Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play

The Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play is an award presented annually at the Lucille Lortel Awards to honor excellence in playwriting for an Off-Broadway play production since 1987.

Four playwrights have won the award twice--Brian Friel, Moisés Kaufman,Martin McDonagh and Horton Foote. Leading the nomination tally are Paula Vogel, Jon Robin Baitz, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Lynn Nottage, Bruce Norris and Joshua Harmon, with three nominations each.

Winners and nominees

Key

1980s

Year

Production

Author

Producers

Ref.

1987

The Common Pursuit

Simon Gray

John A. McQuiggan and the Hart Entertainment Group

1988

No award given.

1989

The Cocktail Hour

A. R. Gurney

Steven Baruch, Richard Frankel, Roger L. Stevens and Thomas Viertel

1990s

Year

Production

Author

Producers

Ref.

1990

No award ceremony held.

1991

Aristocrats

Brian Friel

Manhattan Theatre Club

1992

Lips Together, Teeth Apart

Terrence McNally

1993

The Destiny of Me

Larry Kramer

Circle Repertory Company and Lucille Lortel Theatre

1994

Three Tall Women

Edward Albee

Elizabeth I. McCann, Jeffrey Ash, Daryl Roth and Vineyard Theatre

1995

Camping with Henry & Tom

Mark St. Germain

Lucille Lortel Theatre, Daryl Roth, Wind Dancer Theater Inc. and Randall L. Wreghitt

1996

Molly Sweeney

Brian Friel

Roundabout Theatre Company, Gate Theatre Dublin and Emanuel Azenberg

1997

How I Learned to Drive

Paula Vogel

Daryl Roth, Roy Gabay, Vineyard Theatre and Playwrights Horizons

1998

Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde

Moisés Kaufman

Leonard Soloway, Chase Mishkin and Signature Theatre Company

The Beauty Queen of Leenane

Martin McDonagh

Atlantic Theater Company, Randall L. Wreghitt, Chase Mishkin, Steven M. Levy and Leonard Soloway

1999

Wit

Margaret Edson

MCC Theater, Long Wharf Theater, Daryl Roth, Stanley Shopkorn, Robert G. Bartner and Stanley Kaufelt

2000s

Year

Production

Author

Producers

Ref.

2000

Dinner with Friends

Donald Margulies

Roundabout Theatre Company, Mitchell Maxwell, Mark Balsam, Ted Tulchin, Victoria Maxwell, Mari Nakachi and Steven Tulchin

2001

Jitney

August Wilson

Second Stage Theatre

The Play About the Baby

Edward Albee

Elizabeth Ireland McCann, Daryl Roth, Terry Allen Kramer, Fifty Second Street Productions, Robert Bartner, Stanley Kaufel

Proof

David Auburn

Manhattan Theatre Club

Ten Unknowns

Jon Robin Baitz

Lincoln Center Theatre

The Unexpected Man

Yasmina Reza

Julian Schlossberg, Ben Sprecher, Ted Tulchin and William P. Miller

2002

The Carpetbagger's Children

Horton Foote

Lincoln Center Theater

The Dazzle

Richard Greenberg

Roundabout Theatre Company

Homebody/Kabul

Tony Kushner

New York Theatre Workshop

Metamorphoses

Mary Zimmerman

Second Stage Theatre

The Shape of Things

Neil LaBute

Susan Quint Gallin, Sandy Gallin, Stuart Thompson, Ben Sprecher and USA/OSTAR Theatricals

2003

Dublin Carol

Conor McPherson

Atlantic Theater Company

Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme

Frank McGuinness

Lincoln Center Theater

Our Lady of 121st Street

Stephen Adly Guirgis

John Gould Rubin, Ira Pittelman, Robyn Goodman, Ruth Hendel, Daryl Roth, LAByrinth Theater Company

Take Me Out

Richard Greenberg

The Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival and Donmar Warehouse

2004

Bug

Tracy Letts

Scott Morfee, Amy Danis, Mark Johannes, in association with PlanetEarth Partners

Frozen

Bryony Lavery

MCC Theater

The Long Christmas Ride Home

Paula Vogel

Vineyard Theatre

Small Tragedy

Craig Lucas

Playwrights Horizons

Valhalla

Paul Rudnick

New York Theatre Workshop

2005

Doubt

John Patrick Shanley

Manhattan Theatre Club

After Ashley

Gina Gionfriddo

Vineyard Theatre

Going to St. Ives

Lee Blessing

Primary Stages

Intimate Apparel

Lynn Nottage

Roundabout Theatre Company

Orson's Shadow

Austin Pendleton

PlanetEarth Partners and Scott Morfee

2006

The Lieutenant of Inishmore

Martin McDonagh

Atlantic Theater Company

The Paris Letter

Jon Robin Baitz

Roundabout Theatre Company

Red Light Winter

Adam Rapp

Scott Rudin, Paramount Pictures, Robyn Goodman, Roger Berlind, and Stuart Thompson

The Ruby Sunrise

Rinne Groff

The Public Theater

2007

Stuff Happens

David Hare

The Public Theater

The Busy World Is Hushed

Keith Bunin

Playwrights Horizons

Dying City

Christopher Shinn

Lincoln Center Theater

Indian Blood

A.R. Gurney

Primary Stages

2008

Betrayed

George Packer

Culture Project

Blackbird

David Harrower

Manhattan Theatre Club

The Brothers Size

Tarell Alvin McCraney

The Public Theater, in association with The Foundry Theatre

New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656

David Ives

Classic Stage Company, by special arrangement with Bob Boyett

Opus

Michael Hollinger

Primary Stages

2009

Ruined

Lynn Nottage

Manhattan Theatre Club and Goodman Theatre

Animals Out of Paper

Rajiv Joseph

Second Stage Theatre

Becky Shaw

Gina Gionfriddo

Second Stage Theatre

The Good Negro

Tracey Scott Wilson

The Public Theater in association with Dallas Theater Center

The Sound and the Fury (April Seventh, 1928)

Text by William Faulkner

Created by Elevator Repair Service, produced by New York Theatre Workshop and Elevator Repair Service

2010s

Year

Production

Author

Producers

Ref.

2010

The Orphans' Home Cycle

Horton Foote

Signature Theatre Company and Hartford Stage

Clybourne Park

Bruce Norris

Playwrights Horizons

The Brother/Sister Plays

Tarell Alvin McCraney

The Public Theater in association with McCarter Theatre

The Temperamentals

Jon Marans

Daryl Roth, Stacy Shane and Martian Entertainment

When the Rain Stops Falling

Andrew Bovell

Lincoln Center Theater

2011

The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity

Kristoffer Diaz

Second Stage Theatre

In the Wake

Lisa Kron

The Public Theater

Other Desert Cities

Jon Robin Baitz

Lincoln Center Theater

Peter and the Starcatcher

Rick Elice

New York Theatre Workshop

The Coward

Nick Jones

Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3

2012

Sons of the Prophet

Stephen Karam

Roundabout Theatre Company

Blood and Gifts

J. T. Rogers

Lincoln Center Theater

Milk Like Sugar

Kirsten Greenidge

Playwrights Horizons and Women's Project Theater

The Big Meal

Dan LeFranc

Playwrights Horizons

The School for Lies

David Ives

Classic Stage Company

2013

The Whale

Samuel D. Hunter

Playwrights Horizons

Bethany

Laura Marks

Women's Project Theater

Cock

Mike Bartlett

Stuart Thompson, Jean Doumanian, Royal Court Theatre, William Berlind, Scott Delman, Dena Hammerstein, Jon B. Platt, Scott Rudin, Ted Snowdon and True Love Productions

Detroit

Lisa D’Amour

Playwrights Horizons

The Flick

Annie Baker

2014

The Open House

Will Eno

Signature Theatre

Bad Jews

Joshua Harmon

Roundabout Theatre Company

Domesticated

Bruce Norris

Lincoln Center Theater

The Night Alive

Conor McPherson

Atlantic Theater Company, originally produced by Donmar Warehouse

2015

Between Riverside and Crazy

Stephen Adly Guirgis

Atlantic Theater Company

Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2, & 3)

Suzan-Lori Parks

The Public Theater in association with American Repertory Theater

The Invisible Hand

Ayad Akhtar

New York Theatre Workshop

My Mañana Comes

Elizabeth Irwin

The Playwrights Realm

The Nether

Jennifer Haley

MCC Theater

2016

Guards at the Taj

Rajiv Joseph

Atlantic Theater Company

The Christians

Lucas Hnath

Playwrights Horizons and Center Theatre Group

Eclipsed

Danai Gurira

The Public Theater

Gloria

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

Vineyard Theatre

John

Annie Baker

Signature Theatre

2017

Oslo

J.T. Rogers

Lincoln Center Theater

Indecent

Paula Vogel

Vineyard Theatre in association with La Jolla Playhouse and Yale Repertory Theatre

Underground Railroad Game

Jennifer Kidwell and Scott R. Sheppard

Ars Nova

Vietgone

Qui Nguyen

Manhattan Theatre Club in association with South Coast Repertory

The Wolves

Sarah DeLappe

The Playwrights Realm in association with New York Stage and Film and Vassar’s Powerhouse Theatre Season

2018 (tie)

Cost of Living

Martyna Majok

Manhattan Theatre Club in association with Williamstown Theatre Festival

School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play

Jocelyn Bioh

MCC Theater

Miles for Mary

Marc Bovino, Joe Curnutte, Michael Dalto, Lila Neugebauer and Stephanie Wright Thompson

Playwrights Horizons

Pipeline

Dominique Morisseau

Lincoln Center Theater

The Treasurer

Max Posner

Playwrights Horizons

2019

Pass Over

Antoinette Nwandu

Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3

Mlima's Tale

Lynn Nottage

The Public Theater

Slave Play

Jeremy O. Harris

New York Theatre Workshop

Sugar in Our Wounds

Donja R. Love

Manhattan Theatre Club

What the Constitution Means to Me

Heidi Schreck

New York Theatre Workshop

2020s

Year

Production

Author

Producers

Ref.

2020

Heroes of the Fourth Turning

Will Arbery

Playwrights Horizons

BLKS

Aziza Barnes

MCC Theater

Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven

Stephen Adly Guirgis

Atlantic Theater Company and LAByrinth Theater Company

Is This a Room

Tina Satter

Vineyard Theatre

Mrs. Murray's Menagerie

The Mad Ones, Phillip James Brannon, Brad Heberlee, Carmen M. Herlihy and January LaVoy

Ars Nova

2021

No ceremony held due to COVID-19 pandemic.

2022

English

Sanaz Toossi

Atlantic Theater Company and Roundabout Theatre Company

Coal Country

Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen

Audible and The Public Theater

Letters of Suresh

Rajiv Joseph

Second Stage Theater

On Sugarland

Aleshea Harris

New York Theatre Workshop

Prayer for the French Republic

Joshua Harmon

Manhattan Theatre Club

2023

Wolf Play

Hansol Jung

MCC Theater, a Soho Rep production, in collaboration with Ma-Yi Theater Company

A Case for the Existence of God

Samuel D. Hunter

Signature Theatre

Dark Disabled Stories

Ryan J. Haddad

Bushwick Starr, presented by The Public Theater

Downstate

Bruce Norris

Playwrights Horizons

Epiphany

Brian Watkins

Lincoln Center Theater

2024

The Comeuppance

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

Signature Theatre

Plays for the Plague Year

Suzan-Lori Parks

The Public Theater

Primary Trust

Eboni Booth

Roundabout Theatre Company

Stereophonic

David Adjmi and Will Butler

Playwrights Horizons

Wet Brain

John J. Caswell Jr.

Playwrights Horizons and MCC Theater

2025

Here There Are Blueberries

Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich

New York Theatre Workshop and Tectonic Theater Project

Liberation

Bess Wohl

Roundabout Theatre Company

Sumo

Lisa Sanaye Dring

Ma-Yi Theater Company, The Public Theater and La Jolla Playhouse

The Antiquities

Jordan Harrison

Playwrights Horizons, Vineyard Theatre, Goodman Theatre

We Had a World

Joshua Harmon

Manhattan Theatre Club

2026

Prince Faggot

Jordan Tannahill

Playwrights Horizons and Soho Rep

Cold War Choir Practice

Ro Reddick

MCC Theater, Clubbed Thumb, and Page 73

Kyoto

Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson

Lincoln Center Theater, The Royal Shakespeare Company, Good Chance, Rachel Styne and Jessica Foung

The Monsters

Ngozi Anyanwu

Manhattan Theatre Club

Mother Russia

Lauren Yee

Signature Theatre Company

Playwrights with multiple wins

2 wins
  • Brian Friel
  • Moisés Kaufman
  • Martin McDonagh
  • Horton Foote

Playwrights with multiple nominations

3 nominations
  • Paula Vogel
  • Jon Robin Baitz
  • Stephen Adly Guirgis
  • Lynn Nottage
  • Rajiv Joseph
  • Bruce Norris
  • Joshua Harmon
2 nominations
  • A. R. Gurney
  • Brian Friel
  • Edward Albee
  • Moisés Kaufman
  • Martin McDonagh
  • Horton Foote
  • Richard Greenberg
  • Conor McPherson
  • Gina Gionfriddo
  • Tarell Alvin McCraney
  • David Ives
  • Suzan-Lori Parks

See also

  • Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play
  • Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play