Tony Award for Best Play

See Tony Award for information about the complete set of Tony Award categories. What is popularly called the Tony Award (formally, the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre) is an annual award celebrating achievements in live American theater, including musical theater, primarily honoring productions on Broadway in New York. There was no Best Play trophy in the Tony's first year. All My Sons has often been incorrectly categorized as the Best Play of 1947, but in reality it won the Best Author award courtesy of Arthur Miller. The following year Mister Roberts was hailed as the Tony's first Best Play. Both the author and the producer(s) of the play are the category's award recipient. This list comprises the winners, shown in bold, and the other nominees starting in 1956, shown in italics.

1940s

• 1948 Mister Roberts
• 1949 Death of a Salesman

1950s

• 1950 The Cocktail Party
• 1951 The Rose Tattoo
• 1952 The Fourposter
• 1953 The Crucible
• 1954 The Teahouse of the August Moon
• 1955 The Desperate Hours
• 1956 The Diary of Anne Frank
  • Bus Stop
  • Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
  • Tiger at the Gates
  • The Chalk Garden
• 1957 Long Day's Journey Into Night
  • Separate Tables
  • The Potting Shed
  • The Waltz of the Toreadors
• 1958 Sunrise at Campobello
  • The Rope Dancers
  • Two For The Seesaw
  • Time Remembered
  • The Dark at the Top of the Stairs
  • Look Back in Anger
  • Look Homeward, Angel
  • Romanoff and Juliet
• 1959 J.B.
  • A Touch of the Poet
  • Epitaph for George Dillon
  • The Disenchanted
  • The Visit

1960s

• 1960 The Miracle Worker
  • A Raisin in the Sun
  • The Best Man
  • The Tenth Man
  • Toys in the Attic
• 1961 Becket
  • All the Way Home
  • The Devil's Advocate
  • The Hostage
• 1962 A Man for All Seasons
  • Gideon
  • The Caretaker
  • The Night of the Iguana
• 1963 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
  • A Thousand Clowns
  • Mother Courage and Her Children
  • Tchin-Tchin
• 1964 Luther
  • The Ballad of the Sad Café
  • Barefoot in the Park
  • Dylan
• 1965 The Subject Was Roses
  • Luv
  • The Odd Couple
  • Tiny Alice
• 1966 Marat/Sade
  • Inadmissible Evidence
  • Philadelphia, Here I Come!
  • The Right Honourable Gentleman
• 1967 The Homecoming
  • A Delicate Balance
  • Black Comedy
  • The Killing of Sister George
• 1968 Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
  • A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
  • Plaza Suite
  • The Price
• 1969 The Great White Hope
  • Hadrian VII
  • Lovers
  • The Man in the Glass Booth

1970s

• 1970 Borstal Boy
  • Child's Play
  • Indians
  • The Last of the Red Hot Lovers
• 1971 Sleuth
  • Home
  • The Philanthropist
  • Paul Sill's Story Theatre
• 1972 Sticks and Bones
  • Old Times
  • The Prisoner of Second Avenue
  • Vivat! Vivat Regina!
• 1973 That Championship Season
  • Butley
  • The Changing Room
  • The Sunshine Boys
• 1974 The River Niger
  • In the Boom Boom Room
  • The Au Pair Man
  • Ulysses in Nighttown
• 1975 Equus
  • Same Time, Next Year
  • Seascape
  • Short Eyes
  • Sizwe Banzi is Dead and The Island
  • The National Health
• 1976 Travesties
  • The First Breeze of Summer
  • Knock Knock
  • Lamppost Reunion
• 1977 The Shadow Box
  • For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf
  • Otherwise Engaged
  • Streamers
• 1978 Da
  • Chapter Two
  • Deathtrap
  • The Gin Game
• 1979 The Elephant Man
  • Bedroom Farce
  • Whose Life Is It Anyway?
  • Wings

1980s

• 1980 Children of a Lesser God
  • Bent
  • Home
  • Talley's Folly
• 1981 Amadeus
  • A Lesson From Aloes
  • A Life
  • Fifth of July
• 1982 The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
  • Crimes of the Heart
  • The Dresser
  • Master Harold...and the Boys
• 1983 Torch Song Trilogy
  • Angels Fall
  • Night, Mother
  • Plenty
• 1984 The Real Thing
  • Glengarry Glen Ross
  • Noises Off
  • Play Memory
• 1985 Biloxi Blues
  • As Is
  • Hurlyburly
  • Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
• 1986 I'm Not Rappaport
  • Benefactors
  • Blood Knot
  • The House of Blue Leaves
• 1987 Fences (play)
  • Broadway Bound
  • Coastal Disturbances
  • Les Liaisons Dangereuses
• 1988 M. Butterfly
  • A Walk in the Woods
  • Joe Turner's Come and Gone
  • Speed-the-Plow
• 1989 The Heidi Chronicles
  • Largely New York
  • Lend Me a Tenor
  • Shirley Valentine

1990s

• 1990 The Grapes of Wrath
  • Lettice and Lovage
  • Prelude to a Kiss
  • The Piano Lesson
• 1991 Lost in Yonkers
  • Our Country's Good
  • Shadowlands
  • Six Degrees of Separation
• 1992 Dancing at Lughnasa
  • Four Baboons Adoring the Sun
  • Two Shakespearean Actors
  • Two Trains Running
• 1993 Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
  • The Sisters Rosensweig
  • Someone Who'll Watch Over Me
  • The Song of Jacob Zulu
• 1994 Angels in America: Perestroika
  • Broken Glass
  • The Kentucky Cycle
• 1995 Love! Valour! Compassion!
  • Arcadia
  • Having Our Say
  • Indiscretions
• 1996 Master Class
  • Buried Child
  • Racing Demon
  • Seven Guitars
• 1997 The Last Night of Ballyhoo
  • Skylight
  • Stanley
  • The Young Man From Atlanta
• 1998 'Art'
  • Freak
  • Golden Child
  • The Beauty Queen of Leenane
• 1999 Side Man
  • Closer
  • The Lonesome West
  • Not about Nightingales

2000s

• 2000 Copenhagen
  • Dirty Blonde
  • The Ride Down Mt. Morgan
  • True West
• 2001 Proof
  • The Invention of Love
  • King Hedley II
  • The Tale of the Allergist's Wife
• 2002 Edward Albee's The Goat, or, Who is Sylvia?
  • Fortune's Fool
  • Metamorphoses
  • Topdog/Underdog
• 2003 Take Me Out
  • Enchanted April
  • Say Goodnight, Gracie
  • Vincent in Brixton
• 2004 I Am My Own Wife
  • Anna in the Tropics
  • Frozen
  • The Retreat from Moscow
• 2005 Doubt
  • Democracy
  • Gem of the Ocean
  • The Pillowman
• 2006 The History Boys
  • The Lieutenant of Inishmore
  • Rabbit Hole
  • Shining City
• 2007 The Coast of Utopia
  • Frost/Nixon
  • The Little Dog Laughed
  • Radio Golf