Presenters included Angela Lansbury, James Earl Jones, Bernadette Peters, Doug Wright, Rick Elice, Maury Yeston, William Finn, Roger Rees, Alex Timbers, Peggy Eisenhauer, Jonathan Tunick, Oskar Eustis, Jenny Gersten, Martha Plimpton, John Larroquette and Julie Halston.
Once, the new musical based on the film of the same name, earned four Drama Desk Awards, the most of any production of the season. It took trophies for Outstanding Musical, Outstanding Director (John Tiffany), Outstanding Lyrics (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova) and Outstanding Orchestrations (Martin Lowe).
Click here for a full list of winners
The Drama Desk was founded in 1949 "to explore key issues in the theater and to bring together critics and writers in an organization to support the ongoing development of theater in New York," according to press notes. The organization began presenting its awards in 1955, and it is the only critics organization to honor achievement in the theatre with competition among Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway productions in the same categories.
