The 76th Tony Awards took place Sunday night at the United Palace in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood with the Oscar-winning actress Ariana DeBose as the host. The awards ceremony, which honored plays and musicals that opened on Broadway between April 29, 2022, and April 27, 2023, aired on CBS and on the streaming service Paramount+. A special segment, hosted by Julianne Hough and Skylar Astin, streamed on Pluto TV before the main ceremony, during which a number of awards, including recognitions for lifetime achievement and best original score, were announced.
This year’s awards ceremony, which was nearly called off amid the Writers Guild of America strike, was presented without a script in an agreement reached with the union. (When the screenwriters’ strike last month threatened the broadcast, playwrights banded together to save the telecast.) The ceremony also went without a custom-made opening number and writers were encouraged to pre-record their acceptance speeches.
“Kimberly Akimbo” won best musical, and “Leopoldstadt” was awarded best play. J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell became the first out nonbinary actors to win in their categories, best lead actor in a musical and best featured actor in a musical. Jodie Comer, known for playing an assassin on television’s “Killing Eve,” took home a Tony for her performance in the one-woman show “Prima Facie,” her first professional stage role.
Best Featured Actor in a Play
Brandon Uranowitz, “Leopoldstadt”
Best Featured Actress in a Play
Miriam Silverman, “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window”
Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Beowulf Boritt, “New York, New York”
Best Costume Design of a Play
Brigitte Reiffenstuel, “Leopoldstadt”
Best Costume Design of a Musical
Gregg Barnes, “Some Like It Hot”
Best Sound Design of a Play
Carolyn Downing, “Life of Pi”
Best Sound Design of a Musical
Nevin Steinberg, “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”
Best Lighting Design of a Play
Tim Lutkin, “Life of Pi”
Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Natasha Katz, “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”
Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement
Joel Grey and John Kander
Isabelle Stevenson Award
Jerry Mitchell
Regional Theater Tony Award
Pasadena Playhouse
Tony Award for Excellence in Theater Education
Jason Zembuch Young
Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theater
Lisa Dawn Cave, Victoria Bailey and Robert Fried