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      Tony Awards 2023: The Best and Worst Moments

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      With a clever opening number and repeated support for striking writers, the Tonys celebrated Broadway’s shows, performers and creative teams.“I’m live and unscripted,” Ariana DeBose, the host of this year’s Tony Awards, said at the start of Sunday night’s show. An out-of-breath DeBose had just danced her way around the majestic United Palace theater, joined by dancers and musicians in a wordless opening number that began with her backstage, paging through a binder labeled “Script” filled with blank pages, and then gradually making her way onto the stage. It was a thrilling start to a night that almost didn’t happen because of the ongoing screenwriters’ strike. We didn’t get the scripted banter, but we did get a ceremony that looked great and delighted in working around some of the limits posed by the strike. Here are the highs and lows as our writers saw them. NICOLE HERRINGTONA real feeling of communityThe medieval residents of “Camelot” during a production number on Sunday.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesPrevious Tonys telecasts have often wasted their “bumpers” — the gaps between the end of a big performance or award and the commercials that follow — with unconvincing scripted nonsense. Guess what? No script, no nonsense. At this year’s ceremony, a camera merely scanned the collision backstage between those who had just finished belting their butts off (like the medieval residents of “Camelot”) and those about to go into battle (like the Elizabethans of “& Juliet”). You could see at a glance the love among performers in different shows, whom we often think of as opposing football teams. With hugs, high fives, hooting and sometimes mime — have to be careful with those vocal cords, after all — they demonstrated in visual shorthand that the “community” Broadway people are always talking about is real. JESSE GREENA win-win for nonbinary performersAlex Newell accepting the Tony Award for featured actor in a musical, “Shucked.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesJ. Harrison Ghee accepting the Tony Award for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical, “Some Like It Hot.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesPerhaps the only thing comparable to the absolute delight that is Alex Newell’s performance in “Shucked,” brimming with spicy line reads and downright blazing vocals, is Newell’s Tony win for best featured actor in a musical. The award was presented by Tatiana Maslany and Wilson Cruz, who shouted out the L.G.B.T.Q. community for Pride Month. That was fitting for a win by, in Newell’s words, a “queer, nonbinary, fat little baby from Massachusetts.” The night got even better when J. Harrison Ghee of “Some Like It Hot” won for best leading actor in a musical. Newell and Ghee are the first openly nonbinary performers to win acting Tonys. In an industry that has been so historically defined and bolstered by queer artists, and for an awards show that lacks a way of honoring people who don’t fit into one of the two prescribed gender categories, it’s heartening to see these stunning performers make history. MAYA PHILLIPSBeaten by a pianoSean Hayes won his first Tony for portraying the witty but troubled pianist Oscar Levant in “Good Night, Oscar.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesNo disrespect to Sean Hayes, who won the Tony for best performance by an actor in a play. And I guess he did give the best piano performance, pounding out parts of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” at the climax of “Good Night, Oscar.” But I have to say that Corey Hawkins in “Topdog/Underdog” was at least as thrilling even without a Steinway, and Stephen McKinley Henderson, in “Between Riverside and Crazy,” was unforgettable. His portrayal of a cranky, crafty former police officer with a great apartment and a wicked secret was one for the ages. It’s a shame that after decades of service in small, priceless, often unheralded character roles, he got the chance to own the whole stage, only to be skunked by a little Gershwin. JESSE GREENA win for inclusivity“You belong somewhere,” said Bonnie Milligan, who plays a grifter in “Kimberly Akimbo” and won the Tony for best featured actress in a musical.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesBonnie Milligan, who is known for her belting and wide vocal range, took home her first Tony Award on Sunday night and used her acceptance speech to decry size discrimination and other types of bias in the theater industry. “I want to tell everybody that doesn’t maybe look like what the world is telling you you should look like, whether you’re not pretty enough, you’re not fit enough, your identity is not right, who you love isn’t right — that doesn’t matter, because guess what?” she said. “It’s right, and you belong somewhere.” SARAH BAHRMusical numbers that really sangThe cast and musicians of “New York, New York” performing the show’s title song.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesMost years, the live performances at the Tony Awards simply aren’t the highlights that they ought to be. In past ceremonies, the performance capture has suffered from wonky camera placement and nonsensical moves between close-ups and wide shots. This year, the musical numbers were pure confection, ferociously sung (Jordan Donica!) and elegantly and judiciously filmed. In a few cases — “New York, New York,” significantly — the numbers looked even more seductive and sumptuous onscreen than they had onstage. ALEXIS SOLOSKIKander and Grey deserved betterThe composer John Kander was honored with a Tony for Lifetime Achievement. He has written the score for 16 Broadway musicals, from “A Family Affair” in 1962 to “New York, New York,” which opened in April.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesThe composer John Kander is a titan of the musical theater and he deservedly received a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater. Yet that was part of a preshow that streamed on the streaming service Pluto TV, not the main telecast on CBS. Kander’s big moment should have been part of the main event, especially since he rose to the occasion with a lovely speech that started with a nod to his parents, who urged him to “consider the possibility of happiness.” Making matters worse, he and Joel Grey, who had also received his Lifetime Achievement award during that earlier segment, were brought out for a brief appearance in prime time that felt almost random. ELISABETH VINCENTELLIBest balance of stylesBeowulf Boritt accepting the Tony Award for best scenic design of a musical, for “New York, New York.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesTony voters struck a perfect equilibrium with the awards for scenic design. Beowulf Boritt won for the musical “New York, New York,” a big, buoyant throwback of a show whose aesthetic is decidedly classic Broadway.“There’s no video wall in ‘New York, New York,’” he assured the audience, which sounded glad to hear it. “It is good, old-fashioned paint on canvas.”But the very next award, for scenic design of a play, went to the set designer Tim Hatley and the video designer Andrzej Goulding for “Life of Pi,” which casts its surreal spell with an intricate, near-magical overlay of video on a clever physical set.Recognizing such different kinds of excellence, the Tonys gracefully embraced both tradition and tradition-breaking. LAURA COLLINS-HUGHESSmall is beautifulVictoria Clark and Justin Cooley sang “Anagram” from “Kimberly Akimbo” at the Tonys.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesConventional wisdom holds that you need to go big when presenting a number at the Tonys. But the excerpt from “Kimberly Akimbo” was “Anagram,” a quiet song led by Victoria Clark that highlights not just the score’s melodic, aching grace, but the way Clark subtly acts out her character’s emotions. This strategy echoed the decision to have Sydney Lucas’s “Ring of Keys” represent “Fun Home” (another show scored by Jeanine Tesori) at the 2015 Tonys. That daring approach was widely seen as paying off at the time, charming telecast viewers into discovering the show. I can only hope the same will happen for “Kimberly Akimbo.” ELISABETH VINCENTELLIThe close-ups that weren’tThe director Patrick Marber, wearing a pro-union badge, accepting the Tony Award for best direction of a play, “Leopoldstadt.”Sara Krulwich/The New York Times“I hate to complain,” Patrick Marber said with a charming hint of mischief, accepting the Tony for best direction of a play: “Leopoldstadt” by Tom Stoppard.“But did you notice how, when the actors’ names were mentioned for their prizes,” Marber asked, “the camera went to them, and they smiled, and they said ‘Hello, Mum,’ and they got a little private moment of glory? Not so the directors! No one wants to see our ugly faces — not even the director of this show.”It was the right call, he conceded good-humoredly; directors “belong in the dark, we belong backstage.”What a missed opportunity, though, and not only because aficionados want to know what directors look like so they can spot them at the theater. The actor Lupita Nyong’o, who presented the award, wore a beautiful, curling design traced on her bare scalp — which would have made a perfect visual complement to the tattooed head of the director Jamie Lloyd, nominated for “A Doll’s House.” LAURA COLLINS-HUGHESBroadway came to slayThe playwright Suzan-Lori Parks and her husband, Christian Konopka, before the ceremony.Angela Weiss/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesMyles Frost won his first Tony Award last year for his Broadway debut as Michael Jackson in the musical “MJ.”Evan Agostini/Invision, via Associated PressThe carpet was fuchsia this year, and the backdrop had the feel of lush foliage. Then came the Broadway stars, parading a sea of pinks, blues and golds. Pink it was for the “Topdog/Underdog” playwright Suzan-Lori Parks and last year’s best actor in a musical winner, Myles Frost, who made his shirtless look work. The comedian and writer Amber Ruffin, who co-wrote the book for “Some Like It Hot,” and the “Kimberly Akimbo” best actress winner, Victoria Clark, opted for strapless gowns in shades of blue, as did the “Some Like It Hot” Tony-winner J. Harrison Ghee, who looked radiant with a dramatic collar, long gloves and a neck bedazzled in necklaces. MADISON MALONE KIRCHER and MINJU PAKIs that a punchline in your pocket?Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, riffing as they presented an award at the Tonys.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesNo one turns to the Tonys for scripted banter. The lack of comebacks and skits, a necessary sacrifice to the writers’ strike, meant that the ceremony — impossibly — ended on time. But while a skilled improviser like the “Freestyle Love Supreme” alum Utkarsh Ambudkar could easily ad-lib a laugh line (he introduced himself as Marcia Gay Harden), other presenters floundered when invited to supply their own material. Even a gifted clown like Nathan Lane struggled, first with an “is it hot in here” riff and then with a groaner comparing the United Palace, a former “Wonder Theater” movie palace, to “Beyoncé’s screening room.” ALEXIS SOLOSKI More

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      Lea Michele Performs ‘Don’t Rain on My Parade’ at the Tony Awards

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      Lea Michele, the former “Glee” star whose debut in “Funny Girl” turned the show’s fortunes around, performed “Don’t Rain on My Parade” at Sunday’s ceremony, despite the revival not being Tony eligible.Don’t tell her not to sing — she’s simply got to.This revival of “Funny Girl” — Broadway’s first since Barbra Streisand originated the role in 1964 — was eligible at the Tony Awards last year, when the actress Beanie Feldstein was its lead. The show was only nominated for one award (for Jared Grimes’s role as a tap-dancing sidekick), and attendance trended downward in the weeks after the ceremony, until Michele entered the cast, bolstering the show’s revenues.The role was a career milestone for the actress, who had not been part of a Broadway company since she left “Spring Awakening” in 2008. It was also her first major role since a wave of criticism from former colleagues who publicly accused her of bullying behavior, which she responded to with an apologetic statement vowing to do better.When she stepped into the role last fall, Michele insisted that ineligibility at the Tonys was not a concern of hers, saying, “It’s just about being able to play this part.”It’s not the first time Michele, a well-known Streisand fan, has performed “Don’t Rain on My Parade” at the Tony Awards. She did so at the 2010 ceremony, shortly after performing it in character on “Glee.”The rules that have limited the Tonys telecast amid the writers’s strike have given the ceremony more room to feature performances from shows that are not eligible for awards. Despite not receiving any nominations, “A Beautiful Noise,” the Neil Diamond musical, also performed a singalong to “Sweet Caroline.” More

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      Sean Hayes Wins Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for ‘Good Night, Oscar’

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      Sean Hayes, who portrays the witty but troubled pianist Oscar Levant in “Good Night, Oscar,” won the Tony for best lead actor in play.Best known for his long-running role as Jack McFarland in the television series “Will & Grace,” Hayes received critical praise for his drastic transformation in this stage production, adopting the hunched posture, irritable scowl and anxious twitching of Levant, who channeled his neuroticism into crowd-pleasing radio and television banter.Hayes, 52, has also brought one of his lesser known talents to the stage for this performance: classical piano, which he started studying at age 5.Telling the story of one night in 1958 when Levant finagled his way out of psychiatric hospital to be interviewed on Jack Paar’s “Tonight Show,” the play focuses on the pianist’s idiosyncrasies, compulsions and struggles with opioid addiction as surrounding characters try desperately to manage him.This is Hayes’s first Tony Award. He was previously nominated for his Broadway debut in the 2010 revival of “Promises, Promises,” a musical adaptation of the Billy Wilder film “The Apartment.”“I’d like to acknowledge Oscar Levant, whose wit and irascibility and virtuosity is not only inspirational but a true original,” Hayes said in his acceptance speech. “Thank you, Oscar Levant, wherever you are.”The actor won against the two leads of “Topdog/Underdog,” Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Corey Hawkins; Stephen McKinley Henderson from “Between Riverside and Crazy”; and Wendell Pierce from “Death of a Salesman.” More

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      At Tony Awards, ‘Kimberly Akimbo’ Wins Best Musical and ‘Leopoldstadt’ Best Play

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      “Kimberly Akimbo,” a small-scale, big-hearted show about a teenage girl coping with a life-shortening genetic condition and a comically dysfunctional family, won the coveted Tony Award for best musical Sunday night.The award came at the close of an unusual Tony Awards ceremony that almost didn’t happen because of the ongoing screenwriters’ strike. Only an intervention by a group of playwrights who also work in film and television saved the show: they persuaded the Writers Guild of America that it would be a mistake to make the struggling theater industry collateral damage in a Hollywood-centered dispute, and in the end the telecast aired without pickets, without scripted banter and without a hitch.“I’m live and unscripted,” the ceremony’s returning host, Ariana DeBose said at the start of the show, after an opening number that began with her backstage, paging through a binder labeled “Script” filled with blank pages, and then dancing wordlessly through the theater and onto the stage. She then pointed out the absence of teleprompters, offered her support for the strikers’ cause, and declared, “To anyone who thought last year was a bit unhinged, to them I say, ‘Darlings, buckle up!’”Ariana DeBose, center, hosted the awards show without a script, relying largely on movement.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesAt one point, she looked at words scrawled on her forearm, and said, “I don’t know what these notes stand for, so please welcome whoever walks out onstage next.”The basic elements of the awards show — acceptance speeches by prize winners and songs performed by the casts of Broadway musicals — remained more or less intact. But the introductions to the shows and performances were mostly sleekly shot videos, rather than descriptions by celebrities; presenters kept their comments extremely spare, which left more time for unusually well-filmed production numbers.The ceremony featured a pair of milestone wins: J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell became the first out nonbinary performers to win Tony Awards in acting categories, Ghee as a musician on the lam in “Some Like It Hot,” and Newell as a whiskey distiller in the musical comedy “Shucked.” “For every trans, nonbinary, gender nonconforming human, whoever was told you couldn’t be, you couldn’t be seen, this is for you,” said Ghee. Newell expressed a similar sentiment, saying, “Thank you for seeing me, Broadway.”“Theater is the great cure,” said Suzan-Lori Parks, whose “Topdog/Underdog” won the Tony for best play revival.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesLast fall’s production of “Topdog/Underdog,” Suzan-Lori Parks’s 2001 tour de force about two Black brothers weighted down by history and circumstance, won the Tony Award for best play revival. The play had won a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 but no Tony Awards; Parks, in accepting this year’s Tony, praised actors Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Corey Hawkins for “living large in a world that often does not want the likes of us living at all” and added, “Theater is the great cure.”There was star power, too. Jodie Comer, best known for playing an assassin on television’s “Killing Eve,” won the best actress in a play award for her first stage role, a grueling, tour-de-force performance as a defense attorney who becomes a victim of sexual assault in “Prima Facie.” And Sean Hayes, best known for “Will and Grace,” won for playing the depressive raconteur-pianist Oscar Levant in “Good Night, Oscar.”The night served as a reminder of the growing concern about antisemitism in America and around the world, as “Leopoldstadt,” Tom Stoppard’s wrenching drama following a family of Viennese Jews through the first half of the 20th century, won the prize for best play, and a new production of “Parade,” a 1998 show based on the early 20th-century lynching of a Jewish businessman in Georgia, won the prize for best musical revival.Sonia Friedman and Tom Stoppard accepted the Tony for best play for “Leopoldstadt,” which also won several other awards on Sunday.Sara Krulwich/The New York Times“Leopoldstadt,” which bested three Pulitzer-winning dramas to win the Tony, also won several other prizes Sunday night, including for its director, Patrick Marber, and for Brandon Uranowitz, who won as best featured actor in a play, and who noted the personal nature of the production for its predominantly Jewish cast in his speech, saying “my ancestors, many of whom did not make it out of Poland, also thank you.”The win by “Parade” cemented a remarkable rebirth for that show, which was not successful when it first opened on Broadway in 1998, but which is shaping up to be a hit this time, thanks to strong word-of-mouth and the popularity of its leading man, Ben Platt. The success of “Parade” is also a significant milestone for the musical’s composer, Jason Robert Brown, who is widely admired within the theater community but whose Broadway productions have struggled commercially. Brown wrote the music and lyrics for “Parade,” and the book is by Alfred Uhry; both men won Tonys for their work on the show in 1999.Michael Arden, who won a Tony for directing the “Parade” revival, said in his acceptance speech, “we must come together,” adding, “or else we are doomed to repeat the horrors of our history.” Arden went on to recall how he had been called a homophobic slur — “the F-word,” many times as a child, and he drew raucous cheers as he reclaimed the slur. “Keep raising your voices,” he said.Michael Arden, who directed the Tony-winning revival of “Parade,” drew cheers when he reclaimed a homophobic slur in his acceptance speech.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesBut the night belonged to “Kimberly Akimbo,” the smallest, and lowest-grossing, of the five nominees in the best musical category, but also by far the best reviewed, with virtually unanimous acclaim from critics. (Nodding to the show’s anagram-loving subplot, the New York Times critic Jesse Green presciently suggested one of his own last fall: “sublime cast = best musical.”)The show, set in 1999 in Bergen County, New Jersey, stars the 63-year-old Victoria Clark as Kimberly, a 15-going-on-16-year-old girl who has a rare condition that makes her age prematurely. Kimberly’s home life is a mess — dad’s a drunk, mom’s a hypochondriac, and aunt is a gleeful grifter — and her school life is complicated by her medical condition, but she learns to find joy where she can. Clark won a Tony for her performance as Kimberly, and Bonnie Milligan won a Tony for her performance as the aunt.“Kimberly Akimbo,” which was directed by Jessica Stone, began its life with an Off Broadway production at the nonprofit Atlantic Theater Company in the fall of 2021 and opened at the Booth Theater in November. It was written by the playwright David Lindsay-Abaire and the composer Jeanine Tesori, based on a play Lindsay-Abaire had written in 2003. Lindsay-Abaire and Tesori both won Tony Awards for their work Sunday night.The musical, with just nine characters, was capitalized for up to $7 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission; that’s a low budget for a musical on Broadway these days, when a growing number of shows are costing more than $20 million to stage. The lead producer is David Stone, who, as a lead producer of “Wicked,” is one of Broadway’s most successful figures; this is the first time he has won a Tony Award for best musical, and he was also the lead producer of the Tony-winning “Topdog” revival.The award for best musical is considered the most economically beneficial Tony, generally leading to a boost in ticket sales. In winning the prize, “Kimberly Akimbo” beat out four other nominated shows: “& Juliet,” “New York, New York,” “Shucked” and “Some Like It Hot.” None of the five nominated musicals is a runaway hit, and four, including “Kimberly Akimbo,” have been losing money most weeks.The ceremony featured performances from all nine nominated new musicals and musical revivals, as well as a performance of “Don’t Rain on My Parade” by Lea Michele from “Funny Girl.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesThe 2022-23 season, which ended last month, was a tough one for new musicals: Broadway audiences were still down about 17 percent below prepandemic levels, and those who did buy tickets gravitated toward established titles (like “The Phantom of the Opera,” which sold strongly in the final months of its 35-year-run) and big stars (especially Hugh Jackman in “The Music Man,” Sara Bareilles in “Into the Woods,” Lea Michele in “Funny Girl” and Josh Groban in “Sweeney Todd”). So this year’s Tonys ceremony took on even more importance than usual, with the industry’s leaders hoping that a nationally televised spotlight on theater would boost box office sales.The ceremony featured not only musical performances by all nine nominated new musicals and musical revivals, but also a barn-burning performance of “Don’t Rain on My Parade” by Michele, a “Sweet Caroline” singalong led by the cast of the Neil Diamond musical “A Beautiful Noise,” and, as part of the In Memoriam segment, a song from “The Phantom of the Opera” sung by Joaquina Kalukango to acknowledge the show’s closing in April .The Tonys, presented by the Broadway League and the American Theater Wing and named for Antoinette Perry, gave lifetime achievement awards to two beloved nonagenarians: the actor Joel Grey, 91, who remains best known for playing the master of ceremonies in both the Broadway and film versions of “Cabaret,” and the composer John Kander, 96, who wrote music for “Cabaret” as well as “Chicago” and “New York, New York.” “I’m grateful for music,” Kander said after being introduced by Lin-Manuel Miranda as “the kindest man in show business.” Grey was introduced by his daughter, the actress Jennifer Grey; he sang a few words from the opening number of “Cabaret.”“Oh my God, I love the applause,” he said, to a round of applause.Sarah Bahr More

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      Jodie Comer Wins Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Play for ‘Prima Facie’

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      The leading actress in a play category this year was a face-off of extremes: Jodie Comer, who delivers a physically and emotionally exhausting performance in Suzie Miller’s one-woman legal thriller “Prima Facie,” versus Jessica Chastain, who scarcely stirs from her chair during the entirety of “A Doll’s House.”In the end, it was Comer who triumphed, for her tour-de-force solo turn as a lawyer who defends men accused of sexual assault. Jesse Green, the chief theater critic for The New York Times, described it as “a performance of tremendous skill and improbable stamina.”It was a remarkable win for the 30-year-old English actress, who is best known for playing the assassin Villanelle on the television show “Killing Eve.” She not only took home her first Tony Award on her first try; she won it for her first performance on a professional stage — ever.“It kind of felt unattainable,” she told The Times in April of the prospect of doing theater.On Sunday night, Comer thanked Suzie Miller, the writer of “Prima Facie,” which won many awards in Australia and Britain. “This woman and this play has been my greatest teacher, and I have to thank Suzie Miller for that, who wrote this magnificent piece,” she said. “Without her, my performance would not be here, so this feels just as much Suzie’s as it is mine.”Comer, who previously won an Olivier Award — London’s equivalent of the Tony Awards — for playing the role in the West End, may be a newcomer to the stage, but she is no stranger to acting. In addition to “Killing Eve,” she is also known for recent roles in the action comedy “Free Guy,” the action drama “The Last Duel” and the crusading BBC film “Help.”In addition to Chastain, Comer also topped Jessica Hecht (“Summer, 1976”) and Audra McDonald (“Ohio State Murders”) — who has won more Tonys than any other performer and had been nominated for a record-tying 10th time. More

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      ‘Leopoldstadt’ and ‘Parade’ Take Tony Awards, Making Antisemitism a Theme of the Night

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      Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt” centers on an Austrian-Jewish family riven by the Holocaust.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesThe musical “Parade” tells the tragedy of Leo Frank, the Jewish pencil factory manager who was lynched by a mob in 1915.Sara Krulwich/The New York Times“Leopoldstadt” and “Parade,” two productions about the horrors of antisemitism, took major awards on Sunday, making the topic a central theme of the night.Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt,” which centers on the destructive toll of antisemitism on a family of Viennese Jews and was inspired by Stoppard’s belated reckoning with his Jewish roots, won best play. Earlier in the night, the play’s director, Patrick Marber, won for best direction of a play, and Brandon Uranowitz, one of the central actors in the ensemble cast, won a featured actor award.“Thank you Tom Stoppard for writing a play about Jewish identity and antisemitism and the false promise of assimilation with the nuances and the complexities and the contradictions that they deserve,” Uranowitz said in his acceptance speech. “My ancestors, many of whom did not make it out of Poland, also thank you.” “Parade,” a musical that tells the tragedy of Leo Frank, the Jewish pencil factory manager who was murdered by a mob in 1915, won best musical revival. Its director, Michael Arden, won the award for best direction of a musical, urging the audience to battle antisemitism, white supremacy and other forms of hate.“We must come together, we must battle this,” Arden said, “or else we are doomed to repeat the horrors of our history.” More

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      Alex Newell Becomes First Out Nonbinary Performer to Win a Tony

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      Alex Newell, a “Glee” alum who is bringing down the house nightly with a barn-burning number in “Shucked,” won the Tony Award for best featured actor in a musical Sunday night, becoming the first out nonbinary actor to win a Tony for performance.Newell, who identifies both as nonbinary and gender fluid, plays a fiercely self-reliant whiskey distiller in “Shucked,” which is a country-scored, pun-rich musical comedy about a small farming community whose corn crop begins mysteriously dying.“To my entire building and cast and crew of ‘Shucked’ — you are my rock,” Newell said, accepting the award. “I love you all. Thank you for seeing me, Broadway. I should not be up here as a queer, nonbinary, fat, Black little baby from Massachusetts. And to anyone that thinks that they can’t do it, I’m going to look you dead in your face. That you can do anything you put your mind to.”Newell agreed to be considered in the gendered actor category, telling The New York Times last month: “I look at the word ‘actor’ as one, my vocation, and two, genderless. We don’t say plumbess for plumber. We don’t say janitoress for janitor. We say plumber, we say janitor. That’s how I look at the word, and that’s how I chose my category.”At least two performers who later came out as nonbinary have previously won Tony Awards as best featured actress in a musical: Sara Ramirez, who won in 2005 for “Spamalot,” and Karen Olivo (also known as K O), who won in 2009 for a revival of “West Side Story.” Also: Last year, the Tony Award for best score went to Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss for “Six,” and Marlow is nonbinary.Newell, 30, is best known for playing the transgender teenager Unique Adams on “Glee,” and previously starred in a Broadway revival of “Once on This Island.” Newell uses all pronouns, according to a “Shucked” spokesman.Also nominated in the featured actor in a musical category was one of Newell’s castmates, Kevin Cahoon, as well as Justin Cooley (“Kimberly Akimbo”), Kevin Del Aguila (“Some Like It Hot”) and Jordan Donica (“Camelot”). More

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      J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell Win Tony Awards, a First for Out Non-Binary Performers

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      J. Harrison Ghee accepting the Tony Award for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical, “Some Like It Hot.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimeAlex Newell accepting the Tony Award for featured actor in a musical, “Shucked.”Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesJ. Harrison Ghee, whose portrayal of a gender-questioning musician fleeing the mob in “Some Like It Hot” has charmed critics and audiences, won a Tony Award for best leading actor in a musical Sunday night, becoming the first out nonbinary actor to win that award.Ghee’s victory came shortly after Alex Newell, who is also nonbinary, won a Tony Award for best featured actor in a musical, becoming the first out nonbinary performer to win a Tony.The wins come at a time when gender identity has become a central element of America’s culture wars, as conservatives in multiple states press for legislation on a variety of L.G.B.T.Q.-related issues, including gender-affirming medical care for transgender children and teenagers, bathroom access, sports participation and, in some states, performances.The Tony Awards, like the Oscars, have only gendered categories for performers, and Ghee and Newell agreed to be considered eligible for awards as actors. (Another nonbinary performer this season, Justin David Sullivan of “& Juliet,” opted not to be considered for awards rather than compete in a gendered category.)Asked in a recent interview with The New York Times about having been nominated in a gendered category, Ghee said: “Wherever I am, I will show up as who I am. Someone’s compartmentalization of me doesn’t limit me in any way.“I hope for the industry we can remove the gender of it,” they added, “because we are creators and we should free ourselves beyond so many labels and let the work speak for itself.”At least two performers who later came out as nonbinary have previously won Tony Awards as best featured actress in a musical: Sara Ramirez, who won in 2005 for “Spamalot,” and Karen Olivo (also known as K O), who won in 2009 for a revival of “West Side Story.” Also: Last year, the Tony Award for best score went to Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss for “Six,” and Marlow is nonbinary.Ghee’s depiction of a main character in “Some Like It Hot” reflects the way views on gender have evolved since 1959, when the Billy Wilder film it was based on was released. In the movie Jack Lemmon plays a musician named Jerry who dresses as a woman named Daphne to flee the mob; in the musical Ghee plays the same character, but Jerry’s path to becoming Daphne becomes one of self-discovery, not disguise.The performance earned critical praise. Jesse Green, The Times’s chief theater critic, wrote that Ghee “carefully traces Jerry’s transformation into Daphne, and then the merging of the two identities into a third that takes us into territory that’s far more complex than jokey drag.”Ghee, 33, worked as a drag performer before finding success in musical theater, with key roles on Broadway in “Kinky Boots” and “Mrs. Doubtfire” before “Some Like It Hot.” More