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Romantic robot musical Maybe Happy Ending has triumphed with six wins at this year’s Tony awards, with actors Cole Escola and Kara Young also making history in their respective categories.
Maybe Happy Ending was named best musical, with its star Darren Criss also taking home the award for leading actor in a musical. The first-time winner spoke about being proud to be part of a “notably diverse and exquisite” Broadway season, while Michael Arden, who won best direction of a musical for the show, said that “empathy is not a weakness but it is a gift and our shared responsibility” in a speech ending with him wishing everyone a happy Pride Month.
In one of the most-anticipated races of the night, the first-time nominee Nicole Scherzinger won best leading actress in a musical for her role in Sunset Boulevard, beating the record-breaking six-time winner and Gypsy star Audra McDonald. Scherzinger also won the Olivier for her performance.
“It’s happened, Andrew!” a tearful Scherzinger said to Andrew Lloyd Webber onstage.
Sunset Boulevard also won awards for best revival of a musical and lighting design. “It’s just fantastic for me to see the old shows rethought and reworked,” Lloyd Webber told the audience.
Cole Escola became the first non-binary winner of the leading actor in a play award for their performance as an alcoholic Mary Todd Lincoln in unconventional period comedy Oh, Mary!, a show Escola also wrote. Escola beat George Clooney for the win, while the Oh, Mary! director, Sam Pinkleton, also saw off Sam Mendes to win best direction of a play. While Clooney’s Broadway adaptation of Good Night, and Good Luck broke box office records and received five Tony nominations, the show ultimately left empty-handed.
Pulitzer prize-winning family drama Purpose was named best play, a year after playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s revival of Appropriate picked up three Tonys.
Kara Young also won featured actress in a play for her role in Purpose, making her the first Black actor ever to win two consecutive awards. It’s also the fourth time in a row she has been nominated in this category. In her speech, Young called theatre “a sacred space that we have to honour and treasure” in divided times.
Sarah Snook followed an Olivier win for her role in The Picture of Dorian Gray with the Tony for best actress in a leading role in a play, beating out Mia Farrow and Sadie Sink. It marked the Australian Succession star’s Broadway debut. The show also picked up an award for costume design.
Buena Vista Social Club, a musical based on the 1997 album and hit documentary, also took home four awards. Timely school-set satire Eureka Day was named best revival of a play while Stranger Things: The First Shadow picked up three craft awards.
Francis Jue became only the second Asian-American winner of the featured actor in a play award for his performance in Yellow Face. “To those who don’t feel seen and those who are feeling targeted during these authoritarian times, I see you,” he said in his speech.
Operation Mincemeat’s Jak Malone followed up an Olivier win with a Tony for actor in a featured role in a musical. The actor, who plays a woman in the show, used his speech to focus on the importance of trans rights, saying that anyone who saw the show will have opened themselves up to “a world of glorious Technicolor that isn’t going away anytime soon”.
The ceremony was hosted by Tony winner Cynthia Erivo, who kicked off the evening with a rousing musical performance with help from Broadway Inspirational Voices and a brief cameo from Oprah Winfrey.
“Broadway is officially back,” Erivo said in her opening speech –on the back of a record-breaking season with box office that hit US$1.89bn. Yet one of the season’s biggest hits, Othello starring Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, failed to receive a single nomination.
Together with Sara Bareilles, Erivo sang an emotional performance of Tomorrow from Annie during an in memoriam segment paying tribute to late stage stars including Maggie Smith, James Earl Jones, Quincy Jones and Gavin Creel.
The night also included a reunion for the original cast of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s blockbuster musical Hamilton performing a special “mix tape” to celebrate the show’s 10th anniversary.
Shows that came away empty-handed at this year’s Tonys included Gypsy, John Proctor is the Villain, English, Just in Time, Smash, Dead Outlaw and The Hills of California.
Last year’s ceremony was dominated by wins for 70s-set play Stereophonic and Stephen Sondheim revival Merrily We Roll Along.
