The New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards are presented each May by critics from all New York City's newspapers, magazines and wire services except the New York Times.
2006–2007
| Best Play | The Coast of Utopia |
| Best American Play | Radio Golf |
| Best Musical | Spring Awakening |
| Special Citation | The Broadway revival of Journey's End |
2005–2006
| Best Play | Doubt, a Parable |
| Best Foreign Play | The Pillowman |
| Best Musical | Not awarded |
2003–2004
| Best Play | Intimate Apparel |
| Best Musical | Not awarded |
| Best Foreign Play | Not awarded |
| Special Award | Barbara Cook |
2002–2003
| Best Play | Take Me Out |
| Best Musical | Hairspray |
| Best Foreign Play | Talking Heads |
2001–2002
| Best Play | The Goat |
| Best Musical | Not awarded |
| Special Award | Elaine Stritch: At Liberty |
2000–2001
| Best New Play | The Invention of Love |
| Best Musical | The Producers |
| Best American Play | Proof |
1999–2000
| Best New Play | Jitney |
| Best Musical | James Joyce's The Dead |
| Best Foreign Play | Copenhagen |
1998–1999
| Best New Play | Wit |
| Best Musical | Parade |
| Best Foreign Play | Closer |
| Special Citation | David Hare |
1997–1998
| Best New Play | Art |
| Best Musical | The Lion King |
| Best American Play: | Pride's Crossing |
| Special Citation | Cabaret |
1996–1997
| Best New Play | How I Learned to Drive |
| Best Musical | Violet |
 Skylight Joan Marcus | Best Foreign Play | Skylight |
| Special Award | To the cast and creative team of Chicago for their distinguished contribution to the Broadway season. |
1995–1996
| Best New Play | Seven Guitars |
| Best Foreign Play | Molly Sweeney |
| Best Musical | Rent |
| Special Citation | Encores! Great American Musicals in Concert, for its concert performances of overlooked musicals |
1994–1995
| Best Play | Arcadia, Tom Stoppard |
| Citation for Best American Play | Love! Valour! Compassion!, Terrence McNally |
| Citation for Best Musical | No award given |
| Outstanding Achievement Award | Signature Theatre Company, which dedicated its season to the works by Horton Foote |
1993–1994
| Best Play | Three Tall Women, Edward Albee |
| Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, Anna Deavere Smith, writer/actress, received an award “for unique contribution to theatrical form.” |
1992–1993
| Best Play | Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, Tony Kushner |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, Frank McGuinness |
| Citation for Best Musical | Kiss of the Spider Woman, John Kander, Fred Ebb and Terrence McNally |
1991–1992
| Best Play | Dancing at Lughnasa, Brian Friel |
| Citation for Best American Play | Two Trains Running, August Wilson |
1990–1991
| Best Play | Six Degrees of Separation, John Guare |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | Our Country's Good, Timberlake Wertenbaker |
| Citation for Best Musical | The Will Rogers Follies, Cy Coleman, Peter Stone, Betty Comden and Adolph Green |
| Special Citation | Eileen Atkins, A Room of One's Own |
1989–1990
| Best Play | The Piano Lesson, August Wilson |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | Privates on Parade, Peter Nichols |
| Citation for Best Musical | City of Angels, Larry Gelbart, Cy Coleman and David Zippel |
1988–1989
| Best Play | The Heidi Chronicles, Wendy Wasserstein |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | Aristocrats, Brian Friel |
| Special Citation | Largely New York, Bill Irwin |
1987–1988
| Best Play | Joe Turner's Come and Gone, August Wilson |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | The Road to Mecca, Athol Fugard |
| Citation for Best Musical | Into the Woods, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine |
1986–1987
| Best Play | Fences, August Wilson |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Christopher Hampton |
| Citation for Best Musical | Les Misérables, Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil |
1985–1986
| Best Play | Lie of the Mind, Sam Shepard |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | Benefactors, Michael Frayn |
| Special Citation | The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner |
1984–1985
| Best Play | Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, August Wilson |
1983–1984
| Best Play | The Real Thing, Tom Stoppard |
| Citation for Best American Play | Glengarry Glen Ross, David Mamet |
| Citation for Best Musical | Sunday in the Park With George, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine |
1982–1983
| Best Play | Brighton Beach Memoirs, Neil Simon |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | Plenty, David Hare |
| Citation for Best Musical | Little Shop of Horrors, Alan Menken and Howard Ashman |
1981–1982
| Best Play | The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, adapted by David Edgar |
| Citation for Best American Play | A Soldier's Play, Charles Fuller |
1980–1981
| Best Play | A Lesson From Aloes, Athol Fugard |
| Citation for Best American Play | Crimes of the Heart, Beth Henley |
1979–1980
| Best Play | Talley's Folly, Lanford Wilson |
| Evita, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | Betrayal, Harold Pinter |
1978–1979
| Best Play | The Elephant Man, Bernard Pomerance |
| Citation for Best Musical | Sweeney Todd, Hugh Wheeler and Stephen Sondheim |
1977–1978
| Best Play | Da, Hugh Leonard |
| Citation for Best Musical | Ain't Misbehavin', conceived by Richard Maltby, Jr. |
1976–1977
| Best Play | Otherwise Engaged, Simon Gray |
| Citation for Best American Play | American Buffalo, David Mamet |
| Citation for Best Musical | Annie, Thomas Meehan, Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin |
1975–1976
| Best Play | Travesties, Tom Stoppard |
| Citation for Best American Play | Streamers, David Rabe |
| Citation for Best Musical | Pacific Overtures, Stephen Sondheim, John Weidman and Hugh Wheeler |
1974–1975
| Best Play | Equus, Peter Shaffer |
| Citation for Best American Play | The Taking of Miss Janie, Ed Bullins |
| Citation for Best Musical | A Chorus Line, James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante |
1973–1974
| Best Play | The Contractors, David Storey |
| Citation for Best American Play | Short Eyes, Miguel Pinero |
| Citation for Best Musical | Candide, Leonard Bernstein, Hugh Wheeler and Richard Wilbur |
1972–1973
| Best Play | The Changing Room, David Storey |
| Citation for Best American Play | The Hot I Baltimore, Lanford Wilson |
| Citation for Best Musical | A Little Night Music, Hugh Wheeler and Stephen Sondheim |
1971–1972
| Best Play | That Championship Season, Jason Miller |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | The Screens, Jean Genet |
| Citation for Best Musical | Two Gentlemen of Verona, adapted by John Guare and Mel Shapiro |
1970–1971
| Best Play | Home, David Storey |
| Citation for Best American Play | The House of Blue Leaves, John Guare |
| Citation for Best Musical | Follies, James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim |
1969–1970
| Best Play | Borstal Boy, Frank McMahon |
| Citation for Best American Play | The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Paul Zindel |
| Citation for Best Musical | Company, George Furth and Stephen Sondheim |
1968–1969
| Best Play | The Great White Hope, Howard Sackler |
| Citation for Best Musical | 1776, Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone |
1967–1968
| Best Play | Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard |
| Citation for Best Musical | Your Own Thing, Donald Driver, Hal Hester and Danny Apolinar |
1966–1967
| Best Play | The Homecoming, Harold Pinter |
| Citation for Best Musical | Cabaret, Joe Masteroff, John Kander and Fred Ebb |
1965–1966
| Best Play | The Persecution and Assassination of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, Peter Weiss |
| The Man of La Mancha, Dale Wasserman, Mitch Leigh and Joe Darion |
1964–1965
| Best Play | The Subject Was Roses, Frank D. Gilroy |
| Citation for Best Musical | Fiddler on the Roof, Joseph Stein, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick |
1963–1964
| Best Play | Luther, John Osborne |
| Citation for Best Musical | Hello, Dolly, Michael Stewart and Jerry Herman |
| Special Citation | The Trojan Women, Euripides |
1962–1963
| Best Play | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Edward Albee |
| Special Citation | Beyond the Fringe, Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller and Dudley Moore |
1961–1962
| Best Play | The Night of the Iguana, Tennessee Williams |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | A Man for All Seasons, Robert Bolt |
| Citation for Best Musical | How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Abe Burrows, Jack Weinstock, Willie Gilbert and Frank Loesser |
1960–1961
| Best Play | All the Way Home, Tad Mosel |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | A Taste of Honey, Shelagh Delaney |
| Citation for Best Musical | Carnival, Michael Stewart |
1959–1960
| Best Play | Toys in the Attic, Lillian Hellman |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | Five Finger Exercise, Peter Shaffer |
| Citation for Best Musical | Fiorello!, Jerome Weidman, George Abbott, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick |
1958–1959
| Best Play | A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | The Visit, Friedrich Duerrenmatt-Maurice Valency |
| Citation for Best Musical | La Plume de ma Tante, Robert Dhery and Gerard Calvi |
1957–1958
| Best Play | Look Homeward, Angel, Ketti Frings |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | Look Back in Anger, John Osborne |
| Citation for Best Musical | The Music Man, Meredith Willson |
1956–1957
| Best Play | Long Day's Journey Into Night, Eugene O'Neill |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | Waltz of the Toreadors, Jean Anouilh |
| Citation for Best Musical | The Most Happy Fella, Frank Loesser |
1955–1956
| Best Play | The Diary of Anne Frank, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | Tiger at the Gates, Jean Giraudoux and Christopher Fry |
| Citation for Best Musical | My Fair Lady, Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner |
1954–1955
| Best Play | Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | Witness for the Prosecution, Agatha Christie |
| Citation for Best Musical | The Saint of Bleecker Street, Gian Carlo Menotti |
1953–1954
| Best Play | The Teahouse of the August Moon, John Patrick |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | Ondine, Jean Giraudoux |
| Citation for Best Musical | The Golden Apple, John Latouche and Jerome Moross |
1952–1953
| Best Play | Picnic, William Inge |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | The Love of Four Colonels, Peter Ustinov |
| Citation for Best Musical | Wonderful Town, Joseph Fields, Jerome Chodorov, Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Leonard Bernstein |
1951–1952
| Best Play | I Am a Camera, John Van Druten Based on Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories. |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | Venus Observed, Christopher Fry |
| Citation for Best Musical | Pal Joey, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart and John O'Hara |
| Distinguished and Original Contribution to Theater | Don Juan in Hell, George Bernard Shaw |
1950–1951
| Best Play | Darkness at Noon, Sidney Kingsley |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | The Lady's Not for Burning, Christopher Fry |
| Citation for Best Musical | Guys and Dolls, Abe Burrows, Jo Swerling and Frank Loesser |
1949–1950
| Best Play | The Member of the Wedding, Carson McCullers |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | The Cocktail Party, T. S. Eliot |
| Citation for Best Musical | The Consul, Gian Carlo Menotti |
1948–1949
| Best Play | Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | The Madwoman of Chaillot, Jean Giraudoux and Maurice Valency |
| Citation for Best Musical | South Pacific, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan |
1947–1948
| Best Play | A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | The Winslow Boy, Terence Rattigan |
1946–1947
| Best Play | All My Sons, Arthur Miller |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | No Exit, Jean-Paul Sartre |
| Citation for Best Musical | Brigadoon, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe |
1945–1946
| Best Play | No award |
 Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II Archive Photos | Citation for Best Musical | Carousel, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II |
1944–1945
| Best Play | The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams |
1943–1944
| Best Play | No award |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | Jacobowsky and the Colonel, Franz Werfel and S. N. Behrman |
1942–1943
| Best Play | The Patriots, Sidney Kingsley |
1941–1942
| Best Play | No award |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | Blithe Spirit, Noel Coward |
1940–1941
| Best Play | Watch on the Rhine, Lillian Hellman |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | The Corn Is Green, Emlyn Williams |
1939–1940
| Best Play | The Time of Your Life, William Saroyan |
1938–1939
| Best Play | No award |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | The White Steed, Paul Vincent Carroll |
1937–1938
| Best Play | Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck |
| Citation for Best Foreign Play | Shadow and Substance, Paul Vincent Carroll |
1936–1937
| Best Play | High Tor, Maxwell Anderson |
1935–1936
| Best Play | Winterset, Maxwell Anderson |
