“Kimberly Akimbo,” the off-beat story of a teenage girl suffering from a condition that causes her to age rapidly, was named best musical at a freewheeling, totally unscripted and politically charged Tony Awards on Sunday. The show won five prizes in all, the most of any production that evening.
“Leopoldstadt,” a multi-generational saga that follows a tight-knit Jewish community through a bloody period of European history, won four prizes, including best play. It is the fifth show by Tom Stoppard to receive that award, a record for playwrights.
Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Topdog/Underdog,” a drama about two African American brothers living on the economic margins, took home best play revival, while “Parade,” the story of Jewish American Leo Frank’s imprisonment and lynching, was named best musical revival. This spring, “Parade” made national news after members of a neo-Nazi group protested outside the theater on its opening night.
The victories of “Parade” and “Leopoldstadt,” both of which provide searing dramatizations of the brutal consequences of anti-Jewish bigotry, comes amidst a wave of antisemitic incidents in America. In fact, many of the shows that the Tonys recognized seemed to reflect and comment on the social divisions roiling the world. And many of the winners used their time at the microphone to emphasize the theater’s ability to shine a light on marginalized communities and to create empathy at a moment when it is often lacking. “Theater is the great cure,” Parks said while accepting the statue for best revival of a play.
This year’s awards, which honor the best of Broadway, were handed out at the United Palace in Washington Heights, dozens of blocks and several subway stops away from the “Main Stem.” In the weeks leading up to the event, there were several points in which it looked like the Tonys might not take place at all after a strike by the Writers Guild of America nearly imperiled the broadcast. However, the union’s members decided not to picket the show when its producers agreed to have an unscripted ceremony. The concession led to a looser, teleprompter-less, often ad-libbed evening. And the labor issues upending the entertainment business seeped into the three-hour show in other ways, with several Tony recipients using their speeches to voice their solidarity with the striking writers. “Writers are the sharp end of the pyramid,” Stoppard said, adding,”Without a script, we’re all basically flummoxed.”
Ariana DeBose, the Oscar-winning star of “West Side Story,” returned as emcee for the second year in a row. She kicked the off the evening by opening a script with blank pages before launching into a series of instrumental versions of “On Broadway”and “New York State of Mind” that were all blended into one energetically choreographed number. “I’m live and unscripted,” DeBose said of the unorthodox show. “You’re welcome. To anyone who may have thought that last year was a bit unhinged, to them I say, ‘Darlings, buckle up.'”
And, indeed, there were moments where the lack of writing was clearer, such as when DeBose couldn’t read the notes she scrawled on her arm and urged the audience to “welcome whoever walks out on this stage.”
The show unfolded as Broadway, which was shuttered for more than a year during COVID, is still struggling to return to its pre-pandemic form. Ticket sales for the 2022 to 2023 season were just under $1.6 billion, a jump from the $845 million Broadway generated in the previous season, but substantially down from the $1.8 billion it grossed in its last pre-COVID season. In a signs of the punishing climate, several new shows such as “Some Like It Hot” and “Shucked” struggled to draw crowds until they received awards attention. The hope is that the national broadcast, which was heavy on musical numbers from nominated shows, will goose ticket sales.
It was an evening of historic firsts, with “Some Like It Hot’s” J. Harrison Ghee and “Shucked’s” Alex Newell becoming the first nonbinary performers to win Tonys, with their victories in the best actor in a musical and best supporting actor in a musical categories.
“Thank you for seeing me Broadway,” Newell said. “I should not be up here as a queer, non-binary, fat, Black, little baby from Massachusetts.”
Fighting back tears, Ghee echoed that message in their speech, saying, “For every trans, nonbinary, gender non-conforming human — whoever was told they couldn’t be seen, this is for you.”
Jodie Comer was named lead actress in a play for “Prima Facie,’ a one-woman show about sexual assault and the justice system. She previously won a Laurence Olivier Award when the play was staged in London. Victoria Clarke earned lead actress in a musical playing the title role in “Kimberly Akimbo,” and Sean Hayes received the lead actor in a play prize for his shape-shifting turn as composer and pianist Oscar Levant in “Good Night, Oscar.”
Patrick Marber received the prize for best direction of a play for orchestrating the sweeping drama of “Leopoldstadt,” while Michael Arden was earned the statue for best direction of a musical for reviving “Parade’s” story of cruelty and prejudice. Arden said the musical’s story remains sadly relevant, urging the audience to stand up against antisemitism, transphobia and racism.
“We must battle this, or else we are doomed to repeat the horrors of our history,” Arden said. He went on to say, “I was called the f-word more times than I can remember. Now I’m a faggot with a Tony.” That last part, however, was bleeped out for TV watchers by censors, making it largely inaudible.
At other points, those political messages were delivered with sharper edges. Presenter Denée Benton, for example, blasted Gov. Ron DeSantis as the “Grand Wizard” of Florida, an allusion to the leadership of the Ku Klux Klan.
Among supporting performers, best featured actor in a play went to Brandon Uranowitz (“Leopoldstadt”), while Bonnie Milligan (“Kimberly Akimbo”) was named best featured actress in a musical, and Miriam Silverman (“The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window”) earned best supporting actress in a play.
The Tony winners are decided by 769 theater industry professionals, a group that includes everyone from producers and actors to designers and directors.
Joel Grey, the star of “Cabaret” and “Wicked,” and John Kander, who with Fred Ebb created “Cabaret” and “Chicago,” each received the 2023 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. Grey closed his speech with the final lines from the musical that made both recipients theater legends. “Auf wiedersehen! A bientot! Good night.” In “Cabaret,” which is set in 1930s Berlin, those words read as a cautionary sign of the horrors to come. This time, they seemed celebratory, even valedictory.
Here’s the complete list of Tony nominees and winners:
Best Play
Ain’t No Mo’
Between Riverside and Crazy
Cost of Living
Fat Ham
WINNER: Leopoldstadt
Best Musical
& Juliet
WINNER: Kimberly Akimbo
New York, New York
Shucked
Some Like It Hot
Best Revival of a Play
August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson
A Doll’s House
The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window
WINNER: Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog
Best Revival of a Musical
Into the Woods
Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot
WINNER: Parade
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Best Book of a Musical
& Juliet
David West Read
WINNER: Kimberly Akimbo
David Lindsay-Abaire
New York, New York
David Thompson & Sharon Washington
Shucked
Robert Horn
Some Like It Hot
Matthew López & Amber Ruffin
Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
Almost Famous
Music: Tom Kitt
Lyrics: Cameron Crowe & Tom Kitt
WINNER: Kimberly Akimbo
Music: Jeanine Tesori Lyrics: David Lindsay-Abaire
KPOP
Music & Lyrics: Helen Park & Max Vernon
Shucked
Music and Lyrics: Brandy Clark & Shane McAnally
Some Like It Hot
Music: Marc Shaiman
Lyrics: Scott Wittman & Marc Shaiman
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog
Corey Hawkins, Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog
WINNER: Sean Hayes, Good Night, Oscar
Stephen McKinley Henderson, Between Riverside and Crazy
Wendell Pierce, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play
Jessica Chastain, A Doll’s House
WINNER: Jodie Comer, Prima Facie
Jessica Hecht, Summer, 1976
Audra McDonald, Ohio State Murders
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical
Christian Borle, Some Like It Hot
WINNER: J. Harrison Ghee, Some Like It Hot
Josh Groban, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Brian d’Arcy James, Into the Woods
Ben Platt, Parade
Colton Ryan, New York, New York
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical
Annaleigh Ashford, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Sara Bareilles, Into the Woods
WINNER: Victoria Clark, Kimberly Akimbo
Lorna Courtney, & Juliet
Micaela Diamond, Parade
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play
Jordan E. Cooper, Ain’t No Mo’
Samuel L. Jackson, August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson
Arian Moayed, A Doll’s House
WINNER: Brandon Uranowitz, Leopoldstadt
David Zayas, Cost of Living
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play
Nikki Crawford, Fat Ham
Crystal Lucas-Perry, Ain’t No Mo’
WINNER: Miriam Silverman, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window
Katy Sullivan, Cost of Living
Kara Young, Cost of Living
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical
Kevin Cahoon, Shucked
Justin Cooley, Kimberly Akimbo
Kevin Del Aguila, Some Like It Hot
Jordan Donica, Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot
WINNER: Alex Newell, Shucked
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical
Julia Lester, Into the Woods
Ruthie Ann Miles, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
WINNER: Bonnie Milligan, Kimberly Akimbo
NaTasha Yvette Williams, Some Like It Hot
Betsy Wolfe, & Juliet
Best Scenic Design of a Play
Miriam Buether, Prima Facie
WINNER: Tim Hatley & Andrzej Goulding, Life of Pi
Rachel Hauck, Good Night, Oscar
Richard Hudson, Leopoldstadt
Dane Laffrey & Lucy Mackinnon, A Christmas Carol
Best Scenic Design of a Musical
WINNER: Beowulf Boritt, New York, New York
Mimi Lien, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Michael Yeargan & 59 Productions, Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot
Scott Pask, Shucked
Scott Pask, Some Like It Hot
Best Costume Design of a Play
Tim Hatley, Nick Barnes & Finn Caldwell, Life of Pi
Dominique Fawn Hill, Fat Ham
WINNER: Brigitte Reiffenstuel, Leopoldstadt
Emilio Sosa, Ain’t No Mo’
Emilio Sosa, Good Night, Oscar
Best Costume Design of a Musical
WINNER: Gregg Barnes, Some Like It Hot
Susan Hilferty, Parade
Jennifer Moeller, Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot
Clint Ramos & Sophia Choi, KPOP
Paloma Young, & Juliet
Donna Zakowska, New York, New York
Best Lighting Design of a Play
Neil Austin, Leopoldstadt
Natasha Chivers, Prima Facie
Jon Clark, A Doll’s House
Bradley King, Fat Ham
WINNER: Tim Lutkin, Life of Pi
Jen Schriever, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Ben Stanton, A Christmas Carol
Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Ken Billington, New York, New York
Lap Chi Chu, Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot
Heather Gilbert, Parade
Howard Hudson, & Juliet
Natasha Katz, Some Like It Hot
WINNER: Natasha Katz, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Best Sound Design of a Play
Jonathan Deans & Taylor Williams, Ain’t No Mo’
WINNER: Carolyn Downing, Life of Pi
Joshua D. Reid, A Christmas Carol
Ben & Max Ringham, A Doll’s House
Ben & Max Ringham, Prima Facie
Best Sound Design of a Musical
Kai Harada, New York, New York
John Shivers, Shucked
Scott Lehrer & Alex Neumann, Into the Woods
Gareth Owen, & Juliet
WINNER: Nevin Steinberg, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Best Direction of a Play
Saheem Ali, Fat Ham
Jo Bonney, Cost of Living
Jamie Lloyd, A Doll’s House
WINNER: Patrick Marber, Leopoldstadt
Stevie Walker-Webb, Ain’t No Mo’ Max Webster, Life of Pi
Best Direction of a Musical
WINNER: Michael Arden, Parade
Lear deBessonet, Into the Woods
Casey Nicholaw, Some Like It Hot
Jack O’Brien, Shucked
Jessica Stone, Kimberly Akimbo
Best Choreography
Steven Hoggett, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
WINNER: Casey Nicholaw, Some Like It Hot
Susan Stroman, New York, New York
Jennifer Weber, & Juliet
Jennifer Weber, KPOP
Best Orchestrations
Bill Sherman and Dominic Fallacaro, & Juliet
John Clancy, Kimberly Akimbo
Jason Howland, Shucked
WINNER: Charlie Rosen & Bryan Carter, Some Like It Hot
Daryl Waters & Sam Davis, New York, New York
