The New York Drama Critics’ Circle has named Bruce Norris’s Downstate best play of the 2022-23 season. The award for best foreign play went to Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt.  No award was given for best musical.  The selections were made at the organization’s 87th annual voting meeting today.

Special citations were awarded to the Broadway revival of Parade, to playwright Adrienne Kennedy for lifetime achievement, and to La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club for ongoing achievement in Off-Off Broadway theater.

“Downstate” is a play about four men, formerly imprisoned for sex crimes against minors, who live in a group home not far from Chicago, in downstate Illinois. (My review.)

“Leopoldstadt” presents some six decades in the life of a Jewish family in Vienna, inspired by the death of Stoppard’s own extended family in the Holocaust. (My review.)

Adrienne Kennedy made her Broadway debut this season at age 91, with “Ohio State Murders” starring Audra McDonald.

La MaMa recently reopened its first venue after an extensive renovation.

For more information on the Drama Critics’ Circle Awards and its place in the theater awards universe,check out my guide and calendar to New York Theater Awards 2022.