Tony Awards 2023: The 5 biggest talking points
Ariana DeBose hosted night, which saw big wins for non-binary representation and British shows
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Broadway’s biggest night took place on Sunday (11 June), as the 2023 Tony Awards celebrated the best of New York theatre.
The annual ceremony has recognised the biggest achievements in Broadway theatre since 1947.
This year’s Tony Awards took place at New York’s United Palace, led by Oscar-winning performer Ariana DeBose.
The new musical Some Like It Hot, based on the 1959 feature film of the same name, led the pack with 13 nominations. In the plays category, Ain’t No Mo’, A Doll’s House, and Leopoldstadt were the most nominated, with six nods apiece.
The two biggest awards on the night went to Leopoldstadt for Best New Play, while Kimberly Akimbo was named Best New Musical.
Throughout the night, the audience enjoyed performances from the Tony-nominated casts of Camelot, Into the Woods, & Juliet, Kimberly Akimbo, New York, New York, Parade, Shucked, Some Like It Hot and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Lea Michele also returned to perform with the cast of Funny Girl.
You can read the full list of winners here.
Brit shows win big
Three years after it first opened in London’s West End, Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt took home one of the night’s biggest awards for Best New Play.
The epic production also won for Best Director of a Play for Patrick Marber, Best Featured Actor in a Play for Brandon Uranowitz, and Best Costume Design of a Play for Brigitte Reiffenstuel.
Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie, which also began life in London, took home one of its four nominations, while the Broadway production of Life of Pi won in three design categories.
Ariana DeBose goes off script
Host Ariana DeBose may not have achieved a moment quite as viral as her Bafta rap and “Angela Bassett did the thing”, the actor still made a statement as she opened Sunday’s show.
With the Tony Awards impacted by the ongoing writers’ strike in the US, the West Side Story star opened the show from inside her dressing room, holding a binder labelled “script” filled with blank pages.
In her following speech, DeBose explained that there was a “good reason” for the blank script, saying: “Our siblings over at the WGA [Writers Guild of America] are currently on strike in pursuit of a fair deal – and how many of us know what that is?”
While striking members of the Writers Guild of America agreed not to picket the awards show, its writers were not permitted to work on the broadcast as part of the strike.
Jodie Comer declares Prima Facie role her “greatest honour”
Just days after she was forced to bring a Broadway performance to an end due to poor air quality in New York, Brit actor Jodie Comer took home her first Tony.
The Killing Eve star received the award for her role in one-woman sexual assault drama Prima Facie, beating fierce competition from Jessica Chastain, Audra McDonald and Jessica Hecht.
Speaking to the crowd about her Broadway debut, Comer said: “This has been my greatest honour, and it continues to be these three weeks left.”
The actor, who hails from Liverpool, also won the Best Actress in a Play award at the Oliviers earlier this year for the London production.
You can read The Independent’s review of Prima Facie here.
Lea Michele gets her Funny Girl flowers
Thirteen years after Lea Michele first performed “Don’t Rain on My Parade” at the Tony Awards as part of the Glee cast, the actor returned to the stage.
This time, however, she was there in the role of Funny Girl’s Fanny Brice, after taking over the role from Beanie Feldstein in the Broadway production this year.
While Michele wasn’t eligible in this year’s Tonys – the show debuted on Broadway last year, when it picked up just one nomination – she performed once again at the 2023 ceremony, in a moment seen as symbolic for the actor.
Non-binary actors make history
It was a historic night for the LGBT+ community, as both Alex Newell and J Harrison Ghee became the first openly non-binary actors to win Tony Awards.
Newell, who appears in the Broadway musical Shucked, took home the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical.
In their speech, Newell told the audience: “Thank you for seeing me, Broadway. I should not be up here as a queer non-binary, fat, Black lil baby from Massachusetts.”
Ghee, meanwhile, won the gong for Best Lead Actor in a Musical for their portrayal of a gender-questioning musician in Some Like It Hot.
“For every trans, non-binary, gender nonconforming human who was ever told you couldn’t be seen, this is for you,” they said in their acceptance speech.
WATCH: Tony Awards 2022: Prince and Paris Jackson pay tribute to their late father
MJ: The Musical, a show about the life and career of Michael Jackson, received 10 nominations at last year’s ceremony.
In the end, it won four: Best Lead Actor in a Musical (Myles Frost), Best Lighting Design of a Musical, Best Sound Design of a Musical and Best Choreography.
Watch the moment Prince and Paris Jackson paid tribute to their late father at the awards in 2022 below:
What shows have received the most nominations at the Tonys?
In the play category, the production with the most nominations is Jeremy O Harris’ Slave Play, which received 12 in 2020. The provocative show also holds the record of the play with the most losses, as it ended up winning none.
For musicals, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton received 16 nominations in 2016 and won 11, the highest number for an individual show that year.
15 minutes to go...
Hello folks and thank you for joining us tonight for our live coverage of the Tony Awards! Some big names including plenty of British exports are up for the top gongs tonight, such as Killing Eve star Jodie Comer and the plays Prima Facie, Leopoldstadt and & Juliet.
Stay tuned...
Lots of interest in Lupita Nyong’o’s outfit...
Black Panther star Lupita Nyong’o has many people talking about her daring red carpet outfit for the Tony Awards.
The Kenyan-Mexican actor, 40, was pictured wearing a silver breastplate that was actually modeled on her own body.
On Instagram, Nyong’o explained how the bold piece came to be.
“Misha Japanwala is a Pakistani artist and fashion designer, whose work is rooted in the rejection and deconstruction of external shame attached to one’s body. In her artistic process, she creates a realistic and true record of a person’s body as an act of resistance and celebration, and an insistence on being allowed to exist freely in our bodies,” Nyong’o wrote, adding that she was “honoured” and “humbled” to wear the piece for the award show.
Lots of chat about the writer’s strike early on
The Tony Awards very nearly didn’t happen tonight due to the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike that has crippled America’s entertainment industry.
As a result, the Tony Awards this year are unscripted – something that presenter Ariana DeBose immediately poked fun at in her opening segment.
Follow along with the rolling list of winners here
The televised ceremony has just gotten started but a slew of trophies have already been awarded.
Many production awards, such as Best Original Score and Best Choreography, were announced in a pre-awards show ceremony.
Follow along here live as we update you with all the winners from tonight’s show.
Brandon Uranowitz wins Best Featured Actor in a Play
“My imposter syndrome is on fire,” Brandon Uranowitz tells the Tony Awards crowd as he wins for his role in Leopoldstadt.
The Sir Tom Stoppard play debuted in London’s West End in 2020. It follows “a prosperous Jewish family who had fled the pogroms in the East”.
In a moment of undiluted LGBT+ pride, Uranowitz tells the audience: “When a child tells you who they are, believe them!”
Bonnie Milligan wins Best Featured Actress in a Musical
An emotional Bonnie Milligan wins Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her role as Aunt Debra in Kimberly Akimbo, which is based on Lindsay-Abaire’s 2001 comedy of the same name.
“I want to tell everybody that maybe doesn’t look like what the world tells you you should look like: that doesn’t matter, because guess what, it’s right. You belong somewhere,” she says in her acceptance speech.
ICYMI: Anna Uzele performs ‘New York, New York'
Uzele got one hell of a reception for this rendition of “New York, New York”. Check it out here:
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