| Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Outstanding Actress in a Musical |
| Location | New York City |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Drama Desk |
| First awarded | 1975 |
| Last awarded | 2022 |
| Website | dramadesk.org (defunct) |
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical was 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 award was one of eight new acting awards first presented in 1975, when Drama Desk retired an earlier award that had made no distinction between work in plays and musicals, nor between actors and actresses, nor between lead performers and featured performers.
After the 2022 ceremony, all eight acting categories introduced in 1975 were retired. The award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, along with Outstanding Actor in a Musical, were replaced in 2023 with the gender neutral category of Outstanding Lead Performance in a Musical.
| Year | Actress | Musical | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 | |||
| Imelda de Martin | The Amorous Flea | Agnes | |
| 1965–68 | |||
| — | — | — | |
| 1969 | |||
| Dorothy Loudon | The Fig Leaves Are Falling | Lillian Stone | |
| Bernadette Peters | Dames at Sea | Ruby |
| Year | Actress | Musical | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | |||
| Adrienne Warren | Tina: The Tina Turner Musical | Tina Turner | |
| Tammy Blanchard | Little Shop of Horrors | Audrey | |
| Beth Malone | The Unsinkable Molly Brown | Molly Brown | |
| Saycon Sengbloh | The Secret Life of Bees | Rosaleen | |
| Elizabeth Stanley | Jagged Little Pill | Mary Jane "M.J." Healy | |
| 2021 | No awards: New York theatres shuttered, March 2020 to September 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City[2] | ||
| 2022 | |||
| Joaquina Kalukango | Paradise Square | Nelly O'Brien | |
| Kearstin Piper Brown | Intimate Apparel | Esther | |
| Victoria Clark | Kimberly Akimbo | Kimberly | |
| Sharon D. Clarke | Caroline, or Change | Caroline Thibodeaux | |
| Jeanna de Waal | Diana | Princess Diana | |
|
|