The Best Tony Award Winning Musicals

Buster McDermott
Updated August 1, 2023 10.7K votes 1.1K voters 28.3K views
Over 1.1K Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The Best Tony Award Winning Musicals
Voting Rules
Best musicals to have won a Tony Award for Best Musical, not just any award.
Latest additions: A Strange Loop, Moulin Rouge!, The Band's Visit
Most divisive: Man of La Mancha

This list ranks the greatest musicals that have won the Tony Award for Best Musical, though many of these Broadway musicals have garnered multiple additional Tony Awards in other categories as well. Broadway musicals that’ve been honored with the Best Musical award include many that are instantly recognizable by fans around the world, including My Fair Lady and Annie. Thanks to their accolades and their recognizability, each musical on this list deserves a spot as one the best Tony Award winning musicals.

The Tony Awards were introduced in 1947, but it wasn’t until 1949 that the Best Musical category was introduced. That year, the show many people consider to be one of the greatest Broadway musicals of all time took the award: Kiss Me, Kate, based on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and with music by Cole Porter. Since then, many amazing Broadway musicals have been handed the award, including Kinky Boots, which debuted on Broadway in 2013.

With so many great Broadway musicals, however, it isn’t always easy to choose the winner of the Tony each year. That was certainly the case in 1960, when The Sound of Music and Fiorello! tied for the top spot. Both Tony Award winning productions were so popular that they’ve subsequently been staged on Broadway multiple times, earning them each a spot on this list of the best Broadway musicals that have won the Tony.

This list contains all of the greatest winners of the Tony for Best Musical. If you’ve yet to see a few of these productions, don’t worry, they’re so popular that they’re sure to make it back to Broadway, and this list includes videos from these top Broadway musicals. Vote up the best Broadway musicals on the list below.

Ranked by
  • Les Misérables
    1

    Les Misérables

    Claude-Michel Schönberg, Jean-Marc Natel, Herbert Kretzmer
    571 votes
    • Characters: Jean Valjean, Javert, Fantine, Éponine, Monsieur Thénardier
    Les Misérables, colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz is a sung-through musical based on the novel Les Misérables by French poet and novelist Victor Hugo. It has music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, original French lyrics by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, with an English-language libretto by Herbert Kretzmer. Set in early 19th-century France, it is the story of Jean Valjean, a French peasant, and his quest for redemption after serving nineteen years in jail for having stolen a loaf of bread for his sister's starving child. Valjean decides to break his parole and start his life anew after a kindly bishop inspires him by a tremendous act of mercy, but he is relentlessly tracked down by a police inspector named Javert. Along the way, Valjean and a slew of characters are swept into a revolutionary period in France, where a group of young idealists make their last stand at a street barricade.
  • Hamilton
    2

    Hamilton

    343 votes
    Hamilton: An American Musical is a sung- and rapped-through musical about the life of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, with music, lyrics and book by Lin-Manuel Miranda, inspired by the 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton by historian Ron Chernow. Notably incorporating hip-hop, rhythm and blues, pop music, soul music, traditional-style show tunes and color-conscious casting of non-white actors as the Founding Fathers and other historical figures, the musical achieved both critical acclaim and box office success.
  • Cabaret
    3

    Cabaret

    Fred Ebb, John Kander, Joe Masteroff
    262 votes
    • Characters: Fräulein Schneider, Sally Bowles, Fraulein Kost, Emcee, Clifford Bradshaw
    Cabaret is a 1966 musical with music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Joe Masteroff, based on John Van Druten's 1951 play I Am a Camera, which was adapted from the short novel Goodbye to Berlin (1939) by Christopher Isherwood. Set between 1929-1930 in Berlin as the Nazis are rising to power, it focuses on the nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub, and revolves around American writer Cliff Bradshaw and his relationship with English cabaret performer Sally Bowles. A sub-plot involves the doomed romance between German boarding house owner Fräulein Schneider and her elderly suitor Herr Schultz, a Jewish fruit vendor. Overseeing the action is the Master of Ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub. The club serves as a metaphor for ominous political developments in late Weimar Germany. The 1966 original Broadway production became a hit, inspiring numerous subsequent productions in London and New York, as well as the 1972 film of the same name.
  • The Phantom of the Opera
    4

    The Phantom of the Opera

    Charles Hart, Richard Stilgoe, Andrew Lloyd Webber
    461 votes
    • Characters: Erik, Christine Daaé, Carlotta, Viscount Raoul de Chagny, Madame Giry
    The Phantom of the Opera is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Charles Hart. Richard Stilgoe and Lloyd Webber wrote the musical's book together. Stilgoe also provided additional lyrics. Based on the French novel of the same name by Gaston Leroux, its central plot revolves around a beautiful soprano, Christine Daaé, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious, disfigured musical genius living in the subterranean labyrinth beneath the Paris Opéra House.The musical opened in London's West End at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1986, and on Broadway in 1988. It won the 1986 Olivier Award and the 1988 Tony Award for Best Musical, and Michael Crawford (in the title role) won the Olivier and Tony Awards for Best Actor in a Musical. It is the longest running show in Broadway history by a wide margin, and celebrated its 10,000th Broadway performance on 11 February 2012, the first production ever to do so. It is the second longest-running West End musical, after Les Misérables, and the third longest-running West End show overall, after The Mousetrap.With total estimated worldwide gross receipts of over $5.6 billion and total Broadway gross of $845 million, Phantom was the most financially successful entertainment event until The Lion King surpassed it in 2014. By 2011, it had been seen by over 130 million people in 145 cities across 27 countries, and continues to play in London and New York.
  • Fiddler on the Roof
    5

    Fiddler on the Roof

    Sheldon Harnick, Jerry Bock, Joseph Stein
    281 votes
    • Characters: Tevye, Chava, Lazar Wolf, Tzeitel, Golde
    Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial Russia in 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters and other tales by Sholem Aleichem. The story centers on Tevye, the father of five daughters, and his attempts to maintain his Jewish religious and cultural traditions, as outside influences encroach upon the family's lives. He must cope both with the strong-willed actions of his three older daughters, who wish to marry for love – each one's choice of a husband moves further away from the customs of his faith – and with the edict of the Tsar that evicts the Jews from their village. The original Broadway production of the show, which opened in 1964, had the first musical theatre run in history to surpass 3,000 performances. Fiddler held the record for the longest-running Broadway musical for almost 10 years until Grease surpassed its run. It remains Broadway's sixteenth longest-running show in history. The production was extraordinarily profitable and highly acclaimed.
  • Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street
    6

    Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street

    Hugh Wheeler, Stephen Sondheim
    292 votes
    • Characters: Sweeney Todd, Judge Turpin, Adolfo Pirelli, Mrs. Lovett, Tobias Ragg
    Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 1979 musical thriller with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. The musical is based on the 1973 play Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Christopher Bond. Set in 19th century England, the musical tells the story of Benjamin Barker, alias Sweeney Todd, who returns to London after 15 years' transportation on trumped-up charges, to take revenge on the judge who banished him. Sweeney Todd opened on Broadway in 1979 and in the West End in 1980. In addition to several revivals the musical has been presented by opera companies. It won the Tony Award for Best Musical and Olivier Award for Best New Musical.