Schmigadoon!, a parody of golden age musicals, took home the Tony Award for best musical Sunday, in a ceremony that recognized a number of longtime Broadway actors for the first time and well-known players like John Lithgow and Laurie Metcalf.
“Sometimes singing, dancing, a lot of jokes, and a happy ending is really all you need,” said Saturday Night Live’s Lorne Michaels, as he took the stage as lead producer of Schmigadoon!
The musical, which is adapted from the Apple TV show, won four awards at the ceremony, which was hosted by Pink, in an energetic awards show that included wins for Alden Ehrenreich, for his sharp-tongued role in the dark comedy Becky Shaw, Joshua Henry and Caissie Levy of Ragtime and more.
Pulitzer Prize winner Liberation won the Tony for best play, beating out Giant and Little Bear Ridge Road, making playwright Bess Wohl only the second American woman to win in the category and the first in close to 40 years.
While Cats: The Jellicle Ball, which reimagines the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical as a queer ballroom competition, had early momentum in the telecast, with wins for direction, costumes and choreography, Ragtime, a revival about racial and class tensions in the early 1900s, took home the Tony Award for best revival, in what was widely viewed as the closest race at the Tonys. The musical, directed by Lear DeBessonet, took home four Tonys Sunday, including nods for two of its lead actors.
Death of a Salesman won the Tony Award for best revival of a play and was the biggest winner at the ceremony with six Tonys, though lead producer Scott Rudin was not on stage, after leaving the industry for several years due to claims of bad behavior. Laurie Metcalf also won her third Tony Award for her role as Linda Loman in the play, and Joe Mantello won for best direction of a play.
John Lithgow won a Tony Award for his performance as Roald Dahl in the play Giant, after taking home the 2025 Olivier Award for the role. The controversial play delves into Dahl’s reported antisemitism, and sees Lithgow alternating between moments of cruelty and softness.
This is Lithgow’s third Tony win, and he previously told The Hollywood Reporter that this will be his last Broadway role, and onstage, reflected on his career, recalling his first Tony Award 53 years ago, saying “I’m such a lucky actor.”
“I’ve had dozens and dozens of ecstatic moments on stage, but I have to tell you right now, this moment has got to be one of the best,” Lithgow said.
The show also awarded some longtime Broadway performers. Joshua Henry won his first Tony Award for his role in Ragtime (for which he continues to receive a standing ovation mid-show), Caissie Levy won her first Tony Award for her role as Mother in Ragtime and Shoshana Bean won her first Tony Award for her role as Lucy Emerson, the mother in the vampire musical The Lost Boys, after a long career in theater.
“It is an honor to play this role, Coalhouse Walker Jr., a Black musician whose art led him to his love and to his dream, and even in the face of tragedy he found a way to be heard. Every artist in this room, every artist at home: Fight. Fight to be heard,” Henry said.
“This is for every woman who ever felt like she was too much or not enough. I beg you not to wait for permission to be all of who you are,” Bean said.
With Pink hosting, the show featured an opening number, written by Dear Evan Hansen’s Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and Mark Sonnenblick, that incorporated performers from almost all shows this season, brought in former host Neil Patrick Harris and Megan Thee Stallion, and was filled with insidery theater jokes. The show featured performances throughout the night from all the nominated musicals and revivals, as well as reunion performances for Chicago and The Book of Mormon and celebrity presenters including Sting, Paul Rudd, Ben Platt, Bowen Yang, Billy Crystal and Rachel Zegler, who performed a tribute to A Chorus Line.
While many presenters championed women’s rights, queer and trans rights and more, Ali Luis Bourzgui, who won his first Tony for his role as the lead vampire in The Lost Boys, was the only winner to speak up for Palestine.
“For Arab theatermakers and artists, may we continue to tell our stories and show our faces, so our humanity becomes undeniable, and our families can no longer be written off as merely collateral damage. May they know the beauty of our kisses upon each cheek and the romance of a language rooted in passion for love and life itself,” Bourzgui said.
Pink largely stayed away from politics, though gestured at a loss of free speech in a bit with famous audience members that included many jokes but also appeared to speak to the current moment and possibly gesturing at the airing of the Tony Award on CBS, which is owned by Paramount.
“The powers that be are closing in on the First Amendment, as the strongholds of free speech fall. I think it’s important that Broadway stands strong and sticks to its values,” Pink said, as she led into the segment.
Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch won the Tony Award for best direction of a musical for Cats: The Jellicle Ball, in which the two first-time Tony winners reenvisioned the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical as a queer ballroom competition. The two honored the roots of ballroom, thanking the Black and brown trans women and ballroom pioneers, as a sea of fans clacked in the audience.
“To the 12-year-old kid who doesn’t fit in, who may be watching this on the television in their bedroom with the volume turned down low,” Rauch said. “Come find your home at the Jellicle Ball,” Levingston added.
In winning a Tony Award for best costume design of a musical for her work on Cats, Qween Jean became the first openly trans winner in that category. After accepting the award, Jean, who was also nominated for designing costumes for the play Liberation, noted the importance of the milestone.
“We are here for the legacy of queer people. Trans people, we have to take up space. We have to shift the paradigm … the world right now is deeply, deeply combating so many ailments, and we know as a society that when we come together we can make real, permanent change,” Jean said.
Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons, co-choreographers of Cats: The Jellicle Ball, who made their Broadway debut took home the Tony for their combination of ballroom, ballet and more for the musical revival.
In a sign of what was to come, Schmigadoon! won best book of a musical and best score early on the night, during the Tonys preshow hosted by Laura Benanti and Tituss Burgess, with Cinco Paul taking the trophies for both. Two other new musical contenders, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) and Titanique, did not take home any trophies Sunday, in what was a mixed year for new musicals.
The Lost Boys also took home four trophies, including for set design (Dan Laffrey) for its three-story set that also sees cast members falling into pits, riding elevators and flying through the air and for lighting design, with designers Jen Schriever and Michael Arden, who also directed the show, taking home that trophy, in addition to Bourzgui and Bean.
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