GALECA Theater Critics Honor "Cats: The Jellicle Ball" and "John Proctor is the Villain" for 2025 Dorian Theater Awards

 

John Proctor is the Villain (c) Julieta Cervantes

GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics’ kicked off Pride Month by giving John Proctor is the Villain and Cats: The Jellicle Ball top honors in the group’s third annual Dorian Theater Awards. Both productions won three awards each, making them the most awarded shows of the year. The Dorian Theater Awards, decided on by GALECA’s theater wing, honor the best of Broadway and Off-Broadway, mainstream to LGBTQ+, for the 2024-2025 season. 

Kimberly Bellflower’s new play John Proctor is the Villain earned three Dorian Theater Awards, more than any other Broadway production. The drama, in which contemporary high schoolers recontextualize Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, was awarded prizes for Outstanding Broadway Play, Outstanding Featured Performance in a Broadway Play for Fina Strazza, and Outstanding Broadway Ensemble. 

Cats: The Jellicle Ball dominated the Off-Broadway categories. This radical reinvention of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical set the story in the world of ballroom. It won three Dorian Theater Awards, including Outstanding Off-Broadway production, Outstanding LGBTQ Off-Broadway Production, and Outstanding Featured Performance in an Off-Broadway production for André De Shields. De Shields was also awarded GALECA’s LGBTQ Theater Trailblazer Award, a distinction which celebrates an individual’s lifelong commitment to creating art that inspires empathy, truth and equity. 

The group’s other special prize, the LGBTQ Theater Artist of the Season award, was bestowed to two people due to a tie in voting: Jonathan Groff and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Groff currently stars as Bobby Darin in the hit bio-musical Just in Time (for which he received a Dorian Award nomination). Jacobs-Jenkins is the playwright of the Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway play Purpose. 

The 2024-25 Dorian Theater Awards Winners 

Outstanding Broadway Play 

English 
The Hills of California 
**John Proctor is the Villain 
The Picture of Dorian Gray 
Purpose 

Eureka Day (c) Jeremy Daniel

Outstanding Broadway Play Revival 

**Eureka Day 
Our Town 
Romeo + Juliet 
Yellow Face 

Outstanding Broadway Musical 

Death Becomes Her 
Dead Outlaw 
Just in Time 
**Maybe Happy Ending 
Operation Mincemeat 
Real Women Have Curves 

Outstanding Broadway Musical Revival 

Floyd Collins 
Gypsy 
Pirates! The Penzance Musical 
**Sunset Blvd. 

Death Becomes Her (c) Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

Outstanding LGBTQ Broadway Production 

Cult of Love 
**Death Becomes Her 
Purpose 
Redwood 
SMASH 

Outstanding Lead Performance in a Broadway Play 

Kit Connor, Romeo + Juliet 
Laura Donnelly, The Hills of California 
Mia Farrow, The Roommate 
Daniel Dae Kim, Yellow Face 
Sydney Lemmon, JOB 
Louis McCartney, Stranger Things: The First Shadow 
Jon Michael Hill, Purpose 
LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Purpose 
Sadie Sink, John Proctor is the Villain 
**Sarah Snook, The Picture of Dorian Gray 

Outstanding Featured Performance in a Broadway Play 

Alana Arenas, Purpose 
Tala Ashe, English 
Molly Bernard, Cult of Love 
Jessica Hecht, Eureka Day 
Francis Jue, Yellow Face 
Marjan Neshat, English 
Bob Odenkirk, Glengarry Glen Ross 
Zachary Quinto, Cult of Love 
**Fina Strazza, John Proctor is the Villain 
Amalia Yoo, John Proctor is the Villain 
Kara Young, Purpose 

Gypsy (c) Julieta Cervantes

Outstanding Lead Performance in a Broadway Musical 

Darren Criss, Maybe Happy Ending 
Andrew Durand, Dead Outlaw 
Tom Francis, Sunset Blvd. 
Jonathan Groff, Just in Time 
Megan Hilty, Death Becomes Her 
**Audra McDonald, Gypsy 
Jasmine Amy Rogers, BOOP! The Musical 
Nicole Scherzinger, Sunset Blvd. 
Helen J. Shen, Maybe Happy Ending 
Jennifer Simard, Death Becomes Her 

Outstanding Featured Performance in a Broadway Musical 

Natalie Venetia Belcon, Buena Vista Social Club 
Jeb Brown, Dead Outlaw 
Gracie Lawrence, Just in Time 
Justina Machado, Real Women Have Curves 
**Jak Malone, Operation Mincemeat 
Jinkx Monsoon, Pirates! The Penzance Musical 
Lea Salonga, Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends 
Christopher Sieber, Death Becomes Her 
Taylor Trensch, Floyd Collins 
David Thaxton, Sunset Blvd. 
Michael Urie, Once Upon a Mattress 
Joy Woods, Gypsy 

Outstanding Broadway Ensemble 

Cult of Love 
Death Becomes Her 
**John Proctor is the Villain 
Real Women Have Curves 
Sunset Blvd. 

The Broadway Showstopper Award 
— To a standout production number or scene 

Death Becomes Her - “For the Gaze” 
**Gypsy - “Rose’s Turn” 
John Proctor Is the Villain - “Green Light” 
Maybe Happy Ending - “Chasing Fireflies” 
**Sunset Blvd. - “Sunset Boulevard” 

Cats: The Jellicle Ball (c) Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

Outstanding Off-Broadway Production 

**Cats: The Jellicle Ball 
Grangeville 
Liberation 
Vanya 
Wine in the Wilderness 

Outstanding LGBTQ Off-Broadway Production 

**Cats: The Jellicle Ball 
DRAG: The Musical 
Grangeville 
The Fires 
We Had a World 

Vanya (c) Julieta Cervantes

Outstanding Lead Performance in an Off-Broadway Production 

Patsy Ferran, A Streetcar Named Desire 
Susannah Flood, Liberation 
Brandon Flynn, Kowalski 
Joanna Gleason, We Had a World 
Marla Mindelle, The Big Gay Jamboree 
Paul Mescal, A Streetcar Named Desire 
**Andrew Scott, Vanya 
Paul Sparks, Grangeville 
Alaska Thunderfuck, DRAG: The Musical 
Olivia Washington, Wine in the Wilderness 

Outstanding Featured Performance in an Off-Broadway Production 

Betsy Aidem, Liberation 
Billy Crudup, Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts 
**Andre De Shields, Cats: The Jellicle Ball 
Drew Elhamalawy, We Live in Cairo 
Sydney James Harcourt, Cats: The Jellicle Ball 
Jujubee, DRAG: The Musical 
Ahmad Kamal, SUMO 
Julia Lester, All Nighter 
Paris Nix, The Big Gay Jamboree 
Jeanine Serralles, We Had a World 
Kyra Sedgwick, All of Me 
“Tempress” Chasity Moore, Cats: The Jellicle Ball 
Jenny Lee Stern, Forbidden Broadway: Merrily We Stole A Song 
Jason Veasey, The Fires 
Natalie Walker, The Big Gay Jamboree 

Just in Time (c) Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

LGBTQ Theater Artist of the Season 

Michael Arden 
Tommy Dorfman 
**Jonathan Groff 
**Branden Jacobs-Jenkins 
Jinkx Monsoon 

LGBTQ Theater Trailblazer 
— For a lifelong commitment to creating art that inspires empathy, truth and equity 

**Andre De Shields 
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins 
Jinkx Monsoon 
Andrew Scott 
Paul Tazewell 
George C. Wolfe 

Productions by Number of Wins 

Cats: The Jellicle Ball - 3 
John Proctor is the Villain - 3 
Gypsy - 2 
Sunset Blvd. - 2 
Death Becomes Her - 1 
Eureka Day - 1 
Maybe Happy Ending - 1 
Operation Mincemeat - 1 
The Picture of Dorian Gray - 1 
Vanya - 1

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