The Obie Awards
For more information about
the Obies, click here.
2018
Best new American play:
Describe the night by Rajiv Joseph
Playwriting:
Is God is by Aleshea Harris; Mary Jane by Amy
Herzog;
Fulfillment center by Abe Koogler;
Pipeline by Dominique Morisseau
2016-2017
Playwriting:
Caught by Christopher Chen;
Sweat
by Lynn Nottage
Musical theatre: The band's visit,
book by Itamar Moses;
music &
lyrics by David Yazbek (original
Broadway cast recording)
2015-2016
Best new American play:
Guards at the Taj by Rajiv
Joseph
Playwriting:
The Christians and
Red Speedo by Lucas Hnath;
The
humans by Stephen Karam
Musical theatre: Dear Evan Hansen, book by Steven Levenson,
lyrics by Benj Pasek, music by Justin Paul (original
Broadway cast recording) (vocal
selections score)
2014-2015
Playwriting:
The invisible hand by Ayad Akhtar;
You got older by
Clare Barron;
Father
comes home from the wars (Parts 1, 2, & 3)
by Suzan-Lori Parks; special citation to A beautiful day in
November on the banks of the greatest of the Great Lakes by Kate
Benson
2013-2014
Playwriting:
The open house by Will Eno
Musical theater: "Fun home," Lisa Kron (author), Jeanine Tesori (composer),
and Sam Gold (director) (original cast recording
here)
Best play: "Appropriate" and "An octoroon" by Branden
Jacobs-Jenkins
2012-2013
Best New American Play (tie):
Detroit by Lisa d'Amour; Grimly
handsome by Julia Jarcho
Playwriting:
Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar;
The flick by Annie Baker
2011-2012
Best New American Play:
4000 miles by Amy Herzog
Playwriting:
Milk like sugar by Kristen Greenidge
2010-2011
Special Citation, Playwriting:
Born bad by Debbie
Tucker Green
Playwriting:
Invasion! by Jonas Hassen
Khemiri
2009-2010
Best New American Play:
Circle mirror transformation
and The aliens by Annie Baker
2008-2009
Best New American Play:
Ruined by Lynn Nottage
2007-2008
Playwriting:
Yellow Face by David Henry Hwang;
Dividing the estate by Horton Foote
2006-2007
Playwrighting: The thugs by Adam Bock
2005-2006
Playwrighting:
The intelligent design of Jenny Chow by Rolin
Jones;
The lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh
2004-2005
Playwrighting:
Where do we live by Christopher Shinn;
Doubt : a parable by John Patrick Shanley;
A number by Caryl
Churchill;
Fabulation by Lynn Nottage
2004
Best New American Play:
Small tragedy by Craig Lucas
2001-2002
Playwriting:
[Sic]
by Melissa James Gibson
Playwriting:
Homebody/Kabul
by
Tony Kushner
2000-2001
Best Play:
The syringa tree by Pamela Gien
Playwriting:
References to Salvador Dalí make me hot by
José Rivera
1999-2000
Playwriting:
Waste
by Harley Granville Barker
1998–1999
Playwriting:
The race of the ark tattoo by David Hancock; Oedipus by Dare Clubb;
Betty's summer vacation by Christopher Durang
1997–1998
Best Play: Pearls for
pigs and Benita Canova by Richard Foreman
1996–1997
Best Play:
One flea spare by Naomi Wallace
1995–1996
Best Play: June and
Jean in concert and Sleep deprivation chamber by Adrienne
Kennedy
Playwriting: Wally's Ghost by Ain Gordon;
The model apartment by Donald Margulies; Venus by Suzan-Lori
Parks; Quills by Doug Wright
1994–1995
Best Play:
The
cryptogram by David Mamet
Playwriting: The convention of cartography by David Hancock; Tony Kushner, Slavs!;
Love!
Valour! Compassion! by Terrence McNally;
My left breast by Susan Miller
1993–1994
Best Play:
Twilight--Los
Angeles, 1992 on the road : a search for American character by Anna Deavere
Smith
Playwriting:
Pounding nails in the floor with my forehead by Eric Bogosian;
The lights by Howard Korder
1992–1993
Playwriting: The
Houseguests by Harry Kondoleon;
The destiny of me by Larry Kramer; Marisol by José Rivera;
Jeffrey
by Paul Rudnick
1991–1992
Best New American
Plays (Tie):
Sight
Unseen by Donald Margulies;
Sally's rape by Robbie McCauley;
The
Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel
Playwriting: Neal Bell, sustained
excellence; Romulus
Linney, sustained excellence
1990–1991
Best New American Play:
The
fever by Wallace Shawn
Playwriting:
Six degrees of separation by John Guare;
Sincerity forever by Mac Wellman
1989–1990
Best New American
Plays:
Prelude
to a kiss by Craig Lucas;
Imperceptible mutabilities in the Third Kingdom by
Suzan-Lori Parks; Bad penny,
Crowbar and
Terminal hip by Mac Wellman
1988–1989
Playwrighting: Intar Hispanic
Playwrights-in-Residence Laboratory; The Frank Silva Writers Workshop
1987–1988
Best New American Play:
Serious money by Caryl Churchill;
Abingdon
Square by Maria Irene Fornes
1986–1987
Best New American
Plays: The cure and Film is evil, radio is good by Richard
Foreman
1985–1986
Distinguished
Playwriting:
Aunt
Dan and Lemon by Wallace Shawn
Playwriting:
Drinking
in America by Eric Bogosian; Vienna:Lusthaus by Martha Clarke;
Deep
Sleep by John Jesurun; Let the artist die by Tadeusz Kantor; Bird/Bear by Lee Nagrin
1984–1985
New American Play:
The conduct of life by Maria Irene Fornes
Playwriting: Transients welcome by Rosalyn Drexler;
The marriage of Bette and Boo by Christopher Durang;
As is by William M. Hoffman
1983–1984
Best New American Play:
Fool for love by Sam Shepard
Best Musical: The gospel at Colonus by adapted and directed for the
stage by Lee Breuer ; music composed, arranged & conducted by
Bob Telson (video
here)
Playwriting:
Ohio impromptu, What Where, Catastrophe and Pocket by Samuel
Beckett;
The
Danube, Sarita
and Mud by Maria Irene Fornes;
A
private view by Vaclav Havel; Five of us by Len Jenkin;
Through the leaves and
Mensch
Meier by Franz Xaver Kroetz;
Terra nova by Ted Tally
1982–1983
Best New American Play: Tina
Howe, Harry Kondoleon and David Mamet shared the $1,000 prize.
Playwriting:
Top
girls by Caryl Churchill;
Tina Howe, distinguished playwriting;
Harry Kondoleon, most
promising young playwright;
Edmond
by David Mamet
1981-1982
Best New American Plays: Metamorphosis
in miniature; Mr. Dead and Mrs. Free by the Squat Theatre
Best Theater Piece: Wielopole, Wielopole by Tadeusz Kantor
Playwriting: "Stops" and "Virgins" by Robert Auletta;
Cloud
9 by Caryl Churchill
1980–1981
Best New American
Play:
FOB
by David Henry Hwang
Best Production:
Still life by Emily Mann
Playwriting:
Zooman and the sign by Charles Fuller;
How I got that story by Amlin Gray; Limbo tales by Len Jenkin
1979–1980
Playwriting:
A prelude to death in Venice by Lee Breuer;
Sister Mary Ignatius explains it all for you by Christopher Durang;
Tennessee
by Romulus Linney; Full confessions of a socialist by Roland
Muldoon; That's how the rent gets paid (part three) by Jeff
Weiss
1978-1979
Best New American Play:
Josephine the mouse singer by Michael McClure
Playwriting: The writer's opera by Rosalyn Drexler; Nasty
rumors and final remarks by Susan Miller;
The Vienna notes by Richard Nelson;
The elephant man by Bernard Pomerance;
Buried
child by Sam Shepard
1977–1978
Best New American
Play:
Shaggy Dog animation by Lee Breuer
1976–1977
Best New American Play:
Curse of the starving class by Sam Shepard
Playwriting: G.R. Point by David Berry;
Fefu and her friends by Maria Irene Fornes;
Domino courts by William Hauptman;
Gemini
and
The transfiguration of Benno Blimpie by Albert Innaurato;
Ashes
by David Rudkin
1975–1976
Best New American
Plays:
American buffalo and
Sexual perversity in Chicago by David Mamet
Best Theater Piece:
Rhoda
in Potatoland by Richard
Foreman
1974–1975
Best New American
Play:
The first breeze of summer by Leslie Lee
Playwriting:
The taking of Miss Janie by Ed Bullins; Our late night by
Wallace Shawn;
Action
by Sam Shepard;
The
mound builders by Lanford Wilson
1973–1974
Best American Play:
Short eyes by Miguel Pinero
Best Foreign Play:
The contractor by David Storey
Distinguished Plays:
The
Great MacDaddy by Paul Carter Harrison;
Bad habits by Terrence McNally;
When you comin' back, Red Ryder? by Mark Medoff
1972–1973
Best American Play:
The
River Niger by Joseph A. Walker;
The Hot l Baltimore by Lanford Wilson
Best Foreign Play:
Not
I by Samuel Beckett;
Kaspar
by Peter Handke
Distinguished Plays:
What if it had turned up heads? by J. E.
Gaines; The
tooth of crime by Sam Shepard; Big foot by Ronald Tavel
1971–1972
Best Theater Piece: The
mutation show by The Open Theatre
1970–1971
Best American Play:
House
of blue leaves by John Guare
Best Foreign Play:
Boesman
and Lena by Athol Fugard;
Dream
on Monkey Mountain by Derek Walcott;
AC/DC
by Heathcote Williams
Distinguished Plays:
The fabulous Miss Marie and
In New England winter by Ed Bullins;
Basic training of Pavlo Hummel by David Rabe
1969–1970
Best American Play:
Approaching Simone by Megan Terry;
The effect of gamma rays on man-in-the-moon marigolds by Paul Zindel
Best Musical: The last sweet days of Isaac by Gretchen Cryer and Nancy
Ford;
The me nobody knows (vocal selections) by Robert Livingston,
Gary William Friedman and Will Holt
Best Foreign Play:
What the butler saw by Joe Orton
Distinguished Plays:
The increased difficulty of concentration by Vaclav Havel;
The deer kill by Murray Mednick
1968–1969
There were no category classifications
this year.
1967–1968
Distinguished Plays:
Muzeeka
by John Guare;
The Indian wants the Bronx by Israel Horovitz;
Forensic
& the navigators and
Melodrama
Play by Sam Shepard
Best Musical: In circles by Gertrude Stein; music by Al
Carmines
Best Foreign Play:
The Memorandum
by Vaclav Havel
1966–1967
Distinguished Plays: Eh?
by Henry
Livings;
Rochelle Owens, Futz;
La
Turista by Sam Shepard
1965–1966
Best American Play:
The journey of the fifth horse by Ronald Ribman
Distinguished Plays: Good day by Emanuel Peluso; Sam Shepard, Chicago,
Icarus's Mother and Red Cross
1964–1965
Best American Play:
The
Old Glory by Robert Lowell
Best Musical Production: The
cradle will rock
Distinguished Plays: Maria
Irene Fornes, Promenade
and The
successful life of 3
1963–1964
Best Play:
Play
by Samuel Beckett
Best American Play:
Dutchman
by Le Roi Jones (Amiri Baraka)
Best Production (Play): The
brig by The Living Theatre
Best Production (Musical):
What happened, music by Al Carmines
Distinguished Plays: Home
movies by Rosalyn Drexler;
Funnyhouse
of a Negro by Adrienne Kennedy
1961–1962
Best American Play:
Who'll
save the plowboy? by Frank D. Gilroy
Best Musical:
Fly
Blackbird by C. Jackson,
James Hatch and Jerome Eskow
Best Foreign Play:
Happy days by Samuel Beckett (Walter Kerr abstaining)
1960–1961
Best New Play:
The blacks, a clown show by Jean Genet
1959–1960
Best New Play:
The connection by Jack Gelber
Best Foreign Play:
The balcony by Jean Genet
Distinguished Plays:
The zoo story by Edward Albee;
Krapp's
last tape by Samuel Beckett;
The
prodigal by Jack Richardson
1958–1959
Best New Play:
The
quare fellow by Brendan Behan
Best Musical: A party with
Betty Comden and Adolph Green
Best Revue: Diversions by Steven Vinaver
1957-1958
Best One-Act Play: Guests of the
nation by Neil McKenzie
Best Comedy: Comic strip by George Panetta
Best Foreign Play:
Endgame
by Samuel Beckett
1956–1957
Best New Play: A house
remembered by Louis A. Lippa
1955–1956
Best New Play: Absalom by Lionel Abel