Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical

Drama Desk Award
for Outstanding Book of a Musical
Drama Desk Award ; for Outstanding Book of a Musical
Awarded for	Outstanding Book of a Musical
Location	New York City
Country	United States
Presented by	Drama Desk
First award	1969
Currently held by	Will Aronson and Hue Park for Maybe Happy Ending (2025)
Website	dramadesk.org (defunct)

The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical is an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements in theatre across collective Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. It was first presented at the 1969 ceremony, under the shorter name Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book, changing to its current name as of the 1988 ceremony.

Quick Facts Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical, Awarded for ...

For two years, in addition to the award for Outstanding Book, an award was presented to the writers of the Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Book. In 1972, that award went to Melvin Van Peebles for Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death, while the 1973 award went to Ron House and Diz White for El Grande de Coco-Cola.

Year	Writer	Production
1969
1969	Peter Stone	*1776*

Year	Writer	Production
1970
1970	George Furth	*Company*
1971
1971	Burt Shevelove	No, No, Nanette
1972
1972	John Guare and Mel Shapiro	*Two Gentlemen of Verona*
1973
1973	Hugh Wheeler	*A Little Night Music*
1974
1974	Hugh Wheeler	*Candide*
1975	—
1976
	James Kirkwood Jr. and Nicholas Dante	*A Chorus Line*
	Alfred Uhry	The Robber Bridegroom
	John Weidman	Pacific Overtures
1977
1977	Thomas Meehan	*Annie*
1978	—
1979
1979	Hugh Wheeler	*Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street*

Year	Writer	Production
1980–1983	—
1984
	James Lapine	*Sunday in the Park with George*
	Harvey Fierstein	La Cage aux Folles
	Garry Trudeau	Doonesbury
1985
1985	Jerry Colker	Three Guys Naked from the Waist Down
1986
	Rupert Holmes	*The Mystery of Edwin Drood*
	Marta Kauffman, Seth Friedman and David Crane	Personals
	Warren Leight	Mayor
1987
	L. Arthur Rose, Douglas Furber, Stephen Fry and Mike Ockrent	*Me and My Girl*
	Barry Harman	Olympus on My Mind
1988
1988	James Lapine	*Into the Woods*
1989	—

Year	Writer	Production
1990
1990	Larry Gelbart	*City of Angels*
1991
	Marsha Norman	*The Secret Garden*
	John Weidman	Assassins
1992
1992	George C. Wolfe	Jelly's Last Jam
1993	—
1994
	James Lapine	*Passion*
	Michael John LaChiusa	Hello Again
1995	—
1996
	Jonathan Larson	*Rent*
	Graciela Daniele and Jim Lewis	Chronicle of a Death Foretold
	Laurence Klavan	Bed and Sofa
	Tina Landau	Floyd Collins
	John Weidman	Big: the musical
1997	—
1998
1998	Terrence McNally	*Ragtime*
1999
	Alfred Uhry	*Parade*
	William Finn and James Lapine	A New Brain

Year	Writer	Production
2000	—
2001
	Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan	*The Producers*
	Kirsten Childs	The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin
	Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming	Bat Boy: The Musical
	Greg Kotis	Urinetown
	Terrence McNally	The Full Monty
2002
	John Lahr and Elaine Stritch	Elaine Stritch at Liberty
	John Guare	Sweet Smell of Success
	Jonathan Larson and David Auburn	Tick, Tick... BOOM!
	Richard Morris and Dick Scanlan	Thoroughly Modern Millie
2003
	Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan	*Hairspray*
	Tim Acito and Alexander Dinelaris	Zanna, Don't!
	Terrence McNally	A Man of No Importance
	Jeremy Sams and Didier Van Cauwelaert	Amour
	Jeff Whitty	Avenue Q
2004
	Winnie Holzman	*Wicked*
	Tony Kushner	Caroline, or Change
2005
	Rachel Sheinkin	*The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee*
	Nell Benjamin and Laurence O'Keefe	Cam Jansen
	Kevin Del Aguila	Altar Boyz
	Mark Harelik	The Immigrant
	Eric Idle	Monty Python's Spamalot
	Jeffrey Lane	Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
2006
	Bob Martin and Don McKellar	*The Drowsy Chaperone*
	Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman	Jersey Boys
	Doug Wright	Grey Gardens
2007
	Rupert Holmes and Peter Stone	*Curtains*
	Scott Brown and Anthony King	Gutenberg! The Musical!
	Julian Fellowes	Mary Poppins
	Heather Hach	Legally Blonde
	Steven Sater	Spring Awakening
	Alfred Uhry	LoveMusik
2008
	Douglas Carter Beane	*Xanadu*
	Harvey Fierstein	A Catered Affair
	Ben Katchor	The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island
	Jason Loewith and Joshua Schmidt	Adding Machine
	Stew	Passing Strange
	Eric H. Weinberger	Wanda's World
2009
	Lee Hall	*Billy Elliot the Musical*
	Steven Cosson and Jim Lewis	This Beautiful City
	Joe DiPietro	The Toxic Avenger
	Brian Hill	The Story of My Life
	David Lindsay-Abaire	Shrek the Musical
	Patricia Resnick	9 to 5

Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical

Winners and nominees

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Multiple wins

Multiple nominations

See also

References

Wikiwand - on

Year	Writer	Production
2020
	Michael R. Jackson	A Strange Loop
	David Henry Hwang	Soft Power
	Dave Malloy	Octet
	Lynn Nottage	The Secret Life of Bees
	Mark Saltzman	Romeo & Bernadette
	Dick Scanlan	The Unsinkable Molly Brown
2021	No awards: New York theatres shuttered, March 2020 to September 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City^[1]
2022
	Bruce Sussman	Harmony: A New Musical
	Billy Crystal, Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel	Mr. Saturday Night
	Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss	Six
	Lynn Nottage	Intimate Apparel
2023
	Matthew López and Amber Ruffin	Some Like It Hot
	Jonathan Hogue	Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical
	Robert Horn	Shucked
	Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli, and Tye Blue	Titanique
	David West Read	& Juliet
2024^[2]	Itamar Moses	Dead Outlaw
	Justin Huertas	Lizard Boy: The Musical
	Michael R. Jackson and Anna K. Jacobs	Teeth
	Michael John LaChiusa	The Gardens of Anuncia
	Rebekah Green Melocik	How to Dance in Ohio
2025^[3]
	Will Aronson and Hue Park	Maybe Happy Ending
	David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, and Zoë Roberts	Operation Mincemeat
	Warren Leight and Isaac Oliver	Just in Time
	Bob Martin	Boop! The Musical
	Marla Mindelle and Jonathan Parks-Ramage	The Big Gay Jamboree
	Marco Pennette	Death Becomes Her