Drama Critics Circle Awards

The Drama Critics Circle has announced the winners of their 2011 DCC Awards. The winner for Best Play was David Lindsay-Abaire's Good People. Best Foreign Play went to Jez Butterworth's Jerusalem and Best Musical went to The Book of Mormon.

Wikipedia describes best the process of how the award winners are decided upon:

"The New York Drama Critics' Circle meets twice a year. At the end of each theater season, it votes on the annual New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards, the second oldest theater award in the United States (after the Pulitzer Prize). The main award is for Best Play. If the winner of that award is American, the Circle then votes on whether to give an award for Best Foreign Play as well; if the Best Play winner is of foreign origin, the Circle may give out an award for Best American Play. The awards are later presented in a small ceremony. Since 1945, the Circle has also given out awards for Best Musical. Special Citations may also be awarded for actors, companies or work of special merit. The award for Best Play includes a cash prize of $2,500, and a cash award of $1,000 is given to the playwright who receives the award for Best American or Foreign Play."

The Drama Critics Circle includes writers from New York area critics, including writers from The Associated Press, Back Stage magazine, The Bergen Record, Bloomberg News, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Daily News, The New York Post, Newsday, The New Yorker, TheaterMania, Time, Time Out New York, USA Today, Variety, The Village Voice, and the Wall Street Journal.

The choices of the Drama Critics Circle give some indication of who might win come Tony night, since the members of this organization are "the only non-industry writers who are Tony voters" (Broadway.com) after the elimination of opening night critics from the voting registry last year. After that change in voting rights eliminated all critics from the ranks, only members of the Drama Critics Circle were reinstated.