The 50 Best Plays of All Time
This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.
About this list
TimeOut, 50 Books
New York is practically synonymous with theater, and from Broadway to Off Broadway to Off-Off Broadway, there are countless opportunities to see top-notch dramatic works. Of the countless shows that have been produced since the dawn of performance, it’s nearly impossible to choose the best plays. But we’ve done just that with our list of the best plays of all time.
What does it mean to say which plays are the best? Quality, popularity, universality, influence and historical importance all factored into the decision-making process. From Greek tragedies and Shakespearean comedies to Tony Award winners and modern experimental theater, this opinionated list by the late theater journalist and critic and Andy Propst covers some truly excellent works
This list was originally published in 2017 and was added to this site over 2 years ago.
| Rank | Book | Authors | Year | Country | Language | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 71 | Hamlet | William Shakespeare | 1600 | British | English | |
| 1306 | Long Day's Journey Into Night | Eugene O'Neill | 1956 | American | English | |
| 12441 | Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? | Edward Albee | 1962 | American | English | |
| 428 | Death Of A Salesman | Arthur Miller | 1949 | American | English | |
| 106 | Oedipus the King | Sophocles | -429 | Greek | Ancient greek | |
| 7651 | Angels In America | Tony Kushner | 1991 | American | English | |
| 3459 | The Glass Menagerie | Tennessee Williams | 1944 | American | English | |
| 11304 | A Raisin In The Sun | Lorraine Hansberry | 1959 | American | English | |
| 1712 | Woyzeck | Georg Buchner | 1879 | German | German | |
| 101 | Waiting for Godot | Samuel Beckett | 1953 | Irish | French | |
| 2247 | The Bald Soprano | Eugène Ionesco | 1950 | French | French | |
| 2738 | Look Back In Anger | John Osborne | 1956 | British | English | |
| 2275 | Hedda Gabler | Henrik Ibsen | 1890 | Norwegian | Norwegian | |
| 5990 | The Homecoming | Harold Pinter | 1965 | British | English | |
| 13511 | Machinal | Sophie Treadwell | 1928 | American | English | |
| 3918 | Fences | August Wilson | 1985 | American | English | |
| 1035 | Uncle Vanya | Anton Chekhov | 1897 | Russian | Russian | |
| 984 | Tartuffe | Molière | 1664 | French | French | |
| 14196 | What The Butler Saw | Joe Orton | 1969 | British | English | |
| 14985 | Uncommon Women And Others | Wendy Wasserstein | 1977 | American | English | |
| 17161 | This Is Our Youth | Kenneth Lonergan | 1996 | American | English | |
| 3182 | Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead | Tom Stoppard | 1966 | British | English | |
| 17161 | The Normal Heart | Larry Kramer | 1985 | American | English | |
| 14232 | Topdog Underdog | Suzan-Lori Parks | 2001 | American | English | |
| 3290 | Candida | George Bernard Shaw | 1898 | Irish | English | |
| 14851 | The Playboy Of The Western World | John Millington Synge | 1907 | Irish | English | |
| 1382 | The Importance of Being Earnest | Oscar Wilde | 1895 | Irish | English | |
| 14209 | Awake And Sing! | Clifford Odets | 1935 | American | English | |
| 4092 | The School For Scandal | Richard Brinsley Sheridan | 1777 | British | English | |
| 17161 | Stuff Happens | David Hare | 2004 | British | English | |
| 16752 | Life With Father | Howard Lindsay, Russell Crouse | 1939 | American | English | |
| 5989 | Twelfth Night | William Shakespeare | 1602 | British | English | |
| 14985 | Cloud 9 | Caryl Churchill | 1979 | British | English | |
| 6244 | Volpone | Ben Jonson | 1607 | British | English | |
| 14232 | Ruined | Lynn Nottage | 2009 | American | English | |
| 3052 | Our Town | Thornton Wilder | 1938 | American | English | |
| 14154 | The Vortex | Noel Coward | 1924 | British | English | |
| 3921 | She Stoops to Conquer | Oliver Goldsmith | 1773 | British | English | |
| 1084 | Mother Courage and Her Children | Bertolt Brecht | 1941 | German | German | |
| 14985 | John | Annie Baker | 2015 | American | English | |
| 14985 | Clybourne Park | Bruce Norris | 2010 | American | English | |
| 13941 | Master Harold...And The Boys | Athol Fugard | 1982 | South African | English | |
| 14205 | The Women | Clare Booth Luce | 1936 | American | English | |
| 14985 | The Humans | Stephen Karam | 2014 | American | English | |
| 14232 | M. Butterfly | David Henry Hwang | 1988 | American | English | |
| 17161 | Fefu And Her Friends | María Irene Fornés | 1977 | American | English | |
| 17161 | Short Eyes | Miguel Pinero | 1974 | American | English | |
| 11629 | Everyman | Philip Roth | 2006 | American | English | |
| 14952 | The Dutchman | Amiri Baraka | 1964 | American | English | |
| 613 | The Persians | Aeschylus | -471 | Greek | Ancient greek |