Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical

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.

Multiple wins

 * 3 wins
 * James Lapine
 * Thomas Meehan
 * Hugh Wheeler


 * 2 wins
 * Rupert Holmes

Multiple nominations

 * 5 nominations
 * Terrence McNally


 * 4 nominations
 * James Lapine
 * Thomas Meehan


 * 3 nominations
 * Joe DiPietro
 * Michael John LaChiusa
 * Dick Scanlan
 * John Weidman
 * Hugh Wheeler
 * Alfred Uhry


 * 2 nominations
 * Douglas Carter Beane
 * Chad Beguelin
 * Scott Brown
 * Harvey Fierstein
 * John Guare
 * Rupert Holmes
 * Robert Horn
 * Anthony King
 * Jonathan Larson
 * Warren Leight
 * Jim Lewis
 * Bob Martin
 * Marsha Norman
 * Lynn Nottage
 * Peter Stone
 * Jeff Whitty
 * Doug Wright