Tony Award for Best Play
The Tony Award for Best Play (formally, the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre) is an annual award given to the best new (non-musical) play on Broadway, as determined by Tony Award voters. There was no award in the Tonys' first year. All My Sons has been incorrectly categorized as the Best Play of 1947, but it won the Best Author award for Arthur Miller. The following year Mister Roberts received the first Tony Award as Best Play. The award goes to the authors and the producers of the play.[1] Plays that have appeared in previous Broadway productions are instead eligible for Best Revival of a Play.
| Tony Award for Best Play | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Best Play |
| Location | New York City |
| Presented by | American Theatre Wing The Broadway League |
| Currently held by | The Ferryman by Jez Butterworth (2019) |
| Website | TonyAwards.com |
Award winners
Legend:
† marks winners of the annual Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
*marks a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
1940s
| Year | Production | Author |
|---|---|---|
| 1948 2nd Tony Awards | ||
| Mister Roberts | Thomas Heggen & Joshua Logan | |
| 1949 3rd Tony Awards | ||
| Death of a Salesman † | Arthur Miller |
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
| Year | Production | Author | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 Postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic |
N/A | ||
Award records
Multiple awards and nominations
Superlatives
British writer Tom Stoppard has won this award four times, more than any other playwright. Only seven other writers (Arthur Miller, Terrence McNally, Tony Kushner, Edward Albee, Neil Simon, Yasmina Reza and Peter Shaffer) have won the award more than once, each winning twice.
With ten nominations, Neil Simon has been nominated for the award more than any other playwright. August Wilson, with nine nominations, comes in second, followed by Tom Stoppard (seven nominations), Edward Albee (six nominations), and Arthur Miller (five nominations).
In 1994, Tony Kushner became the first playwright to win consecutive Tony Awards for his two-part Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. Terrence McNally repeated this feat the following two years with his plays Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class.
See also
- Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play
- Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play
- List of Tony Award and Olivier Award winning plays
References
- "Tony Award: Play". Internet Broadway Database. 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-21.