Photo Coverage: Audra McDonald, Alan Menken & All the Drama Desk Winners!

Yesterday, June 3, The 57th Annual Drama Desk Awards were held at The Town Hall, celebrating this year's big winners. The festivities were presided over by star of stage and screen Brooke Shields and Broadway favorite - and previous Drama Desk winner - Brian d'Arcy James.

BroadwayWorld was on hand for  the entire evening and brings you photo coverage of the winners below and CLICK HERE for a complete list of the evening's honorees! 

The awards were presented by award winning dramatists including Doug Wright and Rick Elice; legendary composers: Maury Yeston, William Finn; directors Roger Rees, Alex Timbers; designers Peggy Eisenhauer; orchestrators Jonathan Tunick; Oskar Eustis, and Jenny Gersten; and performers Martha Plimpton, John Larroquette, Julie Halston and Bernadette Peters. 

This year's show featured performances by Miche Braden, Jessie Mueller, Kevin Earley, Marin Mazzie, and Molly Ranson from Drama Desk recognized productions including The Devil's Music: The Life & Blues of Bessie Smith, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, Death Takes a Holiday, and Carrie with a special performance by the Drama Desk winning cast of Newsical.

In keeping with the Drama Desk's mission, nominators considered shows that opened on Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway during the 2011-2012 New York theater season in the same competitive categories. The Board also decided to eliminate the category of Orchestrations.

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. For more information, visit www.dramadeskawards.com.

Photo Credit: Linda Lenzi