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.
Patrick Marber wins Best Directing of a Play for ‘Leopoldstadt'
ICYMI: How Ariana DeBose opened the Tony Awards
Presenter Ariana DeBose made a show-stopping entrance by leading an intricate dance number to open the show.
She also made fun of the fact that this year’s show was entirely unscripted due to the ongoing Hollywood writer’s strike.
Read all about it here:
‘I am unscripted – buckle up’: Ariana DeBose opens Tony Awards with passionate speech
Actor explained how the writers’ strikes affects tonight’s awards show
Michael Arden wins Best Direction of a Musical
Parade director Michael Arden had an impassioned speech about the LGBT+ community when collecting his award for Best Direction of a Musical.
He told the audience: “When I was a kid, I was called the F word more times than I can remember. Well, now I’m a f***** with a Tony!”
‘Please welcome whoever walks on stage next'
A nice little moment of unscripted-ness there. DeBose can’t read the writing scrawled on her arm so asks the audience to “please welcome whoever walks on stage next”.
Miriam Silverman wins Best Featured Actress in a Play
Miriam Silverman wins her role in The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window. She used her time onstage to deliver a message in solidarity with the striking WGA members.
“Lorraine Hansberry was a visionary and a genius, and it is a divine, divine honor to speak her words every night,” she added of the late playwright.
Suzan Lori-Parks’ ‘Topdog/Underdog’ wins Best Revival of a Play
20 years after its initial debut, Topdog/Underdog was revived on Broadway, directed by Kenny Leon and starring Corey Hawkins and Candyman star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.
The play tells the story of Lincoln and Booth, “two brothers whose names, given to them as a joke, foretell a lifetime of sibling rivalry and resentment”.
Alex Newell wins Best Featured Actor in a Musical
Alex Newell – one of the first openly non-binary performers to be nominated at the Tony Awards – wins for their role as Lulu in Shucked.
‘Hamilton’ star makes KKK joke about Ron DeSantis
Hamilton star Denée Benton just called Governor Ron DeSantis “the current Grand Wizard of Florida”.
The Grand Wizard was, of course, the national leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
Wow, that is punchy! The Tony Awards crowd loves it though.
‘Parade’ wins Best Revival of a Musical
Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond previously performed ‘This Is Not Over Yet’ from the musical.
J Harrison Ghee wins Best Lead Actor in a Musical
Just moments after Alex Newell became the first non-binary actor to win a Tony, we have another! J Harrison Ghee wins for their role in Some Like it Hot.
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