A CurtainUpFeature
Pulitzer Prize Winning Plays and
Playwrights
The Pulitzer Prizes were created and funded by the publisher of the New York World, Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911). The awards are administered by Columbia University and presented yearly by its president on the recommendation of the Pulitzer Prize Board.
The award for drama is given for an American play, with preference going to those works that depict American life. April 10, 2017 update: With the historical rap musical Hamilton taking the 2016 prize in 2010, we can now count 9 musicals among the prize winners, beginning with George and Ira Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing in 1932. Between that and Next to Normal we have: Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific (1950), Bock & Harnick's Fiorello! (1960), Frank Loesser's How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1962), Michael Bennett's A Chorus Line (1976), Stephen Sondheim's and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George (1985) and Jonathan Larson's Rent (1996). and Next to Normal (2010)
Years not listed in the complete list below indicate that no awards were made:
2020:Hot Wing King by Katori Hall
2019: Fairview by Jackie Sibblies Drury
2018: Cost of Living by Martyna Majok
2017: Sweat by Lynn Nottage (who also won the prize in 2009 for Ruined
2016: Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda
2015: Between Riverside and Crazy by Stephen Adly Guirgis
2014: The Flick by Annie Baker
2013: Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar
2012: Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegria Hudes
2011: Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris
2010: Next to Normal Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey
2009: Ruined Lynn Nottage
2008: August: Osage County Tracy Letts
2007: Rabbit Hole David Lindsay-Abaire
2006: No Award
2005: DoubtJohn Patrick Shanley
2004: I Am My Own Wife Douglas Wright
2003: Anna in the TropicsNilo Cruz
2002: Topdog/Underdog Suzan-Lori Parks
2001: Proof David Auburn
2000: Dinner With Friends Donald Margulies
1999: Wit, Margaret Edson
1998: How I Learned to Drive, Paula Vogel
1997: No award
1996: Rent, Jonathan Larson
1995: The Young Man From Atlanta by Horton Foote
1994: Three Tall Women by Edward Albee
1993: Angels in America, Tony Kushner
1992: The Kentucky Cycle, Robert Schenkkan
1991: Lost in Yonkers, Neil Simon
1990: The Piano Lesson, August Wilson
1989: The Heidi Chronicles, Wendy Wasserstein
1988: Driving Miss Daisy, Alfred Uhry
1987: Fences, August Wilson
1986: No award
1985: Sunday in the Park With George, James Lapine
1984: Glengarry Glen Ross, David Mamet
1983: Night, Mother, Marsha Norman
1982: A Soldier's Play, Charles Fuller
1981: Crimes of the Heart, Beth Henley
1980: Talley's Folly, Lanford Wilson
1979: Buried Child, Sam Shepard
1978: The Gin Game, Donald L. Coburn
1977: The Shadow Box, Michael Cristofer
1976: A Chorus Line, James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante
1975: Seascape, Edward Albee
1974: No award
1973: That Championship Season, Jason Miller
1972: No award
1971: The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds, Paul Zindel
1970: No Place to be Somebody, Charles Gordone
1969: The Great White Hope, Howard Sackler
1967: A Delicate Balance, Edward Albee
1966: No award
1965: The Subject Was Roses, Frank D. Gilroy
1964: No award
1963: No award
1962: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Frank Loesser, Abe Burrows, Willie Gilbert, Jack Weinstock
1961: All the Way Home, Tad Mosel
1960: Fiorello!, Jerome Weidman and George Abbott
1959: J.B., Archibald MacLeish
1958: Look Homeward Angel, Ketti Frings
1957: Long Day's Journey into Night, Eugene O'Neill
1956: Diary of Anne Frank, Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich
1955: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams
1954: The Teahouse of the August Moon, John Patrick
1953: Picnic, William Inge
1952: The Shriker, Joseph Kramm
1951: No award
1950: South Pacific, by Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan
1949: Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller
1948: A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
1947: No Award
1946: State of the Union, Russell Crouse and Howard Lindsay
1945: Harvey, Mary Chase
1944: No award
1943: The Skin of Our Teeth, Thornton Wilder
1942: No award
1941: There Shall Be No Night, Robert E. Sherwood
1940: The Time of Your Life, William Saroyan (awarded but refused by the playwright)
199: Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Robert E. Sherwood
1938: Our Town, Thornton Wilder
1937: You Can't Take It With You, Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman
1936: Idiot's Delight, Robert E. Sherwood
1935: The Old Maid, Zoe Akins
1934: Men in White, Sidney Kingsley
1933: Both Your Houses, Maxwell Anderson
1932: Of Thee I Sing, George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind and Ira Gershwin
1931: Alison's House, Susan Glaspell
1930: The Green Pastures, Marc Connelly
1929: Street Scene, Elmer L. Rice
1928: Strange Interlude, Eugene O'Neill
1927: In Abraham's Bosom, Paul E. Green
1926: Craig's Wife, George Kelly
1925: They Knew What They Wanted, Sidney Howard
1924: Hell-Bent Fer Heaven, Hatcher Hughes
1923: Icebound, Owen Davis
1922: Anna Christie, Eugene O'Neill
1921: Miss Lulu Bett, Zona Gale
1920: Beyond the Horizon, Eugene O'Neill
1918: Why Marry, Jesse Lynch Williams
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