The Drama Desk Awards have announced that Bernadette Peters will be the recipient of the 2027 Harold Prince Award. The award, which recognizes the lifetime achievement of an individual with a distinguished body of work and a transformational impact on the theater industry, will be presented to Peters during the Drama Desk Awards at the Shed on May 23, 2027. The ceremony will include a special tribute to Peters’ career.
The Drama Desk Awards honor extraordinary work across the entire landscape of New York City theater and are administered by the Drama Desk organization, a collective of New York-based theater critics, editors and reporters.
Peters is an icon of the American theater. She made her Broadway debut as a standby in the 1967 play “The Girl in the Freudian Slip” before joining the cast of “Johnny No-Trump” later that year. She has gone on to garner numerous accolades, including seven Tony Award nominations and two wins (for her leading roles in “Song and Dance” and the 1999 revival of “Annie Get Your Gun”), in addition to nine Drama Desk Award nominations and three wins (for “Dames at Sea,” “Song and Dance” and “Annie Get Your Gun”). Peters is the most-nominated performer in Drama Desk history.
Peters is also known for her collaborations with composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim. She originated the canonical roles of Dot in Sondheim and James Lapine’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical “Sunday in the Park with George” and the Witch in their “Into the Woods.” Throughout her career, Peters also originated the roles of Josie Cohan in Broadway’s “George M!,” Mabel in “Mack & Mabel” and Paula in “The Goodbye Girl.”
She has teamed up with the greats of the American theater — being directed by the likes of Gower Champion and Trevor Nunn and interpreting work by Leonard Bernstein, Jerry Herman, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Richard Maltby Jr., Betty Comden and Adolph Green. She most recently appeared on Broadway in “Old Friends,” a Sondheim revue that ran at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre in 2025.
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Peters has brought her musical talents to the screen as well, earning a Golden Globe for the 1981 movie musical “Pennies from Heaven.” But, of course, she’s also brought to life characters like Lily St. Regis in “Annie” and Cinderella’s Stepmother in “Cinderella” for film adaptations of these musicals.
For her charitable work, Peters was awarded the honorary Isabelle Stevenson Tony in 2012. She co-founded and regularly hosts Broadway Barks, an annual pet adoption drive featuring celebrity appearances. Peters has donated her time to numerous other Broadway Cares fundraising events, including streamed concerts, the Broadway Flea Market and live events like Broadway Backwards.
She is the author of three children’s books, the proceeds from which benefit animal charities. She’s been nominated for four Grammy Awards.
“Bernadette Peters represents the absolute gold standard of American theater,” said Drama Desk co-presidents David Barbour and Charles Wright in a joint statement. “For decades, her incomparable talent, radiant stage presence and deep devotion to the New York theatrical community have captivated audiences and inspired generations of artists. Harold Prince understood the transformative power of brilliant storytelling, and there is no artist who embodies that legacy with more grace, passion and enduring artistry than Bernadette.”
The Drama Desk Awards are being produced by Victoria Weinberg for Drama Desk Awards Productions, a Scene Partners venture, in partnership with the Season.
