NEW YORK (AP) — “Schmigadoon!,” an adaptation of an Apple TV sequence that delicately mocks large, brassy Broadway presentations, won the entirely new musical Tony Award on an night when actor John Lithgow and playwright Bess Wohl made historical past.
The musical parodies golden-age Broadway classics delight in “The Tune Man” and “Oklahoma!” centered on a current-day couple finding themselves in a “Brigadoon”-delight in fantasyland the put the wholesome townspeople retain breaking into tune. The fetch is a redemption for creator Cinco Paul, whose TV sequence change into canceled after two seasons. He won Tonys for the fetch and the guide Sunday.
“Every so often singing, dancing, jokes and a satisfied ending are all you’d like,” stated producer Lorne Michaels, the creator of “Saturday Night Dwell,” after the fetch.
The fetch for “Schmigadoon!” also completes what some unofficially name a “studio EGOT,” giving the manufacturing company credits for winning awards in any appreciate four main ceremonies. Apple already has Emmys for comedies “Ted Lasso” and “The Studio,” the Oscar for entirely image for “CODA” and a Grammy thru Chris Stapleton’s contribution to the “F1” soundtrack.
Who took dwelling the Tony Awards
The prize for the entirely new play went to Wohl’s “Liberation,” about a consciousness-raising females’s crew in Seventies Ohio, which earlier this yr also won the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
Wohl’s play collects tales from second-wave feminists from all walks of existence as they kind out misogyny, racism and veteran gender roles. Wohl is entirely the fourth lady to fetch a entirely play Tony, becoming a member of Wendy Wasserstein, Yasmina Reza and Frances Goodrich.
Bess Wohl, heart, accepts the award for entirely play for “Liberation” at some level of the 79th Tony Awards on Sunday, June 7, 2026, at Radio Metropolis Tune Corridor in Novel York. (Record by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
“I would like to honor females all around the attach who delight in the courage to spend their convey,” stated Wohl, who thanked her mother, daughters and female producers. “And to the total ladies accessible: Can also simply you discuss your truth, and would possibly perchance gentle the enviornment be wise sufficient to listen to.”
“Liberation” joins a listing of 18 plays which delight in won the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the Tony Award within the same yr.
The Tony for entirely play revival went to “Death of a Salesman,” Arthur Miller’s masterpiece that appears to be like to be on the unraveling of the American Dream. It won the 1949 Tony for entirely new play and entirely revival crowns in 1984, 1999 and 2012.
It earned a main six Tonys: “Roseanne” critical person Laurie Metcalf won her third Tony for having fun with Willy Loman’s spouse reverse Nathan Lane within the revival, which also won for lights, scenic develop and sound develop. Joe Mantello won entirely director for a play.
‘Ragtime,’ ‘Giant,’ and quite loads of stand-out plays
“Ragtime” — a large, hovering musical that depicts an The US being remade by immigration, racial violence, industrial wealth and political unrest — won the entirely musical revival.
Caissie Levy, who change into Broadway’s first Elsa in “Frozen,” won her first Tony for having fun with the matriarch of a wealthy suburban household in “Ragtime.” She thanks the total babysitters who let her turn out to be each a mother and a Broadway performer.
Moments later, Joshua Henry, a four-time nominee, won his first Tony as Coalhouse Walker Jr. in “Ragtime.” “Even within the face of trouble and tragedy, he figured out a ability to be heard,” Henry stated of his character. “Each and each artist on this room, every artist at dwelling, battle — battle to be heard
Joshua Henry accepts the award for entirely efficiency by an actor in a main characteristic in a musical for “Ragtime” at some level of the 79th Tony Awards on Sunday, June 7, 2026, at Radio Metropolis Tune Corridor in Novel York. (Record by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Lithgow won his third Tony for entirely lead actor in a play for “Giant” having fun with teens’s writer Roald Dahl in Mark Rosenblatt’s manufacturing residing in 1983, when the writer is going thru intense backlash for his antisemitic feedback. At 80, he’s the oldest man ever to fetch a competitive performing Tony.
“Two Tony bookends with 53 years between them,” he stated. “In these years, I in reality delight in labored with hundreds of correct fantastic theater artists. I’ve had dozens and dozens of satisfied moments on the stage, but I in reality delight in to hiss you only now, this second has bought to be doubtless the most entirely.”
Shoshana Bean, who won entirely featured actress in a musical for having fun with a single mother in “The Misplaced Boys,” echoed the issues of “Liberation” in her speech.
“This is for the mamas. This is for the one mamas. This is for my single mama. It is possible you’ll per chance additionally be the wild heroes. This is for the fantastic military of females that surround and uplift me,” she stated.
“Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” which reimagines the Eighties traditional pussycat musical as a occasion of surprising ballroom culture, won for entirely direction of a musical by Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch.
“We honor the Unlit and brown trans females and homosexual males who were ballroom’s pioneers, as neatly as this day’s icons, and our solid of astonishing triple-threats, including of us from their 20s to their 80s, and each decade in between,” Levingston stated.
Lesley Manville, an Oscar nominee for “Phantom Thread,” won entirely lead actress in a play, making her Broadway debut in a current retelling of Sophocles’ traditional tragedy “Oedipus.”
Pink’s efficiency as the host
Pink, the Tony’s host, started the reward spinning and then dangling uncomfortably from a harness over the stage, dressed delight in Peter Pan. Historical host Neil Patrick Harris stepped in to imply the principle-time host correct be herself.
“You’re Pink, Pink. It is possible you’ll per chance perchance originate the rest,” he told her.
After lifting Harris off the stage alongside with her legs, Pink relented to his recommendation, added a top hat and belted out “Girl Marmalade” with contributions from dozens of performers including Lea Michele and Megan Thee Stallion — and a few 170 performers.
In her opening remarks, Pink, who has now now not but gotten a Broadway credit ranking, called herself theater’s second-most attention-grabbing fan after her teenage daughter, Willow. “I’m now now not here correct to steal peoples’ wigs, even supposing I will likely be doing that. I’m here to thrill in a super time the toughest-working of us in reward enterprise,” she stated.
Host Pink performs at some level of the 79th Tony Awards on Sunday, June 7, 2026, at Radio Metropolis Tune Corridor in Novel York. (Record by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
“Schmigadoon!” and “Death of a Salesman” every went into the main telecast with a lead of three Tonys after a pre-reward on Pluto TV hosted by Laura Benanti and Tituss Burgess that announced the more technical awards. Qween Jean grew to turn out to be the principle openly trans Tony winner ever for making the costumes for “Cats: The Jellicle Ball.”
Plenty of medleys and dance sequences
After the large opening number, Pink change into in most cases a genial, exuberant figure, popping up in new outfits for a number of self-deprecating bits, but then roaring to existence when main a extraordinarily convincing “All That Jazz” as “Chicago” approved its thirtieth anniversary, with the pop singer nailing the Bob Fosse-impressed choreography.
The In Memoriam allotment change into led by Leslie Odom Jr. singing a substantial “With out You” from “Rent,” honoring such lost figures as actors Robert Duvall, Robert Redford and Diane Keaton, as neatly as playwright Tom Stoppard. Rachel Zegler then insecure with a version of “What I Did For Like” from “A Chorus Line,” which remaining yr approved its fiftieth anniversary.
Other performances integrated the distinctive lead solid individuals of “The E book of Mormon” — Josh Gad, Andrew Rannells, Rory O’Malley and Nikki M. James — reuniting to delight in a super time its 15th anniversary.
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