Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Broadway Play
The Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Broadway Play is an annual award given to the best new (non-musical) play on Broadway, as determined by Outer Critics Circle. The award has been given out since the 1949-50 season.
T.S. Eliot won the inaugural award for Outstanding New Broadway Play for The Cocktail Party in 1950. Neil Simon and Tom Stoppard have won the award three times each, the most of any playwright, while Stoppard and August Wilson have received the most nominations, with 6 each.
Award winners
- Key
1950s
Year |
Production |
Author |
Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
1950 |
|||
The Cocktail Party |
T.S. Eliot |
||
1951 |
|||
Billy Budd |
Louis O. Coxe and Robert Chapman |
||
1952 |
|||
Point of No Return |
Paul Osborn |
||
1953 |
No award given. |
||
1954 |
|||
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial |
Herman Wouk |
||
1955 |
|||
Inherit the Wind |
Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee |
||
1956 |
|||
The Diary of Anne Frank |
Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett |
||
1957 |
|||
Long Day's Journey into Night |
Eugene O'Neill |
||
1958 |
|||
Look Homeward, Angel |
Ketti Frings |
||
1959 |
|||
The Visit |
Friedrich Dürrenmatt |
||
1960s
Year |
Production |
Author |
Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
1960 |
|||
The Miracle Worker |
William Gibson |
||
1961 |
No award given. |
||
1962 |
No award given. |
||
1963 |
|||
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? |
Edward Albee |
||
1964 |
No award given. |
||
1965 |
No award given. |
||
1966 |
No award given. |
||
1967 |
|||
You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running |
Robert Anderson |
||
American Hurrah (Three Views of the U.S.A.) |
Jean-Claude van Itallie |
||
1968 |
|||
The Price |
Arthur Miller |
||
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead |
Sam Shepard |
||
1969 |
No award given. |
||
1970s
Year |
Production |
Author |
Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
1970 |
|||
Child's Play |
Robert Marasco |
||
1971 |
No award given |
||
1972 |
|||
Sticks and Bones |
David Rabe |
||
That Championship Season |
Jason Miller |
||
1973 |
No award given |
||
1974 |
|||
A Moon for the Misbegotten |
Eugene O'Neill |
||
Noël Coward in Two Key |
Noël Coward |
||
1975 |
|||
Equus |
Peter Shaffer |
||
1976 |
No award given |
||
1977 |
|||
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf |
Ntozake Shange |
||
1978 |
|||
Da |
Hugh Leonard |
||
1979 |
|||
The Elephant Man |
Bernard Pomerance |
||
1980s
Year |
Production |
Author |
Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
1980 |
|||
Children of a Lesser God |
Mark Medoff |
||
1981 |
|||
Amadeus |
Peter Shaffer |
||
1982 |
|||
"Master Harold"...and the Boys |
Athol Fugard |
||
1983 |
|||
Brighton Beach Memoirs |
Neil Simon |
||
1984 |
|||
The Real Thing |
Tom Stoppard |
||
1985 |
|||
Biloxi Blues |
Neil Simon |
||
1986 |
|||
I'm Not Rappaport |
Herb Gardner |
||
1987 |
|||
Fences |
August Wilson |
||
1988 |
|||
M. Butterfly |
David Henry Hwang |
||
1989 |
|||
The Heidi Chronicles |
Wendy Wasserstein |
1990s
Year |
Production |
Author |
Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
1990 |
|||
The Grapes of Wrath |
Frank Galati |
||
The Piano Lesson |
August Wilson |
||
Lettice and Lovage |
Peter Shaffer |
||
A Few Good Men |
Aaron Sorkin |
||
1991 |
|||
Lost in Yonkers |
Neil Simon |
||
Shadowlands |
William Nicholson |
||
Six Degrees of Separation |
John Guare |
||
The Speed of Darkness |
Steve Tesich |
||
1992 |
|||
Dancing at Lughnasa |
Brian Friel |
||
Two Shakespearean Actors |
Richard Nelson |
||
Two Trains Running |
August Wilson |
||
Conversations with My Father |
Herb Gardner |
||
1993 |
|||
The Sisters Rosensweig |
Wendy Wasserstein |
||
Someone Who'll Watch Over Me |
Frank McGuiness |
||
Redwood Curtain |
Lanford Wilson |
||
1994 |
|||
Angels in America, Parts I and II: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika |
Tony Kushner |
||
1995 |
|||
Love! Valour! Compassion! |
Terrence McNally |
||
Having Our Say |
Annie Elizabeth Delany, Sarah Louise Delany, Amy Hill Hearth |
||
Arcadia |
Tom Stoppard |
||
1996 |
|||
Master Class |
Terrence McNally |
||
Moon Over Buffalo |
Ken Ludwig |
||
Racing Demon |
David Hare |
||
Seven Guitars |
August Wilson |
||
1997 |
|||
The Last Night of Ballyhoo |
Alfred Uhry |
||
Taking Sides |
Ronald Harwood |
||
Stanley |
Pam Gems |
||
An American Daughter |
Wendy Wasserstein |
||
1998 |
|||
The Beauty Queen of Leenane |
Martin McDonagh |
||
Jackie: An American Life |
Gip Hoppe |
||
Golden Child |
David Henry Hwang |
||
Art |
Yasmina Reza |
||
1999 |
|||
Not About Nightingales |
Tennessee Williams |
||
Closer |
Patrick Marber |
||
Amy's View |
David Hare |
||
The Weir |
Conor McPherson |
2000s
Year |
Production |
Author |
Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
2000 |
|||
Copenhagen |
Michael Frayn |
||
Waiting in the Wings |
Noël Coward |
||
True West |
Sam Shepard |
||
The Green Bird |
Carlo Gozzi |
||
2001 |
|||
Judgment at Nuremberg |
Michael Frayn |
||
Proof |
David Auburn |
||
The Invention of Love |
Tom Stoppard |
||
Stones in His Pockets |
Marie Jones |
||
2002 |
|||
The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? |
Edward Albee |
||
Metamorphoses |
Mary Zimmerman |
||
Topdog/Underdog |
Suzan-Lori Parks |
||
Fortune's Fool |
Ivan Turgenev |
||
2003 |
|||
Take Me Out |
Richard Greenberg |
||
Enchanted April |
Matthew Barber |
||
The Play What I Wrote |
Hamish McColl, Sean Foley and Eddie Braben |
||
Vincent in Brixton |
Nicholas Wright |
||
2004 |
|||
I Am My Own Wife |
Doug Wright |
||
Sixteen Wounded |
Eliam Kraiem |
||
Anna in the Tropics |
Nilo Cruz |
||
Match |
Stephen Belber |
||
2005 |
|||
Doubt: A Parable |
John Patrick Shanley |
||
Gem of the Ocean |
August Wilson |
||
The Pillowman |
Martin McDonagh |
||
Democracy |
Michael Frayn |
||
Brooklyn Boy |
Donald Margulies |
||
2006 |
|||
The History Boys |
Alan Bennett |
||
The Lieutenant of Inishmore |
Martin McDonagh |
||
Primo |
Anthony Sher |
||
Festen |
David Eldridge |
||
2007 |
|||
The Coast of Utopia |
Tom Stoppard |
||
Radio Golf |
August Wilson |
||
Frost/Nixon |
Peter Morgan |
||
Coram Boy |
Helen Edmundson |
||
2008 |
|||
August: Osage County |
Tracy Letts |
||
The 39 Steps |
Patrick Barlow |
||
The Seafarer |
Conor McPherson |
||
Rock 'n' Roll |
Tom Stoppard |
||
2009 |
|||
God of Carnage |
Yasmina Reza |
||
33 Variations |
Moisés Kaufman |
||
Irena's Vow |
Dan Gordon |
||
reasons to be pretty |
Neil LaBute |
||
2010s
Year |
Production |
Author |
Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
2010 |
|||
Red |
John Logan |
||
Superior Donuts |
Tracy Letts |
||
Next Fall |
Geoffrey Nauffts |
||
Time Stands Still |
Donald Margulies |
||
2011 |
|||
War Horse |
Nick Stafford |
||
Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo |
Rajiv Joseph |
||
Good People |
David Lindsay-Abaire |
||
The Motherfucker with the Hat |
Stephen Adly Guirgis |
||
2012 |
|||
One Man, Two Guvnors |
Richard Bean |
||
Seminar |
Theresa Rebeck |
||
The Lyons |
Nicky Silver |
||
Stick Fly |
Lydia R. Diamond |
||
2013 |
|||
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike |
Christopher Durang |
||
Grace |
Mick Gordon, A. C. Grayling |
||
Lucky Guy |
Nora Ephron |
||
The Nance |
Douglas Carter Beane |
||
The Testament of Mary |
Colm Tóibín |
||
2014 |
|||
All the Way |
Robert Schenkkan |
||
Act One |
James Lapine |
||
Casa Valentina |
Harvey Fierstein |
||
Outside Mullingar |
John Patrick Shanley |
||
The Realistic Joneses |
Will Eno |
||
2015 |
|||
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time |
Simon Stephens |
||
The Audience |
Peter Morgan |
||
Wolf Hall Parts One & Two |
Mike Poulton |
||
2016 |
|||
The Humans |
Stephen Karam |
||
The Father |
Florian Zeller |
||
King Charles III |
Mike Bartlett |
||
Thérèse Raquin |
Neal Bell |
||
Eclipsed |
Danai Gurira |
||
2017 |
|||
Oslo |
J. T. Rogers |
||
A Doll's House, Part 2 |
Lucas Hnath |
||
Sweat |
Lynn Nottage |
||
Indecent |
Paula Vogel |
||
2018 |
|||
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child |
Jack Thorne |
||
Farinelli and the King |
Claire van Kampen |
||
Junk |
Ayad Akhtar |
||
The Children |
Lucy Kirkwood |
||
2019 |
|||
The Ferryman |
Jez Butterworth |
||
What the Constitution Means to Me |
Heidi Schreck |
||
Ink |
James Graham |
||
Network |
Lee Hall |
||
To Kill a Mockingbird |
Aaron Sorkin |
2020s
Year |
Production |
Author |
Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
2020 (Honorees) |
Grand Horizons |
Bess Wohl |
|
The Height of the Storm |
Florian Zeller |
||
The Inheritance |
Matthew López |
||
Linda Vista |
Tracy Letts |
||
The Sound Inside |
Adam Rapp |
||
2021 |
colspan="2" align=center |
||
2022 |
|||
The Lehman Trilogy |
Stefano Massini |
||
The Minutes |
Tracy Letts |
||
Birthday Candles |
Noah Haidle |
||
Clyde's |
Lynn Nottage |
||
Skeleton Crew |
Dominique Morisseau |
||
2023 |
|||
Leopoldstadt |
Tom Stoppard |
||
Life of Pi |
Lolita Chakrabart, Yann Martel |
||
Peter Pan Goes Wrong |
Henry Lewis, Henry Shields, Jonathan Sayer |
||
Summer, 1976 |
David Auburn |
||
Good Night, Oscar |
Doug Wright |
||
2024 |
|||
Stereophonic |
David Adjmi |
||
Mother Play |
Paula Vogel |
||
Jaja's African Hair Braiding |
Jocelyn Bioh |
||
Patriots |
Peter Morgan |
||
The Shark Is Broken |
Ian Shaw, Joseph Nixon |
||
2025 |
|||
John Proctor is the Villain |
Kimberly Bellflower |
||
Cult of Love |
Leslye Headland |
||
The Hills of California |
Jez Butterworth |
||
Purpose |
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins |
||
Stranger Things: The First Shadow |
Kate Trefry |
||
2026 |
|||
The Balusters |
David Lindsay-Abaire |
||
Giant |
Mark Rosenblatt |
||
Little Bear Ridge Road |
Samuel D. Hunter |
||
Oedipus |
Sophocles, Adapted by Robert Icke |
||
Punch |
James Graham |
Multiple wins
- 3 wins
- Neil Simon
- Tom Stoppard
- 2 wins
- Eugene O'Neill
- Edward Albee
- Wendy Wasserstein
- Terrence McNally
- Michael Frayn
- Peter Shaffer
Multiple nominations
- 6 nominations
- Tom Stoppard
- August Wilson
- 3 nominations
- Neil Simon
- Wendy Wasserstein
- Martin McDonagh
- Michael Frayn
- Peter Morgan
- Tracy Letts
- Peter Shaffer
- 2 nominations
- Eugene O'Neill
- Edward Albee
- Sam Shepard
- Noël Coward
- Herb Gardner
- David Henry Hwang
- Aaron Sorkin
- Terrence McNally
- David Hare
- Yasmina Reza
- Conor McPherson
- David Auburn
- Doug Wright
- John Patrick Shanley
- Donald Margulies
- Lynn Nottage
- Paula Vogel
- Jez Butterworth
- David Lindsay-Abaire
- James Graham
See also
- Tony Award for Best Play
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play