Broadway’s biggest night happened in front of millions on June 8, as the 78th Annual Tony Awards aired on CBS.
Queer icon/multihyphenate Cynthia Erivo hosted—even singing off honorees whose acceptance speeches ran a little long—and started with a number poking fun at all the TV and film folks in Broadway shows this season as well as LGBTQ+ Jonathan Groff’s projectile spittle reputation, according to TheWrap.
And that was just the tip of the iceberg regarding the queerness of this year’s ceremony, which has been called the “gay Super Bowl.” Pulitzer Prize winner Purpose won Best Play, despite many thinking Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary! might have the edge. But regarding Escola, they made history anyway by becoming the first-ever non-binary winner for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for that production. Also, gay director/actor Michael Arden won his second Tony in three years for Best Direction of a Musical for helming Maybe Happy Ending, which led all productions with six Tony wins (including one for actor Darren Criss).
Black openly gay costume designer Paul Tazewell won for costuming Death Becomes Her—making him the first person in history to win an Oscar (for Wicked) and a Tony in the same year for costume design.
British actor Jak Malone celebrated trans rights in his speech, winning Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical for Operation Mincemeat, PinkNews noted. Malone—an Olivier Award winner who plays a woman named Hester Leggatt in the production—said, in part, “If you watched our show and found yourself believing in Hester, then I am so glad to tell you, intentionally or otherwise, you might have just bid farewell to cynicism, to outdated ideas, to that rotten old binary and opened yourself up to a world that is out there in glorious technicolor and isn’t going away anytime soon.”
In addition, Harvey Fierstein was honored with the 2025 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.
Regarding Purpose—which is a Steppenwolf production written by Black queer playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins—Windy City Times received a press release quoting Steppenwolf Artistic Director and Purpose cast member Glenn Davis’ acceptance speech. Davis said, in part, “Thank you to our brilliant director Ms. Phylicia Rashad, the Queen, for her iconic leadership and vision. And, finally, thank you to our extraordinary playwright, the genius that is Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Branden, you created this play with us, and for us—you are a creative genius, a friend, I love you, thank you, one of the great voices of our generation.”
Purpose also won in the category of Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play, which was earned by Kara Young. It was the second consecutive year Young won the award in the same category; in doing so, she became the first Black actress to achieve that feat.
As for other categories, the showdown between Nicole Scherzinger (Sunset Blvd.) and Audra McDonald (Gypsy) in the category of Best Actress in a Musical went the way of The Masked Singer judge and former Pussycat Doll, denying McDonald a seventh Tony for acting, which would have extended her own current record. Sarah Snook (who won an Emmy for her role on the HBO drama Succession) snagged the award for Leading Actress in a Play (as expected) for her multi-character take in The Picture of Dorian Gray.
The full list of Tony winners is here.