Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music

Drama Desk Award
for Outstanding Music
Drama Desk Award ; for Outstanding Music
Awarded for	Outstanding Music
Location	New York City
Country	United States
Presented by	Drama Desk
First award	1968
Currently held by	Will Aronson and Hue Park for Maybe Happy Ending (2025)
Website	dramadesk.org (defunct)

The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music is an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements in musical theatre (distinct from incidental music in plays) across collective Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. The award was originally entitled Best Composer, before being renamed to its current title in 1969. The award is often referred to as Outstanding Score of a Musical.

Quick facts Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music, Awarded for ...

Year	Composer	Production
1968
	Al Carmines	In Circles
	Galt MacDermot	Hair
1969
	Al Carmines	Peace
	Burt Bacharach	Promises, Promises

Year	Composer	Production
1970
	Stephen Sondheim	*Company*
	Kurt Weill	Mahagonny
1971
1971	Stephen Sondheim	*Follies*
1972
1972	Galt MacDermot	*Two Gentlemen of Verona*
1973
1973	Stephen Sondheim	*A Little Night Music*
1974
1974	Al Carmines	The Faggot
1975
	Charlie Smalls	*The Wiz*
	Gene Curty, Nitra Scharfman & Chuck Strand	The Lieutenant
	Jerry Herman	Mack and Mabel
	Fred Silver	In Gay Company
1976
	Marvin Hamlisch	*A Chorus Line*
	Leonard Bernstein	1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
	Bill Heyer & Hank Beebe	Tuscaloosa's Calling Me
	Stephen Sondheim	Pacific Overtures
1977
	Cy Coleman	*I Love My Wife*
	Charles Strouse	Annie
	Elizabeth Swados	Nightclub Cantata
	Robert Waldman	The Robber Bridegroom
1978
	Cy Coleman	*On the Twentieth Century*
	Carol Hall	The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
	Elizabeth Swados	Runaways
1979
	Stephen Sondheim	*Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street*
	Nancy Ford	I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road
	Marvin Hamlisch & Neil Simon	They're Playing Our Song
	Jerome Kass	Ballroom
	Michel Legrand	The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

Year	Composer	Production
1980
	Andrew Lloyd Webber	*Evita*
	Cy Coleman	Barnum
	Elizabeth Swados	Runaways
1981	—
1982
	Maury Yeston	*Nine*
	Stephen Sondheim	Merrily We Roll Along
	Jim Wann	Pump Boys and Dinettes
1983
	Andrew Lloyd Webber	*Cats*
	Larry Grossman	A Doll's Life
	Gerald Jay Markee	Charlotte Sweet
	Des McAnuff	Death of Von Richthofen
	Alan Menken	Little Shop of Horrors
1984
	Jerry Herman	*La Cage aux Folles*
	Galt MacDermot	The Human Comedy
	David Shire	Baby
	Stephen Sondheim	Sunday in the Park with George
1985
	Larry Grossman	*Grind*
	Roger Miller	Big River
	Michael Rupert	3 Guys Naked from the Waist Down
1986
	Rupert Holmes	*The Mystery of Edwin Drood*
	Polly Pen	Goblin Market
	Charles Strouse	Mayor
	Andrew Lloyd Webber	Song and Dance
1987
	Noel Gay	*Me and My Girl*
	Claude-Michel Schönberg	*Les Misérables*
	Nick Bicat	The Knife
	Charles Strouse	Rags
	Andrew Lloyd Webber	Starlight Express
1988
	Andrew Lloyd Webber	*Phantom of the Opera*
	Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus	Chess
	David Evans	Birds of Paradise
	Hugh Masekela & Mbongeni Ngema	Sarafina!
	Stephen Sondheim	Into the Woods
1989	—

Year	Composer	Production
1990
	Cy Coleman	*City of Angels*
	Chet Forrest, Bob Wright & Maury Yeston	Grand Hotel
	Ástor Piazzolla	Dangerous Games
	David Shire	Closer Than Ever
	Andrew Lloyd Webber	Aspects of Love
1991
	Cy Coleman	*The Will Rogers Follies*
	David Bucknam	The Waves
	William Finn	Falsettoland
	Lucy Simon	The Secret Garden
	Stephen Sondheim	Assassins
1992
1992	Erik Frandsen, Michael Garin, Robert Hipkins & Paul Lockheart	Song of Singapore
1993
	Marvin Hamlisch	The Goodbye Girl
	John Kander	Kiss of the Spider Woman
	Jeffrey Lunden	Wings
1994
	Stephen Sondheim	*Passion*
	Michael John LaChiusa	Hello Again
	Alan Menken	Beauty and the Beast
	Polly Pen	Christina Alberta's Father
	Tom Waits	The Black Rider
1995	—
1996
	Jonathan Larson	*Rent*
	Adam Guettel	Floyd Collins
	Stephen Hoffman	Splendora
	Polly Pen	Bed and Sofa
	David Shire	Big
	Bob Telson & Michael John LaChiusa	Chronicle of a Death Foretold
1997
	Cy Coleman	*The Life*
	John Kander	Steel Pier
	Jeanine Tesori	Violet
1998
	Stephen Flaherty	*Ragtime*
	Paul Simon	The Capeman
	Stephen Trask	Hedwig and the Angry Inch
	Frank Wildhorn	The Scarlet Pimpernel
1999
	Jason Robert Brown	*Parade*
	Cy Coleman	Exactly Like You
	William Finn	A New Brain
	Frank Wildhorn	The Civil War

Year	Composer	Production
2000
	Andrew Lippa	The Wild Party
	Shaun Davey	James Joyce's The Dead
	Stephen Sondheim	Saturday Night
2001
	David Yazbek	*The Full Monty*
	Kirsten Childs	The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin
	Stephen Flaherty	Seussical
	Mark Hollmann	Urinetown
	Ed Kleban	A Class Act
	Laurence O'Keefe	Bat Boy: The Musical
2002
	Jason Robert Brown	The Last Five Years
	Marvin Hamlisch	Sweet Smell of Success
	Jonathan Larson	Tick, Tick... BOOM!
	Jeanine Tesori	Thoroughly Modern Millie
2003
	Marc Shaiman	*Hairspray*
	Tim Acito	Zanna, Don't!
	Stephen Flaherty	A Man of No Importance
	Michel Legrand	Amour
	Robert Lopez & Jeff Marx	Avenue Q
	Anderson Edwards, Keith Glover & Keb' Mo'	Thunder Knocking on the Door
2004
	Jeanine Tesori	*Caroline, or Change*
	RaRa Avis & Andrew Yeater	Ramayana 2K3
	Boy George	Taboo
	Eric Rockwell	The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!)
	Stephen Schwartz	Wicked
	Martin Silvestri & Joel Higgins	Johnny Guitar
2005
	Adam Guettel	*The Light in the Piazza*
	Gary Adler & Michael Patrick Walker	Altar Boyz
	Terry Davies	Play Without Words
	William Finn	The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
	Stephen Flaherty	Dessa Rose
	David Yazbek	Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
2006
	Lisa Lambert & Greg Morrison	*The Drowsy Chaperone*
	Stephen Dolginoff	Thrill Me
	Scott Frankel	Grey Gardens
	Michael John LaChiusa	See What I Wanna See
	Peter Mills	The Pursuit of Persephone
	Matthew Sklar	The Wedding Singer
2007
	Duncan Sheik	*Spring Awakening*
	John Kander	Curtains
	Paul Leschen & Gila Sand	Twist: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More?
	Peter Rodgers Melnick	Adrift in Macao
	Lin-Manuel Miranda	In the Heights
	Laurence O'Keefe & Nell Benjamin	Legally Blonde
2008
	Heidi Rodewald & Stew	*Passing Strange*
	John Bucchino	A Catered Affair
	Stephen Flaherty	The Glorious Ones
	Tom Kitt	Next to Normal
	Mark Mulcahy	The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island
	Joshua Schmidt	Adding Machine
2009
	Elton John	*Billy Elliot the Musical*
	Neil Bartram	The Story of My Life
	Zina Goldrich	Dear Edwina
	Dolly Parton	9 to 5
	Stephen Sondheim	Road Show
	Jeanine Tesori	Shrek the Musical

Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music

Winners and nominees

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Multiple wins

Multiple nominations

See also

References

Wikiwand - on

Year	Composer	Production
2020
	Dave Malloy	Octet
	Ross Golan	The Wrong Man
	Michael R. Jackson	A Strange Loop
	Joshua Rosenblum	Einstein's Dreams
	Duncan Sheik	The Secret Life of Bees
	Jeanine Tesori	Soft Power
2021	No awards: New York theatres shuttered, March 2020 to September 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City^[1]
2022
	Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss	Six
	Jason Howland	Paradise Square
	Matt Ray	The Hang
	Carrie Rodriguez	¡Americano!
	Jeanine Tesori	Kimberly Akimbo
2023
	Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally	Shucked
	Michael R. Jackson	White Girl in Danger
	Tom Kitt and AnnMarie Milazzo	Almost Famous
	Elyssa Samsel and Kate Anderson	Between the Lines
	The Kilbanes	Weightless
2024^[2]	Shaina Taub	Suffs
	Jason Robert Brown	The Connector
	Justin Huertas	Lizard Boy: The Musical
	Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance) and Justin Levine	The Outsiders
	David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna	Dead Outlaw
2025^[3]
	Will Aronson	Maybe Happy Ending
	David Foster	Boop! The Musical
	Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez	Real Women Have Curves
	Zoe Sarnak	The Lonely Few
	The Lazours	We Live in Cairo