
Kit Connor, making his Broadway debut in Romeo + Juliet, landed in Outstanding Lead Performer (Play) opposite veterans Mia Farrow (The Roommate) and Laura Donnelly (The Hills of California).
Louis McCartney earned a nomination for his breakout turn as troubled teen Henry Creel in Stranger Things: The First Shadow.
Jon Michael Hill was cited for his performance in Suzan-Lori Parks’ corporate satire Purpose.
Clooney did secure a consolation nomination—shared with writing partner Grant Heslov—via the OCC’s John Gassner Award, which honors emerging American playwrights.
In Featured Performer (Musical), Tony winner Danny Burstein (Gypsy) and Olivier winner Michael Urie (Once Upon a Mattress) joined newcomer Michele Pawk, who edged more heavily touted co-stars from the jazzy tuner Just in Time. On the play side, Kieran Culkin earned the lone acting nod for Glengarry Glen Ross, topping castmates Bill Burr and Bob Odenkirk.
Two high-profile productions—Smash and Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends_—were entirely blanked, while Roundabout Theatre Company’s splashy revival Pirates! The Penzance Musical managed only a choreography mention for Warren Carlyle.
Several presumed Tony contenders, including Buena Vista Social Club, Dead Outlaw, and Oh, Mary!, were ineligible because they had previously competed Off Broadway.
Though OCC members do not overlap with Tony nominators, their choices often foreshadow momentum heading into the industry’s busiest month. The strong showing for Death Becomes Her and Maybe Happy Ending bolsters both titles’ commercial prospects and heightens expectations for Tony attention, particularly in score, choreography, and design categories. Meanwhile, play nominees Stranger Things and The Hills of California solidify their positions as dramatic heavyweights in a season dominated by adaptations.
Complete nomination lists are available at outercritics.org. The 2025 Outer Critics Circle winners will be revealed on May 12, with honours presented later that week at Lincoln Centre’s Bruno Walter Auditorium.
(Broadway and Off-Broadway productions)
Cult of Love
The Hills of California
John Proctor Is the Villain
Purpose
Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Boop! The Musical
Death Becomes Her
Maybe Happy Ending
Operation Mincemeat
Real Women Have Curves
The Big Gay Jamboree
Drag: The Musical
We Live in Cairo
The Antiquities
Grangeville
Here There Are Blueberries
Liberation
Table 17
(New American play, preferably by a new playwright)
Amy Berryman – Walden
George Clooney & Grant Heslov – Good Night, and Good Luck
Marin Ireland – Pre-Existing Condition
Lia Romeo – Still
Emil Weinstein – Becoming Eve
Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Floyd Collins
Gypsy
Once Upon a Mattress
Sunset Boulevard
Beckett Briefs: From the Cradle to the Grave
Glengarry Glen Ross
Romeo + Juliet
Vanya
Yellow Face
Kit Connor – Romeo + Juliet
Laura Donnelly – The Hills of California
Mia Farrow – The Roommate
Jon Michael Hill – Purpose
Louis McCartney – Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Kieran Culkin – Glengarry Glen Ross
LaTanya Richardson Jackson – Purpose
Francis Jue – Yellow Face
Mare Winningham – Cult of Love
Kara Young – Purpose
Darren Criss – Maybe Happy Ending
Jeremy Jordan – Floyd Collins
Audra McDonald – Gypsy
Jasmine Amy Rogers – Boop! The Musical
Nicole Scherzinger – Sunset Boulevard
Jennifer Simard – Death Becomes Her
Danny Burstein – Gypsy
Jak Malone – Operation Mincemeat
Michele Pawk – Just in Time
Christopher Sieber – Death Becomes Her
Michael Urie – Once Upon a Mattress
Nick Adams – Drag: The Musical
Marla Mindelle – The Big Gay Jamboree
Nkeki Obi-Melekwe – Safety Not Guaranteed
Alaska Thunderfuck – Drag: The Musical
Taylor Trensch – Safety Not Guaranteed
Ali Louis Bourzgui – We Live in Cairo
Paris Nix – The Big Gay Jamboree
Eddie Korbich – Drag: The Musical
J. Elaine Marcos – Drag: The Musical
Andre De Shields – Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Henry Stram – Three Houses
Caroline Aaron – Conversations with Mother
F. Murray Abraham – Beckett Briefs: From the Cradle to the Grave
Jayne Atkinson – Still
Adam Driver – Hold On to Me Darling
Anthony Edwards – The Counter
Paul Sparks – Grangeville
Betsy Aidem – Liberation
Sean Bell – The Beacon
Michael Rishawn – Table 17
Richard Schiff – Becoming Eve
Frank Wood – Hold On to Me Darling
David Greenspan – I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan
Khawla Ibraheem – A Knock on the Roof
Sam Kissajukian – 300 Paintings
Andrew Scott – Vanya
Sarah Snook – The Picture of Dorian Gray
Will Aronson & Hue Park – Maybe Happy Ending
David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson & Zoë Roberts – Operation Mincemeat
Daniel Lazour & Patrick Lazour – We Live in Cairo
Bob Martin – Boop! The Musical
Marco Pennette – Death Becomes Her
Will Aronson & Hue Park – Maybe Happy Ending
David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson & Zoë Roberts – Operation Mincemeat
David Foster & Susan Birkenhead – Boop! The Musical
Joy Huerta & Benjamin Velez – Real Women Have Curves
Julia Mattison & Noel Carey – Death Becomes Her
Will Aronson – Maybe Happy Ending
Doug Besterman – Death Becomes Her
Joseph Joubert & Daryl Waters – Pirates! The Penzance Musical
Daniel Lazour & Michael Starobin – We Live in Cairo
Andrew Resnick – Just in Time
Michael Arden – Maybe Happy Ending
Christopher Gattelli – Death Becomes Her
Robert Hastie – Operation Mincemeat
Zhailon Levingston & Bill Rauch – Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Jerry Mitchell – Boop! The Musical
Trip Cullman – Cult of Love
Stephen Daldry & Justin Martin – Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Sam Mendes – The Hills of California
Phylicia Rashad – Purpose
Danya Taymor – John Proctor Is the Villain
Jenny Arnold – Operation Mincemeat
Warren Carlyle – Pirates! The Penzance Musical
Christopher Gattelli – Death Becomes Her
Shannon Lewis – Just in Time
Jerry Mitchell – Boop! The Musical
Miriam Buether, Jamie Harrison & Chris Fisher – Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Rachel Hauck – Swept Away
Rob Howell – The Hills of California
Dane Laffrey – Maybe Happy Ending
Derek McLane – Death Becomes Her
Gregg Barnes – Boop! The Musical
Wilberth Gonzalez & Paloma Young – Real Women Have Curves
Rob Howell – The Hills of California
Qween Jean – Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Paul Tazewell – Death Becomes Her
Kevin Adams – Swept Away
Natasha Chivers – The Hills of California
Jon Clark – Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Ben Stanton – Maybe Happy Ending
Justin Townsend – Death Becomes Her
Paul Arditti – Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Adam Fisher – Sunset Boulevard
Peter Hylenski – Death Becomes Her
Peter Hylenski – Maybe Happy Ending
John Shivers – Swept Away
59 – Stranger Things: The First Shadow
Nathan Amzi & Joe Ransom – Sunset Boulevard
David Bergman – The Picture of Dorian Gray
Hana S. Kim – Redwood
Finn Ross – Boop! The Musical
Winners will be announced May 12, 2025.
Death Becomes Her leads with 12 OCC nominations, the most for any production.
Kit Connor ousts A-list veterans to claim a coveted Lead Performer slot.
Celebrity vehicles Smash and Sondheim’s Old Friends receive zero nominations.
Winners will be announced May 12, setting the stage for the Tony race.
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