NewsPHOTO CALL: The 57th Annual Drama Desk Awards- Red Carpet ArrivalsStage and screen stars Brooke Shields and Brian d'Arcy James hosted the 57th Annual Drama Desk Awards June 3 at 8 PM at The Town Hall in Manhattan.
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).
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.