Meet the Winners of the 2026 Richard Rodgers Awards

The annual honor goes to talented composers and playwrights, with past winners including Jonathan Larson, Anaïs Mitchell, and more.

February 20, 2026 By Margaret Hall

Homer is so hot right now.

The 2026 recipients of the Richard Rodgers Award have been revealed, and in a surprise twist, both winning musicals are based in part on Homer's Odyssey, one of the oldest surviving works of literature.

Bludline: A Hip-Hop Odyssey by Fermin Suero, Jr. and Pete White, reimagines Homer’s epic through live hip-hop and R&B as Trojan War hero Odysseus battles monsters and temptations to reach home, while his son Telemachus must find his own strength in the shadow of a father who may never return.

Penelope—with a book by Alex Bechtel, Grace McLean, and Eva Steinmetz; and music and lyrics by Bechtel—is inspired by the composer’s experience of being forced to quarantine in separate cities from his romantic partner during the COVID pandemic. This musical for one actor and a five-piece band uses folk-pop songs, irreverent comedy, poetic physical gesture, and stirring instrumental pieces to tell the story of a day in the life of Penelope of Ithaca, stuck waiting for Odysseus to return.

Both winning musicals will receive funds toward their presentation at nonprofit theaters in New York City. The members of this year’s selection committee were chairman David Lang, Mindi Dickstein, Amanda Green, Michael R. Jackson, Richard Maltby, Jr., Rona Siddiqui, and John Weidman.

The award was established by late Broadway composer Richard Rodgers in 1978, with past winners including Jonathan Larson for Rent, Anaïs Mitchell for Hadestown, and Will Aronson and Hue Park for Maybe Happy Ending.

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