The 78th Annual Tony Awards!
Broadway’s robot love story Maybe Happy Ending and Pulitzer Prize-winning family drama Purpose won the coveted Best Musical and Best Play awards, respectively, at the 78th Annual Tony Awards.
Maybe Happy Ending took home the most trophies for the evening, with six including Best Lead Actor for Darren Criss (who also won for producing the show). Sunset Boulevard earned Best Revival of a Musical, with Nicole Scherzinger winning Best Actress in the most competitive category of the season.
The evening’s plays made history when Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Purpose became his second consecutive Tony Award. He won Best Revival of a Play in 2024 for Appropriate.
Kara Young also won her second consecutive Tony for her unforgettable featured role in Purpose. (Young won last year for Purlie Victorious.)
Cole Escola made history as the first non-binary actor to win a Tony for Lead Actor in their self-penned masterful comedy, Oh, Mary!.
Additionally, Sarah Snook’s one-woman epic performance in The Picture of Dorian Gray, for which she plays 26 roles, won her Best Lead Actress in a Play. Best Revival of a Play went to Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day.
(Click Here to See 50 photos from the Tony Awards!
Many of the winners reflected on their wins afterward.
Andrew Lloyd Weber won his first Tony in thirty years for the reimagining of Sunset Boulevard.
“What I think is fantastic about this production is, although it may be radically different in the sense that it doesn’t have huge great sets or anything like that, it doesn’t have a great big house for Norma Desmond — what it has is an incredible visual style,” he said.
“I always feel that with a musical, that’s one of the first things you need to talk about with the director.”
He spoke alongside producer and director Jaime Lloyd, with whom he is working on the new musical The Illusionist in London.
“My main focus now when I get back to London is to keep writing,” he said. “The most fantastic thing in the world [is if] you’re lucky enough to know what you want to do in life. I’m so lucky. I love writing musicals,” said Weber.
Creative teams showed an immense appreciation for collaboration and the many hands behind winning Broadway productions.
“It involves every single person working on that show, and it’s a huge amount of detail,” said Dane Laffrey and George Reeve, the Best Scenic Design of a Musical winners for Maybe Happy Ending. “[Director] Michael Arden was so passionate about all aspects of this show.”
Arden went on to win Best Director for a Musical. Laffrey and Reeve spoke of the nuances that went into creating one of Broadway’s most memorable sets.
“We Imagined it to look like what you would see pushing and pulling on an iPhone,” they said. “There’s a lot about aperture with this show. It has a major journey element. The iris in the frames were immense tools for us.”
Jacobs-Jenkins was in awe of the teamwork of his ensemble piece, Purpose, which saw nominations for actors LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Harry Lennix, in addition to the win for Young.
“This play only happened because I had the opportunity to work with one of the best acting ensembles in the world and work with [director] Phylicia Rashad and really just be in a room where we play,” Jacobs-Jenkins said.
“Don’t let anyone clip your wings,” added Kara Young, as she cried and cheered watching Purpose win Best Play. “Every day is a new expansion upon ourselves. Diversity literally equals humanity.”
She went on to relate to her character, Aziza.
“I know this queer woman very well, and I feel as if Aziza is all the things I ever imagined to be. There is an appreciation for changing the world, and I feel like if I help one person, I can help change the world.
“There’s something about her that [gives you] a deep connection to being an actor. She is someone I hold very closely. I really believe in this ancestral power of storytelling.”
Fresh off of an Oscar win for his Wicked costumes, Paul Tazewell picked up a Tony for Best Costumes in a Musical. His astounding pieces in Death Becomes Her often steal the show.
“I would love for my legacy to be the stories I choose to tell with my clothing,” he said. “Hopefully that will change people’s hearts. I stand here as a face for someone who is ‘othered.’ It’s necessary for young people to see someone who looks like them.”
“Trust that voice, that says I think I’m right, actually. I think I’m right,” Cole Escola said of his creative process, and his advice for other creators trying to pave their way.
“[People should say] ‘I actually think I do have something. I think I can do this. It might take twelve years to put the pen to paper, but that voice is right.’”
They paused while speaking with media long enough to catch Scherzinger win her Tony Award. They responded cheekily, as Scherzinger had come under fire within the theater community earlier this year over her support of President Trump.
“Four years. Four… More… Years,” they joked.
(Click Here to See 50 photos from the Tony Awards!
Dorian Gray and Succession star Sarah Snook reflected on the close-knit theater community and how much she has enjoyed getting to know all of the Tony nominees. She shared the story of one of the most influential figures in her life.
“A drama teacher I had in high school knew that I had an interest in acting and supported that with the equanimity and grace as a good teacher would and should,” she said. “I wouldn’t be happy doing anything else.”
Jak Malone made his Broadway debut in Operation Mincemeat, in which he brings down the house with a heart-wrenching number. He spoke of the song, “Dear Bill,” which helped earn him the Tony for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical.
“It truly uses my entire toolkit,” he said. “It’s nice to be able to showcase everything I have to give. I owe David Byrne my career, possibly. He is a visionary. He personally advocated for me and called agencies in his free time. You couldn’t have told me how warm and open [the Broadway] community is.”
The final tally for wins by show were as follows:
Maybe Happy Ending: 6
Buena Vista Social Club: 4
Stanger Things: 3
Sunset Blvd: 3
Oh, Mary!: 2
The Picture of Dorian Gray: 2
Purpose: 2
Death Becomes Her: 1
Eureka Day: 1
Operation Mincemeat: 1
Yellow Face: 1