Tonight was the 78th Annual Tony Awards, and all the stars came out to help celebrate Broadway’s big night.
This year’s awards were hosted by Cynthia Erivo, best known to younger fans for her role as Elphaba in the Wicked movie, though seasoned theater goers know she is a Tony winner herself thanks to her memorable work in The Color Purple. Speaking of which, Oprah Winfrey showed up tonight as a presenter, along with other luminaries including Charli D’Amelio, Bryan Cranston, Samuel L. Jackson, Adam Lambert, and Keanu Reeves. Additionally, the broadcast featured performances from 11 of this season’s Broadway musicals, including Buena Vista Social Club, Gypsy, Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical, Pirates! The Penzance Musical, Sunset Boulevard, and Real Women Have Curves. Not to mention a very special reunion of the original cast of Hamilton, including the show’s creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, to mark its 10th anniversary.
This was a packed season on the Great White Way, with 21 plays and 21 musicals eligible for awards in 26 competitive categories. The most-nominated shows were the musicals Buena Vista Social Club, based on the lives of the Cuban musicians who recorded the popular 1997 album, Death Becomes Her based on the 1992 Robert Zemeckis film, and an original creation, Maybe Happy Ending. They each have 10 nominations. Maybe Happy Ending had a happy ending indeed, going home with the final prize of the night for Best Musical.
While the competition was fierce this year—two of the shows up for Play of the Year had already won the Pulitzer Prize: Purpose by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and English by Sanaz Toossi—some awards were announced in the run-up to the ceremony. The on-stage band from Buena Vista Social Club earned an award and Stranger Things: The First Shadow took home a special effects prize. Four-time Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein received a special award for lifetime achievement in the theater and Celia Keenan-Bolger won the Isabelle…
