The
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. F ...
for Outstanding Lyrics is an annual award presented by
Drama Desk
The Drama Desk Award is an annual prize recognizing excellence in New York theatre. First bestowed in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award, the prize initially honored Off-Broadway productions, as well as Off-off-Broadway, and those in the vicinity. Fol ...
in recognition of achievements in the theatre among Broadway, Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway productions.
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March 22, 1930November 26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. One of the most important figures in twentieth-century musical theater, Sondheim is credited for having "reinvented the American musical" with sho ...
holds the record for most wins and nominations for the award, with ten wins out of twelve nominations.
Winners and nominees
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
Multiple wins
; 10 wins
*
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March 22, 1930November 26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. One of the most important figures in twentieth-century musical theater, Sondheim is credited for having "reinvented the American musical" with sho ...
; 2 wins
*
Gerard Alessandrini
Gerard Alessandrini (born November 27, 1953) is an American playwright, parodist, actor and theatre director best known for creating the award-winning off-Broadway musical theatre parody revue '' Forbidden Broadway''. He is the recipient of ...
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Fred Ebb
Fred Ebb (April 8, 1928 – September 11, 2004) was an American musical theatre lyricist who had many successful collaborations with composer John Kander. The Kander and Ebb team frequently wrote for such performers as Liza Minnelli and Chita Riv ...
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David Yazbek
Multiple nominations
; 12 nominations
*
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March 22, 1930November 26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. One of the most important figures in twentieth-century musical theater, Sondheim is credited for having "reinvented the American musical" with sho ...
; 5 nominations
*
Jason Robert Brown
Jason Robert Brown (born June 20, 1970) is an American musical theatre composer, lyricist, and playwright. Brown's music sensibility fuses pop-rock stylings with theatrical lyrics. He is the recipient of three Tony Awards for his work on ''Parad ...
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Michael John LaChiusa
Michael John LaChiusa (born July 24, 1962) is an American musical theatre and opera composer, lyricist, and librettist. He is best known for musically esoteric shows such as '' Hello Again'', '' Marie Christine'', '' The Wild Party'', and ''Se ...
; 4 nominations
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Fred Ebb
Fred Ebb (April 8, 1928 – September 11, 2004) was an American musical theatre lyricist who had many successful collaborations with composer John Kander. The Kander and Ebb team frequently wrote for such performers as Liza Minnelli and Chita Riv ...
*
David Yazbek
; 3 nominations
*
Lynn Ahrens
Lynn Ahrens (born October 1, 1948) is an American writer and lyricist for the musical theatre, television and film. She has collaborated with Stephen Flaherty for many years. She won the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle ...
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Gerard Alessandrini
Gerard Alessandrini (born November 27, 1953) is an American playwright, parodist, actor and theatre director best known for creating the award-winning off-Broadway musical theatre parody revue '' Forbidden Broadway''. He is the recipient of ...
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Howard Ashman
Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also probabl ...
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Chad Beguelin
Chad Beguelin (born September 24, 1969) is an American playwright and lyricist. He wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the book for '' The Prom''. He also wrote the book for Disney's ''Aladdin'', as well as additional lyrics for the score. He was nom ...
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Rick Crom
Rick Crom (born March 15, 1957) is an American actor, singer, comedian, lyricist, and composer. He has appeared in numerous television shows and specials, Broadway and off-Broadway musicals, as well as written several off-Broadway revues, and ...
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William Finn
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Amanda Green
Amanda Green (born December 29, 1963) is an American actress, singer, and songwriter. In 2021, she was elected president of the Dramatists Guild of America, the first woman to hold the role in the Guild's 100-year history.
Early life and edu ...
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Michael Korie
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Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lin-Manuel Miranda (; born January 16, 1980) is an American songwriter, actor, playwright and filmmaker. He is known for creating the Broadway musicals ''Hamilton'' (2015) and '' In the Heights'' (2005), and the soundtracks for the Disney animat ...
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Tim Rice
Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice (born 10 November 1944) is an English lyricist and author. He is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote, among other shows, ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'', ...
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Marc Shaiman
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Scott Wittman
Scott Wittman (born November 16, 1954) is an American director, lyricist, composer and writer for Broadway, concerts, and television.
Life and career
Wittman was raised in Nanuet, New York, graduated from Nanuet Senior High School in 1972 and a ...
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Maury Yeston
Maury Yeston (born October 23, 1945) is an American composer, lyricist and music theorist.
He is known as the initiator of new Broadway musicals and writing their music and lyrics, as well as a classical orchestral and ballet composer, Yale Uni ...
; 2 nominations
*
Susan Birkenhead
Susan Birkenhead is an American lyricist.
Birkenhead made her Broadway debut as one of a team of songwriters contributing to '' Working'' (1978), for which she received her first Tony Award nomination. Her second was earned for ''Jelly's Last Ja ...
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Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks (born Melvin James Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. He began ...
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Craig Carnelia
Craig Carnelia (born 1949) is an American musical theater composer and singer, known for his collaboration on the musicals '' Working'' and ''Sweet Smell of Success''.
Biography
Carnelia grew up in Floral Park, New York. He was exposed to Broadw ...
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Michael Friedman
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Jerry Herman
Gerald Sheldon Herman (July 10, 1931December 26, 2019) was an American composer and lyricist, known for his work in Broadway theatre.
One of the most commercially successful Broadway songwriters of his time, Herman was the composer and lyrici ...
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John Kander
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Jonathan Larson
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David Lindsay-Abaire
David Lindsay-Abaire ( Abaire; born November 14, 1969) is an American playwright, lyricist and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2007 for his play '' Rabbit Hole'', which also earned several Tony Award nominations.
Early ...
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Andrew Lippa
Andrew Lippa (born December 22, 1964) is an American composer, lyricist, book writer, performer, and producer. He is a resident artist at the Ars Nova Theater in New York City.
Early life
Lippa was born in Leeds, England, to English parent ...
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Robert Lopez
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Dave Malloy
Dave Malloy (born January 4, 1976) is an American composer, playwright, lyricist, and actor. He has written several theatrical works, often based on classic works of literature. They include ''Moby-Dick'', an adaptation of Herman Melville's cla ...
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Richard Maltby, Jr.
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Laurence O'Keefe
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Glenn Slater
Glenn Slater (born January 28, 1968) is an American lyricist for musical theatre. He has collaborated with Alan Menken, Christopher Lennertz, Andrew Lloyd Webber, among other composers. He was nominated for three Tony Awards for Best Original ...
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David Zippel
David Joel Zippel (born May 17, 1954) is an American musical theatre lyricist, director, and producer.
Early life and education
Zippel was born and raised in Easton, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. Falling in lo ...
See also
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Tony Award for Best Original Score
References
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External links
Drama Desk official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drama Desk Award Lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a " libretto" and their writer, ...