Tony Award for Best Original Score explained
The Tony Award for Best Original Score is the Tony Award given to the composers and lyricists of the best original score written for a musical or play in that year. The score consists of music and/or lyrics. To be eligible, a score must be written specifically for the theatre and must be original; compilations of non-theatrical music or compilations of earlier theatrical music are not eligible for consideration.
History
The award has undergone a number of minor changes. In 1947, 1950, 1951, and 1962, the award went to the composer only. Otherwise, the award has gone to the composer and lyricist for their combined contributions, except for 1971 when the two awards were split (although Stephen Sondheim won both, for Company).
The only tie in this category occurred in 1993, when Fred Ebb & John Kander (Kiss of the Spider Woman) and Pete Townshend (The Who's Tommy) shared the award.
In only ten years have non-musical plays been nominated for Tony Awards in this category: Much Ado About Nothing in 1973; The Good Doctor in 1974; The Song of Jacob Zulu in 1993; Twelfth Night in 1999; Enron and Fences in 2010; Peter and the Starcatcher and One Man, Two Guvnors in 2012; Angels in America in 2018; To Kill a Mockingbird in 2019; A Christmas Carol, The Inheritance, The Rose Tattoo, Slave Play, and The Sound Inside in 2020; and Stereophonic in 2024. Because the Broadway season of 2019-2020 was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only four musicals were eligible for Tony Awards; three were jukebox musicals and the fourth was The Lightning Thief, the only musical of the season with original music. The Lightning Thief was not nominated for any Tony Awards, meaning that every nominee in this category in 2020 was a play rather than a musical.
In 2013, Cyndi Lauper became the first woman to win the award solo for Kinky Boots. In 2015, Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori became the first all-woman team to win the award for Fun Home.[1]
Toby Marlow is the youngest person to win the award; he was 27 when he won in tandem with Lucy Moss for Six. Adolph Green is the oldest person to win the award; he was 76 when he won for The Will Rogers Follies. If T. S. Eliot were alive when he won for Cats, he would have been 94. Eliot is one of two people to receive the award posthumously, the other being Jonathan Larson, who won for Rent. He would have been 36.
Winners and nominees
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
| Year | Production (Musical or Play) | Music | Lyrics |
|---|
1990
[26] |
| City of Angels | Cy Coleman | David Zippel |
| Aspects of Love | Andrew Lloyd Webber | Don Black & Charles Hart |
| Grand Hotel | Chet Forrest, Bob Wright & Maury Yeston |
| Meet Me in St. Louis | |
1991
[27] |
| The Will Rogers Follies | Cy Coleman | Betty Comden & Adolph Green |
| Miss Saigon | Claude-Michel Schönberg | Alain Boublil & Richard Maltby Jr. |
| Once on This Island | Stephen Flaherty | Lynn Ahrens |
| The Secret Garden | Lucy Simon | Marsha Norman |
1992
[28] |
| Falsettos | William Finn |
| Jelly's Last Jam | | Susan Birkenhead |
| Metro | Janusz Stokłosa | Agata, Maryna Miklaszewska & Mary Bracken Phillips |
| Nick & Nora | Charles Strouse | Richard Maltby Jr. |
1993
[29] |
| Kiss of the Spider Woman | John Kander | Fred Ebb |
| The Who's Tommy | Pete Townshend |
| Anna Karenina | Daniel Levine | Peter Kellogg |
| The Song of Jacob Zulu | Ladysmith Black Mambazo | Ladysmith Black Mambazo & Tug Yourgrau |
1994
[30] |
| Passion | Stephen Sondheim |
| Beauty and the Beast | Alan Menken | Howard Ashman & Tim Rice |
| Ad van Dijk | Sheldon Harnick, Peter Reeves & Koen van Dijk |
1995
[31] |
| Sunset Boulevard | Andrew Lloyd Webber | Don Black & Christopher Hampton |
1996
[32] |
| Rent | Jonathan Larson |
| David Shire | Richard Maltby Jr. |
| Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk | Ann Duquesnay, Zane Mark & Daryl Waters | Duquesnay, Reg E. Gaines & George C. Wolfe |
| State Fair | Richard Rodgers | Oscar Hammerstein II |
1997
[33] |
| Titanic | Maury Yeston |
| Juan Darién | Elliot Goldenthal |
| The Life | Cy Coleman | Ira Gasman |
| Steel Pier | John Kander | Fred Ebb |
1998
[34] |
| Ragtime | Stephen Flaherty | Lynn Ahrens |
| The Capeman | Paul Simon | Simon & Derek Walcott |
| The Lion King | Elton John, Lebo M, Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin & Hans Zimmer | Tim Rice, M., Mancina, Rifkin & Julie Taymor |
| Side Show | Henry Krieger | Bill Russell |
1999
[35] |
| Parade | Jason Robert Brown |
| The Civil War | Frank Wildhorn | Jack Murphy |
| Footloose | Eric Carmen, Sammy Hagar, Kenny Loggins, Tom Snow & Jim Steinman | Carmen, Hagar, Loggins, Dean Pitchford & Steinman |
| Twelfth Night | Jeanine Tesori | | |
2000s
| Year | Musical | Music | Lyrics |
|---|
2000
[36] |
| Aida | Elton John | Tim Rice |
| James Joyce's The Dead | Shaun Davey | Davey & Richard Nelson |
| Marie Christine | Michael John LaChiusa |
| The Wild Party |
2001
[37] |
| The Producers | Mel Brooks |
| A Class Act | Edward Kleban |
| The Full Monty | David Yazbek |
| Jane Eyre | Paul Gordon | John Caird & Gordon |
2002
[38] |
| Urinetown | Mark Hollmann | Hollmann & Greg Kotis |
| Sweet Smell of Success | Marvin Hamlisch | Craig Carnelia |
| Thoroughly Modern Millie | Jeanine Tesori | Dick Scanlan |
| Thou Shalt Not | Harry Connick Jr. |
2003
[39] |
| Hairspray | Marc Shaiman | Shaiman & Scott Wittman |
| Amour | Michel Legrand | Jeremy Sams & Didier Van Cauwelaert |
| Urban Cowboy | Danny Arena, Clint Black, Jeff Blumenkrantz, Jason Robert Brown, Roger Brown, Carl L. Byrd, Pevin Byrd-Munoz, Jerry Chesnut, Tommy Conners, Tom Crain, Charlie Daniels, Taz DiGregorio, Ronnie Dunn, Fred Edwards, Skip Ewing, Wayland Holyfield, Bob Lee House, Marcus Hummon, Sara Light, Lauren Lucas, Martie Maguire, Wanda Mallette, Jim Marshall, Bob Morrison, James Hayden Nicholas, Luke Reed, Patti Ryan, Jerry Silverstein & Bob Stillman |
| A Year with Frog and Toad | Robert Reale | Willie Reale |
2004
[40] |
| Avenue Q | Robert Lopez & Jeff Marx |
| Caroline, or Change | Jeanine Tesori | Tony Kushner |
| Taboo | Boy George |
| Wicked | Stephen Schwartz |
2005
[41] |
| The Light in the Piazza | Adam Guettel |
| Dirty Rotten Scoundrels | David Yazbek |
| Spamalot | John Du Prez & Eric Idle | Idle |
| The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee | William Finn |
2006
[42] |
| The Drowsy Chaperone | Lisa Lambert & Greg Morrison |
| The Color Purple | Stephen Bray, Brenda Russell & Allee Willis |
| The Wedding Singer | Matthew Sklar | Chad Beguelin |
| The Woman in White | Andrew Lloyd Webber | David Zippel |
2007
[43] |
| Spring Awakening | Duncan Sheik | Steven Sater |
| Curtains | John Kander | Fred Ebb, Kander & Rupert Holmes |
| Grey Gardens | Scott Frankel | Michael Korie |
| Legally Blonde | Nell Benjamin & Larry O'Keefe |
2008
[44] |
| In the Heights | Lin-Manuel Miranda |
| Cry-Baby | David Javerbaum & Adam Schlesinger |
| The Little Mermaid | Alan Menken | Howard Ashman & Glenn Slater |
| Passing Strange | Heidi Rodewald & Stew | Stew |
2009
[45] |
| Next to Normal | Tom Kitt | Brian Yorkey |
| Billy Elliot the Musical | Elton John | Lee Hall |
| Shrek the Musical | Jeanine Tesori | David Lindsay-Abaire |
| 9 to 5 | Dolly Parton | |
2010s
2020s
Multiple wins
- 6 Wins
- Stephen Sondheim (3 consecutive)
- 3 Wins
- 2 Wins
Multiple nominations
- 11 Nominations
- 10 Nominations
- 9 Nominations
- 7 Nominations
- 6 Nominations
- 5 Nominations
- 4 Nominations
- 3 Nominations
- 2 Nominations
Female winners
Only nine women have won this award, six of whom won without male writing partners, and for eleven shows:
See also
External links
Notes and References
- https://news.yahoo.com/fun-home-songwriters-become-1st-winning-female-team-001823857.html 'Fun Home' songwriters become 1st winning female team
- Web site: 1962 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1963 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1964 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1965 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1966 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1967 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1968 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1971 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1972 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1973 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1974 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1975 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1976 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1977 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1978 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1979 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1980 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1981 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1982 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1983 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1984 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1986 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1987 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1988 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1990 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1991 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1992 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1993 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1994 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1995 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1996 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1997 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1998 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 1999 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 2000 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 2001 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 2002 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 2003 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 2004 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 2005 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 2006 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 2007 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 2008 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 2009 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 11, 2023.
- Web site: 2010 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 10, 2023.
- Web site: 2011 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 10, 2023.
- Web site: 2012 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 10, 2023.
- Web site: 2013 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 10, 2023.
- Web site: 2014 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 10, 2023.
- Web site: Tony Nominations 2015: Full List . April 28, 2015 . . Variety . August 10, 2023.
- Web site: 2016 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 10, 2023.
- Web site: 2017 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 10, 2023.
- Web site: 2018 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 10, 2023.
- Web site: 2019 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 10, 2023.
- Web site: 2022 Tony Awards Nominees . . . August 10, 2023.
- Web site: 2023 Tony Awards Nominees . . May 2, 2023 . . August 10, 2023.
