Tony Award for Best Play

The Tony Award for Best Play (formally, an Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre) is an annual award given to the best new (non-musical) play on Broadway, as determined by Tony Award voters. There was no award in the Tonys' first year. The award goes to the authors and the producers of the play. Plays that have appeared in previous Broadway productions are instead eligible for Best Revival of a Play.

Award winners
Legend: † marks winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama

* marks finalists of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama {{legend|#B0C4DE|indicates the winner.}}

Multiple wins

 * 5 awards
 * Tom Stoppard


 * 2 awards
 * Edward Albee
 * Tony Kushner
 * Arthur Miller
 * Terrence McNally
 * Yasmina Reza
 * Peter Shaffer
 * Neil Simon

Multiple nominations

 * 10 nominations
 * Neil Simon


 * 9 nominations
 * August Wilson


 * 8 nominations
 * Tom Stoppard


 * 6 nominations
 * Edward Albee


 * 5 nominations
 * Martin McDonagh
 * Arthur Miller


 * 4 nominations
 * Michael Frayn
 * Athol Fugard
 * John Osborne
 * David Rabe
 * Peter Shaffer
 * Tennessee Williams


 * 3 nominations
 * Jean Anouilh
 * Brian Friel
 * John Guare
 * David Hare
 * Hugh Leonard
 * Terrence McNally
 * Harold Pinter
 * Lanford Wilson


 * 2 nominations
 * Ayad Akhtar
 * Robert Bolt
 * Jez Butterworth
 * Paddy Chayefsky
 * Harvey Fierstein
 * Horton Foote
 * Herb Gardner
 * Richard Greenberg
 * William Gibson
 * Simon Gray
 * Stephen Adly Guirgis
 * Christopher Hampton
 * David Henry Hwang
 * William Inge
 * Arthur Kopit
 * Tony Kushner
 * John Leguizamo


 * Tracy Letts
 * David Lindsay-Abaire
 * David Mamet
 * Conor McPherson
 * Sidney Michaels
 * Peter Nichols
 * William Nicholson
 * Lynn Nottage
 * Eugene O'Neill
 * Mike Poulton
 * Yasmina Reza
 * Dore Schary
 * Robert Schenkkan
 * John Patrick Shanley
 * Sam Shepard
 * Simon Stephens
 * David Storey
 * Paula Vogel
 * Wendy Wasserstein

Superlatives
British writer Tom Stoppard has won this award five times, more than any other playwright. Only seven other writers (Arthur Miller, Terrence McNally, Tony Kushner, Edward Albee, Neil Simon, Yasmina Reza and Peter Shaffer) have won the award more than once, each winning twice.

With ten nominations, Neil Simon has been nominated for the award more than any other playwright. August Wilson, with nine nominations, comes in second, followed by Tom Stoppard (eight nominations), Edward Albee (six nominations), Arthur Miller (five nominations), and Martin McDonagh (five nominations).

In 1994, Tony Kushner became the first playwright to win consecutive Tony Awards for his two-part Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. Terrence McNally repeated this feat the following two years with his plays Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class.