| 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 awarded | 1969 |
| Currently held by | Matthew López and Amber Ruffin for Some Like It Hot (2023) |
| 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.
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 | ||
| Peter Stone | 1776 |
| Year | Writer | Production |
|---|---|---|
| 1970 | ||
| George Furth | Company | |
| 1971 | ||
| Burt Shevelove | No, No, Nanette | |
| 1972 | ||
| John Guare and Mel Shapiro | Two Gentlemen of Verona | |
| 1973 | ||
| Hugh Wheeler | A Little Night Music | |
| 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 | ||
| Thomas Meehan | Annie | |
| 1978 | — | |
| 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 | ||
| 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 | ||
| James Lapine | Into the Woods | |
| 1989 | — | |
| Year | Writer | Production |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | ||
| Larry Gelbart | City of Angels | |
| 1991 | ||
| Marsha Norman | The Secret Garden | |
| John Weidman | Assassins | |
| 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 | ||
| Terrence McNally | Ragtime | |
| 1999 | ||
| Alfred Uhry | Parade | |
| William Finn and James Lapine | A New Brain | |
| 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 | |
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