Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play
Encyclopedia
This is a list of winners of the Drama Desk Award
for Outstanding Play initially introduced in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre.
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
for Outstanding Play initially introduced in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre.
1950s
Vernon Rice Award for Best Production- 1955: The Way of the WorldThe Way of the WorldThe Way of the World is a play written by British playwright William Congreve. It premiered in 1700 in the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London...
/ Le Bal des VoleursLe Bal des VoleursLe Bal des Voleurs is a play written by French playwright Jean Anouilh first staged at Théâtre des Arts, Paris on 17 August 1938....
/ Twelfth Night / The Merchant of VeniceThe Merchant of VeniceThe Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...
/ The White DevilThe White DevilThe White Devil is a revenge tragedy from 1612 by English playwright John Webster . A notorious failure when it premiered, Webster complained the play was acted in the dead of winter before an unreceptive audience. The play's complexity, sophistication and satire made it a poor fit with the... - 1956: The Iceman ComethThe Iceman ComethThe Iceman Cometh is a play written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1939. First published in 1940 the play premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on 9 October 1946, directed by Eddie Dowling where it ran for 136 performances to close on 15 March 1947.-Characters:* Night Hawk-...
1970s
- 1970: no award
- 1971: no award
- 1972: no award
- 1973: no award
- 1974: no award
- 1975: Same Time, Next YearSame Time, Next YearSame Time, Next Year is 1975 comedy play by Bernard Slade. The plot focuses on two people, married to others, who meet for a romantic tryst once a year for two dozen years.-Plot:...
/ EquusEquus (play)Equus is a play by Peter Shaffer written in 1973, telling the story of a psychiatrist who attempts to treat a young man who has a pathological religious fascination with horses.... - 1976: StreamersStreamersStreamers is a play by David Rabe. After premiering at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut in 1975, the production transferred to Broadway, opening on April 21, 1976 at Lincoln Center's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre, where it ran for 478 performances...
- 1977: A Texas TrilogyA Texas TrilogyA Texas Trilogy is an award-winning set of three plays written by Preston Jones. The three plays are set in a mythical West Texas town and employ idiosyncratic language and characters that present an evocative depiction of small town Texas life...
/ Otherwise EngagedOtherwise EngagedOtherwise Engaged is a bleakly comic play by English playwright Simon Gray. The play previewed at the Oxford Playhouse and the Richmond Theatre, and then opened at the Queen's Theatre in London on 10 July 1975, with Alan Bates as the star and Harold Pinter as director, produced by Michael Codron.... - 1978: DaDa (play)Da is a 1978 comedy play by Irish playwright Hugh Leonard.NOTE: Performed by the Queensland Theatre Company in Brisbane Australia in 1975....
- 1979: The Elephant ManThe Elephant Man (play)The Elephant Man is a 1977 play by Bernard Pomerance. The production's Broadway debut in 1979 was produced by Richmond Crinkley and Nelle Nugent, and directed by Jack Hofsiss...
1980s
- 1980: Children of a Lesser GodChildren of a Lesser God (play)Children of a Lesser God is a play by Mark Medoff, published in 1980 focusing on the conflicted professional and romantic relationship between deaf former student, Sarah Norman, and her teacher, James Leeds. The play was specially written for the Deaf actress Phyllis Frelich, based to some extent...
- 1981: AmadeusAmadeusAmadeus is a play by Peter Shaffer.It is based on the lives of the composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, highly fictionalized.Amadeus was first performed in 1979...
- 1982: Master Harold...and the BoysMaster Harold...and the BoysMaster Harold...and the boys is a play by Athol Fugard. It was first produced at the Yale Repertory Theatre in early 1982 and made its premiere on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre on 4 May where it ran for 344 performances...
- 1983: Torch Song TrilogyTorch Song TrilogyTorch Song Trilogy is a collection of three plays by Harvey Fierstein rendered in three acts: International Stud, Fugue in a Nursery, and Widows and Children First! The story centers on Arnold Beckoff, a torch song-singing Jewish drag queen living in New York City in the late 1970 and 1980s...
- 1984: The Real ThingThe Real Thing (play)The Real Thing is a play by Tom Stoppard, first performed in 1982. It examines the nature of honesty, and its use of a play within a play is one of many levels on which the author teases the audience with the difference between semblance and reality....
- 1985: As IsAs Is (play)As Is is a play by William M. Hoffman.The Circle Repertory Company and The Glines co-production, directed by Marshall W. Mason, opened on March 10, 1985 at the Circle Theatre, where it ran for 49 performances...
- 1986: A Lie of the MindA Lie of the MindA Lie of the Mind is a play written by Sam Shepard, first staged at the off-Broadway Promenade Theater on 5 December 1985. The play was directed by Shepard himself with stars Harvey Keitel as Jake, Amanda Plummer as Beth, Aidan Quinn as Frankie, Geraldine Page as Lorraine, and Will Patton as Mike...
- 1987: Fences
- 1988: M. ButterflyM. ButterflyM. Butterfly is a 1988 play by David Henry Hwang loosely based on the relationship between French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu, a male Peking opera singer....
- 1989: The Heidi ChroniclesThe Heidi ChroniclesThe Heidi Chronicles is a 1988 play by Wendy Wasserstein. The play won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.-Production history:A workshop production at Seattle Repertory Theatre was held in April 1988, directed by Daniel J. Sullivan....
1990s
- 1990: The Piano LessonThe Piano LessonThe Piano Lesson is a 1990 play by American playwright August Wilson. The Piano Lesson is the fifth play in Wilson's The Pittsburgh Cycle. Wilson began writing this play by playing with the various answers regarding the possibility of "acquir[ing] a sense of self-worth by denying ones past"...
- 1991: Lost in YonkersLost in YonkersLost in Yonkers is a 1991 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Neil Simon. After eleven previews, the Broadway production, produced by Emanuel Azenberg and directed by Gene Saks, opened on February 21, 1991 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, where it ran for 780 performances...
- 1992: Marvin's RoomMarvin's Room (play)Marvin's Room is a play by written by Scott McPherson that premiered off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons on 15 November 1991, and later adapted for a film of the same title in 1996 ....
- 1993: Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
- 1994: Angels in America: Perestroika
- 1995: Love! Valour! Compassion!Love! Valour! Compassion!Love! Valour! Compassion! is a play by Terrence McNally. Its off-Broadway premiere took place at the Manhattan Theatre Club on October 11, 1994, in a staging by Joe Mantello that ran for 72 performances...
- 1996: Master ClassMaster ClassMaster Class is a play by Terrence McNally, with incidental music by Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, and Vincenzo Bellini.The play originally was staged by the Philadelphia Theatre Company and the Mark Taper Forum. After twelve previews, the Broadway production, directed by Leonard Foglia, opened...
- 1997: How I Learned to DriveHow I Learned To DriveHow I Learned to Drive is a play written by American playwright Paula Vogel. The play premiered on March 16, 1997 off-broadway at the Vineyard Theatre...
- 1998: The Beauty Queen of LeenaneThe Beauty Queen of LeenaneThe Beauty Queen of Leenane is a 1996 black comedy by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh which was premiered by the Druid Theatre Company in Galway, Ireland...
- 1999: WitWit (play)Wit is a play written by American playwright Margaret Edson. Edson used her work experience in a hospital as part of the inspiration for her play. Wit received its world premiere at South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa, California, in 1995...
2000s
- 2000: CopenhagenCopenhagen (play)Copenhagen is a play by Michael Frayn, based around an event that occurred in Copenhagen in 1941, a meeting between the physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg. It debuted in London in 1998...
- 2001: ProofProof (play)Proof is a play by David Auburn originally produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club on 23 May 2000. It then went to Broadway on 24 October 2000 at the Walter Kerr Theatre, and was directed by Daniel J. Sullivan, with Mary-Louise Parker as Catherine, Larry Bryggman as Robert, Ben Shenkman as Hal, and...
- 2002: The Goat: or, Who is Sylvia? / MetamorphosesMetamorphoses (play)Metamorphoses is a play by American playwright Mary Zimmerman adapted from the classic Ovid poem, Metamorphoses. The play premiered in 1996 as Six Myths at Northwestern University and later the Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago...
- 2003: Take Me Out
- 2004: I Am My Own WifeI Am My Own WifeI Am My Own Wife is a play by Doug Wright based on his conversations with German transvestite Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. The one-man play premiered Off-Broadway in 2003 at Playwrights Horizons. It opened on Broadway later that year. The play was developed with Moisés Kaufman and his Tectonic...
- 2005: DoubtDoubt (play)Doubt: A Parable is a 2004 play by John Patrick Shanley. Originally staged off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club on November 23, 2004, the production transferred to the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway in March 2005 and closed on July 2, 2006 after 525 performances and 25 previews...
- 2006: The History BoysThe History BoysThe History Boys is a play by British playwright Alan Bennett. The play premiered at the Lyttelton Theatre in London on 18 May 2004. Its Broadway debut was on 23 April 2006 at the Broadhurst Theatre where there were 185 performances staged before it closed on 1 October 2006.The play won multiple...
- 2007: The Coast of UtopiaThe Coast of UtopiaThe Coast of Utopia is a 2002 trilogy of plays: Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage, written by Tom Stoppard with focus on the philosophical debates in pre-revolution Russia between 1833 and 1866...
- 2008: August: Osage CountyAugust: Osage CountyAugust: Osage County is a darkly comedic play by Tracy Letts. It was the recipient of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play premiered at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago on 28 June 2007, and closed on 26 August 2007. Its Broadway debut was at the Imperial Theater on 4 December 2007 and...
- 2009: RuinedRuined (play)Ruined is a play by Lynn Nottage. The play won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.The play involves the plight of women in the civil war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo.-Production history:...