BOB OST wrote book, music and lyrics for Finale!, Grand Prize winner in the 1990 American Musical Theater Festival Competition and the 1992 New American Musical Writers Competition, and a finalist at the Neill Music Conference in 1989. The Body Shop came in second in the 'Ü96 Turnip Festival 15-minute Play Competition, and a musical version of the play (written with Gary Hughes and Claudia Perry) was the Christmas '97 presentation at Westside Repertory Theatre, on a double bill with Bob's comic Not on Christmas Eve. Westside Rep also commissioned and performed Bob's adaptation of Machiavelli's classic La Mandragola, which features an original Bob Ost score.   

Bob wrote book, music and lyrics for the off Broadway revue Everybody's Gettin' into the Act at the Actor's Playhouse in New York. Other musical revues that have played the Manhattan cabaret circuit include: Love and Laughter at Judy's, Steppin' Out o' Line (directed by casting director Barry Moss) at Sam's and The Triad, Who Says Love Is Easy? (written with Eben Keyes) at Don't Tell Mama's, and Not Quite What You Expected! (directed by Barry Moss) at The Duplex, Triad and Sam's. Bob's CD A Special Place: Songs from the Heart (Original Cast Records) is available on this website. Everybody's Gettin' into the Act was recently part of the York Theater Developmental Reading Series and an all-star cast recording has just been released on the Fynsworth Alley label (www.fynsworthalley.com) with Tony nominees Bob Cuccioli, Nancy Opel, Mark Kudisch, Rebecca Luker, Mary Testa and Emily Skinner, plus a dozen and other Broadway stars.

Non-musically speaking, his drama The Necessary Disposal was a finalist in the Elmira College Playwriting competition in '94, the White-Willis Theater New Playwrights Contest in '95 and the Sunset Center Festival of Firsts in '96, and was part of the Shotgun Productions New Play ReadingSeries in NYC. Breeders was a finalist in the Mill Mountain Theater New Play Competitionand the White-Willis Theater NewPlaywrights Contest. His one-act plays have been showcased at Synchronicity Theater, Golden Fleece, Murray Hill Players, Lovecreek, InnerSpace Repertory and other small theater companies in Manhattan.