10/10/2020 The 50 Best Plays of The Past 100 Years – New York Theater

The 50 Best Plays of The Past 100 Years

NEW YORK THEATER JUNE 27, 2013 33 COMMENTS

The Number one play of the past 100 years is Arthur Miller’s
1949 play “Death of A Salesman,” according to Entertainment
Weekly’s issue of July 5/12, 2013. Number 50 is Conor
McPherson’s 1997 play “The Weir.” In-between are 48 other
plays (the scripts, really, not any specific productions) that
EW’s critics have chosen. (The print edition includes a brief
description and explanation for each selection. I’ve linked each
play below to its Amazon page, which provides a brief
description of the play and a chance to purchase it.)

[Also check out: The Latest Theater Book Bestsellers (not

necessarily scripts — also biographies, memoirs, histories,
etc.)]

There are no musicals on this list. But beneath it is EW’s list of

the 10 greatest musicals.

In order, they are:

1. Death of a Salesman (1949) by Arthur Miller

2. A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) by Tennessee Williams

3. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: (1962) by Edward Albee

4. Long Day’s Journey into Night (1956) by Eugene O’Neill

5.Fences(1985) by August Wilson

6. Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes

(1993-94) two plays by Tony Kushner
The top 3 plays over past century, according to
7. Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts (1953) by
Entertainment Weekly: Death of a Salesman by Arthur
Samuel Beckett
Miller; A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams;
8. Pygmalion (1913) by George Bernard Shaw Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee (Pictured
are latest productions of these plays on Broadway.
9. A Raisin in the Sun (1959) by Lorraine Hansberry

10.Our Town (1938) by Thornton Wilder

11. Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921) by Luigi Pirandello

12. The Glass Menagerie (1944) by Tennessee Williams

13. Glengarry Glen Ross(1984) by David Mamet

14. August: Osage County (2007) by Tracy Letts

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15. True West (1980) by Sam Shepard

16. The Iceman Cometh (1946) by Eugene O’Neill

17. Look Back in Anger (1956) by John Osborne

18. A View from the Bridge (1955) by Arthur Miller

19. The Little Foxes. (1939) by Lillian Hellman

20. The Real Thing (1982) by Tom Stoppard

21. Master Harold and the Boys(1982) by Athol Fugard

22. The Homecoming (1965) by Harold Pinter

23. Ruined (2008) by Lynn Nottage

24. Mother Courage and Her Children (1941) by Bertolt Brecht

25. Six Degrees of Separation (1990) by John Guare

26. Doubt (2004) by John Patrick Shanley

27. Top Girls (1982) by Caryl Churchill

28. Present Laughter (1942) by Noel Coward

29. Noises Off (1982) by Michael Frayn

30. Marat/Sade (1964) by Peter Weiss

31. The Lieutenant of Inishmore (2001) by Martin McDonagh

32. Machinal (1928) by Sophie Treadwell

33. The Norman Conquests(1973) trilogy by Alan Ayckbourn

34. The Bald Soprano (1950) by Eugene Ionesco

35. M. Butterfly (1988) by David Henry Hwang

36. The Dybbuk (1920) by S Ansky

37. Saved (1965) by Edward Bond

38.Topdog/Underdogby Suzan-Lori Parks

39. The Front Page (1928) by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur

40. Accidental Death of an Anarchist (1970) by Dario Fo.

41. Picnic (1953) by William Inge

42. Journey’s End (1928) by R.C. Sherriff

43 The Odd Couple (1965) by Neil Simon

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44. The orphans’ home cycle (1962-2009) nine short plays by Horton Foote

45. The Women. (1936) by Clare Boothe Luce

46. What The Butler Saw (1969) by Joe Orton

47. Awake and Sing! (1935) by Clifford Odets

48. The Piano Lesson (1987) by August Wilson

49. Uncommon Women and Others (1977) by Wendy Wasserstein

50 The Weir (1997) by Conor McPherson

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