Leopoldstadt and Kimberly Akimbo won big at this year’s history-making Tony awards, with the writers strike affecting the format and content of the ceremony.
Tom Stoppard’s sprawling family drama Leopoldstadt was named best play, winning against Cost of Living and Fat Ham. Producer Sonia Friedman called it Stoppard’s “most personal masterwork”, and Stoppard said that throughout his career he has noticed “the theatre writer getting increasingly devalued in the food chain”.
The play’s director, Patrick Marber, also won. “I feel a little self-conscious up here,” the writer-director said, going on to call Stoppard his “beloved friend and still my hero”. Brandon Uranowitz was named best featured actor in a play for his role. “My impostor syndrome is on fire,” he said, thanking Stoppard for a play that tackled anti-Semitism, among other key issues.
Leopoldstadt won two Olivier awards when it originally premiered in the West End.
History was made with two actors becoming the first ever non-binary winners of acting Tonys. J Harrison Ghee was named best actor in a leading role in a musical for Some Like It Hot, paying tribute to their mother for telling them to use their talent “to be effective in the world, to help someone else’s journey”.
Alex Newell won best featured actor in a musical for their role in Shucked. “I have wanted this my entire life,” they said, before adding: “I should not be up here, as a queer non-binary fat Black little baby from Massachusetts.”
Jodie Comer followed her Olivier award win, by picking up the Tony for best actress in a leading role in a play for one-woman show Prima Facie. She plays a barrister dealing with sexual assault, a character she referred to as her “greatest teacher” in an emotive speech. She also spoke “to every person who feels represented by Tessa”. Comer won in a competitive category that included Jessica Chastain and Audra McDonald.
Earlier this week, Comer stopped a performance of the show as a result of New York City’s unhealthy air crisis. The actor said she couldn’t breathe, and was replaced by her understudy.
This year’s ceremony was almost cancelled as a result of the writers strike, but an agreement on 15 May meant that the night would not be picketed as long as it was unscripted.
Reports suggested that a script had already been written before the strike began, but after host Ariana DeBose opened the event with a wordless musical number, she explained that there wouldn’t be a script for the night. Tele-prompters would only show a countdown for speeches that were overrunning.
“I think it’s time for Broadway to speak for herself,” DeBose said, keying up one of the night’s many musical performances. Later she made reference to her controversial Bafta rap by saying “Alex and J did the thing”, paying tribute to the two non-binary winners.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Writers Guild of America still asked nominated members not to attend. Lin-Manuel Miranda had been recruited to write a song for the evening but stopped writing as a result of the strike.
Kimberly Akimbo, about a teenage girl with a condition that causes her to age rapidly, was named best musical, with its star Victoria Clark named best lead actress. “We are nothing without our writers,” Clark said, in reference to the strike. Pulitzer prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire won for best book of a musical. “Tomorrow we’re going to be on the picket lines,” he said in his speech, adding, “we just want to be treated fairly”. Bonnie Milligan was also named best featured actress in a musical for the show.
Suzan-Lori Parks won best revival of a play for her Pulitzer prize-winning drama Topdog/Underdog. “Look at what the spirit can do,” she said in her speech. “This means a whole lot to a whole lot of people.” She went on to call theatre “the great cure”. The play originated in 2001 and was nominated for best play in 2002.
Sean Hayes was named best actor in a leading role for a play for Good Night, Oscar, winning in a tough category against Corey Hawkins and Wendell Pierce.
Parade, which tells the true story of the lynching of a falsely accused Jewish man in 1913, won for best revival of a musical. In 1998, Parade picked up two Tony awards for its first Broadway run.
Michael Arden also won for best direction of a musical for Parade. “We must come together, we must battle this; it’s so, so important, or we are doomed to repeat the horrors of our history,” he said, of the play’s continued relevance among ongoing bigotries. He recalled being targeted as a gay youth before calling himself “a faggot with a Tony”, a moment that was bleeped out by CBS.
Miriam Silverman won best featured actress in a play, for The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window. She also showed support for the WGA, saying “my parents raised me to believe in the power of labor”.
For the first time, the event was held at the United Palace, a former Washington Heights cinema in New York City.
