| Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Outstanding Director of a Musical |
| Location | United States |
| Presented by | Drama Desk |
| Currently held by | Thomas Kail for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2023) |
| Website | DramaDesk.org |
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical is an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements in the theatre among Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway productions. The awards were established in 1955, with the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director being presented to directors of both plays and musicals. The new award categories were later created in the 1975 ceremony.
| Year | Director | Production |
|---|---|---|
| 1980 | ||
| Harold Prince | Evita | |
| Walton Jones | 1940's Radio Hour | |
| Joe Layton | Barnum | |
| Gary Pearle | Tintypes | |
| 1981 | ||
| Wilford Leach | The Pirates of Penzance | |
| Arthur Faria | Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music | |
| 1982 | ||
| Tommy Tune | Nine | |
| Michael Bennett | Dreamgirls | |
| Tony Tanner | Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat | |
| 1983 | ||
| George Abbott | On Your Toes | |
| Howard Ashman | Little Shop of Horrors | |
| 1984 | ||
| James Lapine | Sunday in the Park with George | |
| A.J. Antoon | The Rink | |
| Jacques Levy | Doonesbury | |
| 1986 | ||
| Wilford Leach | The Mystery of Edwin Drood | |
| Andre Ernotte | Goblin Market | |
| Bob Fosse | Big Deal | |
| Sweet Charity | ||
| Paul Lazarus | Personals | |
| 1987 | ||
| Mike Ockrent | Me and My Girl | |
| Barry Harman | Olympus on My Mind | |
| 1988 | ||
| Harold Prince | The Phantom of the Opera | |
| James Lapine | Into the Woods | |
| Harold Prince | Cabaret | |
| Jerry Zaks | Anything Goes |
| Year | Director | Production |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | ||
| Stephen Brackett | A Strange Loop | |
| Thomas Kail | The Wrong Man | |
| Kathleen Marshall | The Unsinkable Molly Brown | |
| Leigh Silverman | Soft Power | |
| Annie Tippe | Octet | |
| 2021 | — | |
| 2022 | ||
| Marianne Elliott | Company | |
| John Doyle | Assassins | |
| Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage | Six | |
| Bartlett Sher | Intimate Apparel | |
| Jessica Stone | Kimberly Akimbo | |
| 2023 | ||
| Thomas Kail | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street | |
| Jeff Calhoun | Between the Lines | |
| John Doyle | A Man of No Importance | |
| Maria Friedman | Merrily We Roll Along | |
| Jack O'Brien | Shucked | |
|
|