The 75th Annual Tony Awards Returns

The Great White Way celebrates its diamond anniversary 

After two years of pandemic stops and starts, Broadway has returned in full force, fittingly just in time to celebrate the Tony Awards’ 75th gala. 

Ariana DeBose, the New York stage alum who won an Oscar for the recent movie remake of West Side Story, will serve as host. A clear highlight of this year’s gala: the presentation of a Lifetime Achievement honour to Dame Angela Lansbury, a five-time Tony winner. (Darren Criss and Julianne Hough will also preside over an hour-long pre-show on streamer Paramount+). 

The nominee list, led by the musical A Strange Loop with 11 bids, typically includes widely familiar names as well as others primarily known to New York theatre-goers. 

Sutton Foster could earn her third Tony for the hit revival of The Music Man, which has six nominations, and she says she’s enjoyed “the challenge and the surprise” in her career thus far. CBS

“That’s one of the reasons Marian [the character] was so appealing to me,” Foster notes. “She wasn’t on my radar, but it’s one of my favourite roles I’ve ever done, and it says to me that I should just stay open to anything. Every day that I get to walk through a stage door into a Broadway theatre is a gift.” 

NOMINEES IN SEVERAL KEY CATEGORIES: 

Best Play: Clyde’s; Hangmen; The Lehman Trilogy; The Minutes; Skeleton Crew 

Best Musical: Girl From the North Country; MJ; Mr. Saturday Night; Paradise Square; SIX: The Musical; A Strange Loop 

Best Revival of a Play: American Buffalo; for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf; How I Learned to Drive; Take Me Out; Trouble in Mind 

Best Revival of a Musical: Caroline, or Change; Company; The Music Man 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play: Simon Russell Beale, The Lehman Trilogy; Adam Godley, The Lehman Trilogy; Adrian Lester, The Lehman Trilogy; David Morse, How I Learned to Drive; Sam Rockwell, American Buffalo; Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Lackawanna Blues; David Threlfall, Hangmen 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play: Gabby Beans, The Skin of Our Teeth; LaChanze, Trouble in Mind; Ruth Negga, Macbeth; Deirdre O’Connell, Dana H.; Mary-Louise Parker, How I Learned to Drive 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Billy Crystal, Mr. Saturday Night; Myles Frost, MJ; Hugh Jackman, The Music Man; Rob McClure, Mrs. Doubtfire; Jaquel Spivey, A Strange Loop 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical: Sharon D. Clarke, Caroline, or Change; Carmen Cusack, Flying Over Sunset; Sutton Foster, The Music Man; Joaquina Kalukango, Paradise Square; Mare Winningham, Girl From the North Country 

The 75th Annual Tony Awards airs Sunday, June 12th at 5 p.m. & 8 p.m. on CBS