The 76th Tony Awards recognized the achievements in Broadway productions during the 2022–23 season. The ceremony was held at the United Palace in New York City on June 11, 2023, with Ariana DeBose returning as host for the second year in a row.
Here’s everything you need to know about the 2023 Tonys
Jodie Comer wins the prestigious Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Play, overwhelming her with joy. The Killing Eve actress portrayed a defence lawyer who ends up in the witness box in her one-woman Broadway show Prima Facie.
Ariana DeBose hosts the Tony Awards in New York but does not use a script due to the writers strike. The ceremony also sees two non-binary actors win prizes for the first time.
In her acceptance speech for her performance in Prima Facie, Comer says: “This woman in this play has been my greatest teacher. I have to thank Suzie Miller for that, who wrote this magnificent piece. Without her writing that [role], I would not be here so this feels just as much Suzie’s as it is mine.”
The 30-year-old from Liverpool previously wins an Olivier award for her performance, which transfers from London’s West End to Broadway.
Last week, breathing difficulties from wildfire smoke across North America force Comer to leave the stage during a performance. Her understudy completes the performance.
The actress goes on to thank members of her production team and apologizes to her friends and family for being “absent” in the past year.
Oscar-winning actress Ariana DeBose hosts Sunday’s ceremony, which is Broadway’s biggest night of the year. She warns audiences to “buckle up” as the show remains unscripted due to the ongoing Hollywood writers strike.
Ariana DeBose Says She Doesn’t Like Labels Regarding Sexuality: ‘I Prefer the Term Human’
The show opens with a performance where Ariana flips through empty pages in a binder labeled “script” in a dressing room.
Also at Sunday’s ceremony, Alex Newell and J Harrison Ghee become the first non-binary performers to receive recognition at the awards.
Newell wins the best featured actor in a musical for Shucked, while J. Harrison Ghee wins best leading actor in a musical for playing a gender-questioning musician in Some Like It Hot.
Michael Arden wins his first Tony Award for directing the Broadway revival of Parade, which depicts the 1913 trial, imprisonment, and 1915 lynching of Jewish-American factory manager Leo Frank in Georgia.
In his acceptance speech, Arden says: “Parade tells the story of a life cut short by the belief that one group of people is more or less valuable than another and more deserving of justice.” He continues: “This belief is at the core of antisemitism, white supremacy, homophobia, transphobia and intolerance of any kind. We must come together. We must battle this. It is so, so important, or else we are doomed to repeat the horrors of our history.”
One of the night’s biggest awards, best play, went to British writer Sir Tom Stoppard for his play Leopoldstadt, which also scooped best direction, best costume and best performance by an actor in a play.
British creatives Tim Hatley and Andrzej Goulding, Tim Lutkin and Carolyn Downing picked up awards for the Life of Pi, with Goulding and Downing referencing Sheffield, where the play had its premiere, in their acceptance speeches.
Kimberly Akimbo was named best musical, also scooping best original score and best leading actress for Victoria Clark.
Full list of winners
- Best play – Leopoldstadt
- Best musical – Kimberly Akimbo
- Best book of a musical – Kimberly Akimbo, David Lindsay-Abaire
- Best original score – Kimberly Akimbo, David Lindsay-Abaire (lyrics), Jeanine Tesori (music)
- Best revival of a play – Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/ Underdog
- Best revival of a musical – Parade
- Best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play – Sean Hayes for Good Night, Oscar
- Best performance by an actress in a leading role in a play – Jodie Comer for Prima Facie
- Best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical – J. Harrison Ghee for Some Like It Hot
- Best performance by an actress in a leading role in a musical – Victoria Clark for Kimberly Akimbo
- Best performance by an actor in a featured role in a play – Brandon Uranowitz for Leopoldstadt
- Best performance by an actress in a featured role in a play – Miriam Silverman for The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window
- Best performance by an actor in a featured role in a musical – Alex Newell for Shucked
- Best performance by an actress in a featured role in a musical – Bonnie Milligan for Kimberly Akimbo
- Best scenic design of a play – Tim Hatley & Andrzej Goulding for Life of Pi
- Best scenic design of a musical – Beowulf Boritt for New York, New York
- Best costume design of a play – Brigitte Reiffenstuel for Leopoldstadt
- Best costume design of a musical – Gregg Barnes for Some Like It Hot
- Best lighting design of a play – Tim Lutkin for Life of Pi
- Best lighting design of a musical – Natasha Katz for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
- Best sound design of a play – Carolyn Downing for Life of Pi
- Best sound design of a musical – Nevin Steinberg for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
- Best direction of a play – Patrick Marber for Leopoldstadt
- Best direction of a musical – Michael Arden for Parade
- Best choreography – Casey Nicholaw for Some Like It Hot
- Best orchestrations – Charlie Rosen & Bryan Carter for Some Like It Hot
- Special Tony Award for lifetime achievement in the theatre – Joel Grey and John Kander
- Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award – Jerry Mitchell
- Regional theatre Tony Award – Pasadena Playhouse
- Tony Honours for excellence in the theatre – Victoria Bailey, Lisa Dawn Cave and Robert Fried
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Angela Lansbury and Gwen Verdon have each won four Tony Awards in the musical categories, more than any other actress.