By Ben Schachne
With the conclusion of the 2026 Tony Awards, another production has earned the coveted title of Best Musical, the honor every original Broadway musical strives to achieve and one that winners proudly carry throughout their run and long after the curtain falls. More than simply recognizing artistic excellence, the Tony Award for Best Musical often reflects the evolving tastes of Broadway, speaks to the cultural moment in which it is awarded in, and shapes the future of musical theatre for years to come. Yet the award’s history is marked by both transformative, universally celebrated victories and more obscure, controversial choices that continue to spark debate. Here is a look back at the last ten Best Musical winners from the 2016–2026 Tony Awards.
2026: Schmigadoon!
Schmigadoon! is the most recent winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical and the 2025–2026 season’s most accessible crowd-pleaser. Adapted from the Apple TV+ musical series, with music, lyrics, and a book by Cinco Paul, the show serves as the ultimate love-letter to Broadway’s Golden Age, parodying beloved classics like Brigadoon, Oklahoma!, The Music Man, and The Sound of Music in a laugh-out-loud satirical fashion. In a relatively underwhelming season that produced only six original musicals and four Tony nominees for Best Musical, Schmigadoon! emerged as the safest and most universally appealing choice, offering an entertaining, family-friendly spectacle that all audiences can enjoy.
2025: Maybe Happy Ending
Maybe Happy Ending opened in the 2024–2025 season alongside thirteen other original musicals, yet quickly emerged as one of Broadway’s newest fan-favorites. Featuring lyrics and a book by Will Aronson and Hue Park, with music by Will Aronson, the show beautifully follows the lives and developing relationship of two retired helper-robots, Oliver and Claire, in a futuristic Seoul as they discover what it means to be human. Exploring themes of love, mortality, and memory, Maybe Happing Ending brings a small cast with a big heart to the Broadway stage like nothing before and is still currently running, recently becoming the longest-running production to play at the Belasco Theatre.
2024: The Outsiders
The Outsiders opened in the 2023–2024 season alongside fourteen other original musicals, immediately gaining popularity due to its immersive staging, thrilling choreography, and name recognition. Adapted from S. E. Hinton’s 1967 classic, with a book by Adam Rapp and Justin Levine, and music and lyrics by Jonathan Clay, Zach Chance, and Levine, the show reinvigorates the story of The Outsiders in a powerful way, staying true to the heart of the story while taking liberties to strengthen the material. Currently still running, The Outsiders has become one of the biggest new musicals on Broadway with a legacy that is still continuing to be built.
2023: Kimberly Akimbo
Kimberly Akimbo opened in the 2022–2023 season alongside eight other original musicals, delivering a heartfelt and comedic coming-of-age story about mortality, family dysfunction, and adolescent self-discovery. With lyrics and a book by David Lindsay-Abaire and music by Jeanine Tesori, the musical follows Kimberly, a teenager living with a rare genetic condition that causes her body to age at four times the normal rate, creating the unusual opportunity for an older actress to portray both the struggles of adolescence and the weight of a shortened life. With a total run of 644 performances over seventeen months, Kimberly Akimbo made a relatively short but powerful impact on Broadway with its original storytelling, winning over now long-running commercial hits like & Juliet.
2022: A Strange Loop
A Strange Loop opened in the 2021–2022 season alongside eight other original musicals and is the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical exploration of Black and queer identity that was unfortunately hindered by a post-pandemic season of rebuilding. Featuring music, lyrics, and a book by Michael R. Jackson, the show explores themes of identity, self-perception, and faith through Usher, a young, queer, Black Broadway usher attempting to write a musical about a young, queer, Black Broadway usher writing a musical. While A Strange Loop received widespread artistic and critical acclaim, it struggled to compete with blockbuster newcomers such as SIX and MJ, closing after just 314 regular performances over nine months.
2020/2021: Moulin Rouge!
Moulin Rouge! The Musical opened in the 2019–2020 season alongside just three other original musicals, temporarily closing less than a year after its premiere with every other Broadway production due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on Baz Luhrmann’s acclaimed 2001 film of the same name, with a book by John Logan and music and lyrics by various artists, the musical has become one of modern Broadway’s defining smash hits, captivating audiences with its iconic jukebox soundtrack, lavish spectacle, and electrifying performances. While the material may have been strengthened by a stunted season, Moulin Rouge! became the only musical from its season to recoup its $28 million investment, and after seven years on Broadway, it has finally announced a closing date for August 30, 2026.
2019: Hadestown
Hadestown opened in the 2018–2019 season alongside ten other original musicals and has since become a defining work of the Broadway canon, celebrated for its haunting folk and jazz-inspired score and its raw, modern retelling of ancient Greek myths. Featuring music, lyrics, and a book by singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell, the musical reimagines these timeless stories through poetic storytelling, a striking atmosphere, and powerhouse performances that allow an array of unique ranges and styles to be on display. With its recent record-breaking live stage-capture film debut, Hadestown has continued to reach new audiences, cementing its place as one of the most influential and enduring musicals of its generation.
2018: The Band’s Visit
The Band’s Visit opened in the 2017–2018 season alongside six other original musicals, distinguishing itself from its flashier, IP-driven competitors with an intimate, understated, and deeply human story. Adapted from the 2007 film, with a book by Itamar Moses and music and lyrics by David Yazbek, the show follows an Egyptian police orchestra stranded in a remote Israeli desert town, using its atmospheric score and quiet storytelling to explore themes of loneliness, cultural understanding, and human connection. Though it never became a mainstream commercial phenomenon, The Band’s Visit proved that subtle, character-driven storytelling could resonate just as powerfully, sweeping the Tony Awards’ “Big Six” categories and running for 589 regular performances over eighteen months.
2017: Dear Evan Hansen
Dear Evan Hansen opened in the 2016–2017 season alongside twelve other original musicals, distinguishing itself in a remarkably strong season with its emotionally resonant exploration of mental health, loneliness, and the complexities of human connection in the digital age. Featuring a book by Steven Levenson and music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the musical helped redefine contemporary Broadway by following a deeply flawed protagonist and pairing its timely themes with a soaring pop-rock score that produced modern standards such as “Waving Through a Window.” Dear Evan Hansen has since become one of the most influential musicals of the past decade, inspiring countless recent regional productions, spawning a feature film adaptation, and running for 1,672 regular performances over nearly six years.
2016: Hamilton
Hamilton: An American Musical opened in the 2015–2016 season alongside eleven other original musicals after becoming an immediate sensation during its Off-Broadway run, transferring to Broadway with an unprecedented $27.6 million in advance ticket sales. With music, lyrics, and a book by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the musical revolutionized Broadway through its groundbreaking fusion of hip-hop, rap, R&B, and traditional musical theatre; its color-conscious casting of historical figures; and its extraordinary cultural impact far beyond the stage. Widely regarded as one of the most defining works of 21st-century musical theatre, Hamilton continues to shape the art form more than a decade after its Broadway premiere, reaching millions through its live productions, its acclaimed live stage-capture, and its best-selling cast recording.