The Tony Awards returned to the Radio City Music Hall in New York for the first time since the pandemic began.
The 75th award ceremony, which was hosted by Ariana DeBose on Sunday (12 June) saw Michael R Jackson’s A Strange Loop winning Best Musical, while Stefano Massini’s The Lehman Trilogy bagged an award for Best Play.
Company, the musical by George Furth and Stephen Sondheim, also won five major awards, including Best Revival of a Musical, Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical, Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical, and Best Direction of a Musical.
During her acceptance speech for winning the Best Direction award for Company, Marianne Elliott acknowledged the existential challenges facing Broadway.
“Our industry has been through so much,” she said. “It felt at times that live theatre was endangered.”
Elliot went on to dedicate her prize to all of those “fighting for the survival of this beautiful, transportive and essential art form”.
Myles Frost, Joaquina Kalukango, Deirdre O’Connell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Phylicia Rashad were among the performers to take home some of the night’s top acting prizes.
Frost won leading actor in a musical for channeling Michael Jackson in MJ, while the Best Leading Actress in a Musical prize went to Kalukango for her role in Paradise Square.
O’Connell picked up Best Actress in a Play for her role in the cutting-edge drama Dana H, where she portrayed the role of a Florida hospice chaplain who is held hostage.
Ferguson won an award for Best Supporting Actor in a Play for his role in Take Me Out, while Rashad earned Best Supporting Actress in a play for her work in Skeleton Crew.
Approximately 34 shows premiered on Broadway this season, out of which 29 received at least one Tony nomination.
Here is the full list of winners:
Best Play
Clyde’s
Hangmen
The Lehman Trilogy – WINNER
The Minutes
Skeleton Crew
Best Musical
