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