A pair of singing androids. Two Pulitzer Prize-winning performs. A drunken Mary Todd Lincoln. A musical with a corpse as its hero. Romeo, Juliet and teddy bears with rave music. Not to say George Clooney.
Broadway has had a stuffed season with seemingly one thing for everybody and now it is time to acknowledge the very best with the Tony Awards, hosted by Cynthia Erivo, set for Sunday night time on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
Broadway buzz is often reserved for musicals however this yr the performs — powered by A-list expertise — have pushed the dialog. There’s Clooney in “Good Night, and Good Luck,” Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal in “Othello,” Sarah Snook in a one-woman model of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and her “Succession” co-star Kieran Culkin and Bob Odenkirk in “Glengarry Glen Ross.” (Clooney, Snook and Odenkirk are nominated for Tonys.)
There have been two Pulitzer winners — 2024 awardee “English” and “Purpose” from 2025 — however maybe one of many season’s largest surprises was “Oh, Mary!,” Cole Escola’s irreverent, raunchy, gleefully deranged revisionist historical past centered on Mary Todd Lincoln. All three are nominated for finest play, together with “John Proctor is the Villain” and “The Hills of California.”
On the musical aspect, three choices appear to be within the combine for the highest prize: “Maybe Happy Ending,” a rom-com a few pair of androids; “Dead Outlaw,” about an alcoholic drifter whose embalmed physique turns into a prized possession for half a century; and “Death Becomes Her,” the musical satire about longtime frenemies who drink a magic potion for everlasting youth and wonder. “Maybe Happy Ending,” “Death Becomes Her” and one other musical nominee, “Buena Vista Social Club,” lead nominations with 10 apiece.
The 2024-2025 season took in $1.9 billion, making it the highest-grossing season ever and signaling that Broadway has lastly emerged from the COVID-19 blues, having overtaken the earlier excessive of $1.8 billion through the 2018-2019 season.
“We’re going through this strange period, which I would think someday we can draw the line from COVID to this, as you can draw the line from the early 1980s with AIDS to the explosion of big musicals again,” says Harvey Fierstein, who will get a particular Tony for lifetime achievement.
Audra McDonald, essentially the most acknowledged performer within the theater awards’ historical past, may probably prolong her Tony lead. Already the file holder for many appearing wins with six Tonys, McDonald may add to that because of her main flip in an acclaimed revival of “Gypsy.” She has to get previous Nicole Scherzinger, who has been wowing audiences in “Sunset Blvd.”
And Kara Young — the primary Black feminine actor to be nominated for a Tony Award in 4 consecutive years — may turn out to be the primary Black particular person to win two Tonys consecutively, ought to she win for her position within the play “Purpose.”
Other attainable back-to-back winners embody director Danya Taymor, hoping to observe up her 2024 win with “The Outsiders” with one other for “John Proctor Is the Villain,” and “Purpose” playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, who gained final yr with “Appropriate.”
Other attainable firsts embody Daniel Dae Kim, who may turn out to be the primary Asian winner within the class of finest main actor in a play for his work in a revival of “Yellow Face.” And Marjan Neshat and her “English” co-star Tala Ashe may turn out to be the primary feminine actors of Iranian descent to win a Tony.
Broadway this season noticed a burst in alt-rock and the emergence of tales of younger individuals for younger individuals, together with “John Proctor is the Villain” and a “Romeo + Juliet” pitched to Generation Z and millennials.
Sunday’s telecast, as normal, could have a musical quantity for every of the exhibits vying for the very best new musical crown, in addition to some that did not make the minimize, like “Just in Time,” a musical about Bobby Darin, and “Real Women Have Curves.” This yr, there’s additionally room for “Hamilton,” celebrating its tenth yr on Broadway. But the musicals “BOOP! The Betty Boop Musical” and “SMASH” did not get slots.
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