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      Inside the 2023 Tony Awards After-Parties

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      Spirited celebrations that included a block party in Washington Heights and a gathering at the Carlyle Hotel extended past 4 a.m.It wasn’t hard to spot J. Harrison Ghee at the official Tony Awards after-party outside the United Palace theater in Washington Heights on Sunday night — they towered over much of the crowd in a vibrant blue gown, with a statuette in hand and a trail of well-wishers close behind. After their groundbreaking win for best leading actor in a musical — they became the first out nonbinary performer to win in the category — the gown color, it seemed, was fortuitous.“I felt like this is such a Cinderella moment,” they said.Hundreds of the ceremony’s attendees spilled out, shortly after 11 p.m., almost directly into the party: a tented extension of the fuchsia carpet and its lush floral backdrop, with catering that reflected both the culinary traditions of the neighborhood’s surrounding communities (paella, ceviche, mango on sticks) and also the immediate hunger of nominees who had sat snackless for hours. (About 800 hamburgers from Shake Shack were gone within 90 minutes.)Suzan-Lori Parks, left, with LaChanze at the after-party near the United Palace theater. Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesThe Tonys, which celebrate Broadway’s best plays and musicals, were held uptown for the first time this year at the United Palace — an ornate movie house at 176th Street in Washington Heights, nearly eight miles north of Times Square. The theater is tucked within the largely Dominican neighborhood where Lin-Manuel Miranda shot the 2021 film adaptation of his musical “In the Heights.”“To show off one of the cultural gems of the city to a national audience is super exciting,” Heather Hitchens, the president and chief executive of the American Theater Wing, which puts on the Tonys with the Broadway League, said in an interview on Saturday.“The after-party is always important, but to celebrate that we made it through a season and we gave some awards out and actually had a telecast?” she said, continuing, “We haven’t been able to do that for so long.”Sunday’s ceremony was certainly an unusual one. With the Writers Guild of America still on strike, the show featured unscripted commentary from presenters, abundant musical performances from the year’s productions — plus Lea Michele’s rendition of “Don’t Rain on My Parade” from last season’s “Funny Girl” — and a wordless opening dance number by Ariana DeBose, the show’s host.Kelli O’Hara, a presenter at the Tonys, at the party in Washington Heights. Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesAbout 800 hamburgers from Shake Shack disappeared within 90 minutes at the after-party outside the United Palace.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesBowls of Frosted Flakes were scattered around the official after-party. Tony the Tiger attended the Tonys this year.Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York Times“Ariana DeBose,” Wayne Brady, who is set to star in the 2024 Broadway revival of “The Wiz,” said later in the evening, shaking his head. “She was tremendous. She can improvise like no one’s business.”“It went so smoothly,” said Bonnie Milligan, a Tony Award winner for best featured actress in a musical for her performance as a scheming aunt in the offbeat musical “Kimberly Akimbo,” which was the top winner of the night with five trophies overall. “So many people were able to speak in solidarity with the strike.”With a long list of celebrations still ahead, many of the night’s winners and nominees stayed at the official after-party only briefly before moving on to smaller soirees hosted by individual productions across the city.Myles Frost, last year’s winner for best leading actor in a musical for playing Michael Jackson in “MJ,” at the official after-party. Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesJulia Lester, a nominee for her turn as Little Red Riding Hood in the revival of “Into the Woods,” was leaving with her father as many attendees were still arriving. Ms. Lester said she was “just seeing where the night takes me.” She wore a voluminous green ball gown, sheer elbow-length gloves, a black choker and a bow in her red curly hair. “I’m wearing a hoop skirt, so I can’t do that much. Sitting down was a nightmare.”Jordan Roth, the president of Jujamcyn Theaters, donned a sparkling scarlet outfit meant to elicit, he said, “Big Red Riding Hood.” His after-party plans, he added, would extend “until the hood falls off, which is literally impossible. It’s pinned, glued, sewn — I probably won’t be able to take it off to go to sleep.”The event at the Carlyle Hotel, hosted by the theater publicist Rick Miramontez and the producer John Gore, picked up after midnight. Rebecca Smeyne for The New York TimesBy 12:30 a.m., many had left the official after-party, and most of the nominees began heading to the Carlyle Hotel on the Upper East Side, where the theater publicist Rick Miramontez — dressed in a white blazer with red-and-white striped shorts — was hosting his famed late-night shindig for several hundred guests with the producer John Gore.“This is the party,” Mr. Brady proclaimed from a couch nestled alongside an open bar near the hotel’s entrance.Kolton Krouse, who starred in a recent revival of “Bob Fosse’s Dancin’” and uses the pronouns they and them, also opted for business-on-top-party-on-the-bottom, sporting a black blazer that barely covered their torso atop gold heels.Bonnie Milligan, left, who won the Tony for best featured actress in a musical, and Miriam Silverman, who won for best featured actress in a play, at the Carlyle Hotel.Rebecca Smeyne for The New York TimesVictoria Clark, who won the Tony for best leading actress in a musical for her role in “Kimberly Akimbo,” at the Carlyle party.Rebecca Smeyne for The New York TimesJessica Chastain, with her grandmother Marilyn Herst, whom the actress said she brings to “all the parties.”Rebecca Smeyne for The New York Times“Congratulations!” they said, lunging to stop Jessica Chastain, who was wearing a caped, sunshine-yellow Gucci gown, her long red hair in a high ponytail, as she swept in around 12:30 a.m. — accompanied by her grandmother, Marilyn Herst.“I bring her with me to all the parties,” said Ms. Chastain, who was nominated for best leading actress in a play for her performance as the housewife Nora Helmer in Jamie Lloyd’s bare-bones revival of “A Doll’s House.”The English actress Jodie Comer had won the category for her performance as a lawyer who defends men accused of sexual assault in the one-woman show “Prima Facie,” but you would not know it by Ms. Chastain’s cadre of photographers, who temporarily clogged the passageway between the upper lounge and a bar area, and a receiving line of those congratulating the actress after the play’s final performance this past weekend.“I hope it’s not over forever,” Ms. Chastain said as shutters clicked away.Alex Newell, left, and J. Harrison Ghee at the Carlyle, hours after becoming two of the first out nonbinary performers to win a Tony Award.Rebecca Smeyne for The New York TimesJordan Roth, the president of Jujamcyn Theaters, at the Carlyle. His after-party plans would extend “until the hood falls off,” he said.Rebecca Smeyne for The New York TimesBuckets of Moet & Chandon champagne were placed around the room, while waiters in white blazers ferried silver trays of sliders and cartons of French fries around four rooms. On side tables sat slender trays of nuts and chips, which nominees appreciatively munched.In a back room alongside a bar, a cabaret singer crooned Frank Sinatra’s “Nice ‘n’ Easy” accompanied by a pianist and a cellist. (The Tony-winning soprano Kelli O’Hara, in a feathery white gown, bopped to the music.)Julia Lester, a nominee for “Into the Woods,” arriving at the Carlyle party, hoop skirt and all.Rebecca Smeyne for The New York TimesBen Platt and Micaela Diamond, the stars of “Parade,” at the Carlyle.Rebecca Smeyne for The New York TimesZachary Prince, left, with Brandon Uranowitz, who won a Tony for best featured actor in a play for his role in “Leopoldstadt.”Rebecca Smeyne for The New York TimesThe party began to pick up around 1 a.m. Ben Platt, accompanied by his fiancé, Noah Galvin, in a matching black suit, got a hug from Micaela Diamond, his co-star in “Parade,” which won best revival of a musical. Ms. Lester — whose night had apparently taken her to the Carlyle — was deep in conversation in a corner with Julie Benko, the “Funny Girl” alternate for Michele’s Fanny Brice.Attendees discussed the beauty of the United Palace, a dazzling remnant of the golden age of cinema, which many had been inside for the first time that night.“I am so in love with that house,” Mr. Brady said.Natasha Katz, who won the Tony for best lighting design for her work on the Josh Groban-led “Sweeney Todd” revival, received a hug at the Carlyle.Rebecca Smeyne for The New York TimesShortly before 3 a.m., many of the performers began heading out, though the party would last until after 4 a.m.“I’m excited to have a shot at the Tonys next year,” Mr. Brady, “The Wiz” star-to-be, said around 2:30 a.m., before heading for the door.“In the bigger sense, I’m excited about making history with such a melanated cast, a mostly Black creative team.” More

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      Tony Awards Viewership Increases to 4.3 Million

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      Awards shows have seen steep ratings declines in recent years, but the modest uptick for Sunday night’s Tonys followed recent increases for the Oscars and the Grammys.The CBS telecast of the Tony Awards drew 4.3 million viewers on Sunday night, the second consecutive year that the broadcast has seen a bump in the ratings, according to Nielsen.The modest increase in viewership at a moment where people are fleeing broadcast television qualifies as a win these days. And the fact that the Tonys gained audience share is part of a trend where award shows have stopped the bleeding after years of steep losses. This year’s Oscars and Grammy Awards both increased their viewership, too.Still, for the Tonys, which is a relatively niche ceremony compared to more popular awards shows, Sunday’s ratings represent the third-lowest viewership total since records have been kept. Last year’s ceremony drew 3.9 million viewers.The fact that the Tonys happened at all took no small effort. Just a month ago, the televised ceremony was in jeopardy after the union representing thousands of striking movie and television writers — who have been on strike against the major Hollywood studios since May 2, arguing that their wages have stagnated despite the streaming production boom — threatened to picket the event.The writers have deployed aggressive tactics to hurt the studios during the strike, and a live event broadcast on CBS was lining up to be a good target. (The writers had already successfully disrupted the MTV Movie & TV Awards last month, which prompted the cancellation of the live ceremony; MTV and CBS share the same corporate parent, Paramount.)But a group of playwrights lobbied leaders of the Writers Guild of America, the union representing the writers, arguing that the cancellation of the event would hurt the theater industry more than it would hurt CBS. The Tony Awards represent a vital marketing tool for Broadway as it still makes its slow recovery out of the pandemic. Given the relatively low viewership of the Tonys, the show has always been more of a prestige play for CBS than a profit machine.The W.G.A. relented, and the end result was an awards show that went heavy on live performances and introductory videos, and went without scripted material or pre-written bits. Presenters did little more than introduce themselves and announce the nominees and winners. The striking writers were given repeated shout-outs throughout the night.W.G.A. leaders expressed approval on Monday morning, with the union’s Eastern branch tweeting, “A big congratulations, and a big thank you to the Tony Award winners who stood with the #WGAstrike in their speeches. Thank you to attendees wearing #WGAstrong pins, and to everyone who showed solidarity with the writers during last night’s unscripted awards show.”The unscripted ceremony, which was hosted by Ariana DeBose, was mostly well received. Jesse Green, The New York Times’s theater critic, observed, “Previous 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.”In 2021, the Tony Awards drew a record low of 2.8 million viewers when the pandemic-altered ceremony aired in September, three months later than its traditional mid-June slot. The highest-rated Tony Awards in recent years was in 2016, when a “Hamilton”-fueled ceremony had an audience of 8.7 million viewers.The top-rated markets for Sunday’s telecast were, in order, New York, West Palm Beach, Fla., and San Francisco, according to Nielsen. More

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      Unscripted or Not, the Tonys Were Mostly Predictable

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      The writing is on the wall: With or without writers, the Broadway awards are a strangely bland and canned way to celebrate a thrillingly live medium.No writers’ names crawled up the screen at the end of Sunday night’s telecast of the Tony Awards, and though the writers might not like to hear it, their absence made little difference. The names of the show’s producers and director were the same as always, and in television as in the theater, they call the game.Naturally, the strike by the Writers Guild of America against film and television conglomerates — including Paramount, which presented the event on its various platforms — had no effect on what was produced on Broadway during the 2022-23 season honored by these Tonys, nor on who won.Mostly those things bore out the predictions, and many people’s predilections too. “Kimberly Akimbo,” the sweet, intimate, tragicomic “nerdical” by Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire, won the most musical prizes, including one for its star, Victoria Clark, and one for the show itself. “Some Like It Hot” followed with a reasonable haul, and though “Parade” picked up just two, they were good ones: best direction of a musical and best musical revival.Producers and members of the cast and crew of “Kimberly Akimbo,” which took home the prize for best musical.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesAmong the plays, “Leopoldstadt,” Tom Stoppard’s semi-autobiographical Holocaust drama, took the top awards, almost a foregone conclusion with that author and that subject — a subject he strangely did not mention in his acceptance. “Life of Pi,” a spectacular staging of the adventure novel by Yann Martel, fittingly won three technical awards, though I wish its astonishing tiger puppet had picked up one of the medallions in person, and perhaps eaten someone.Failing that, the only surprise, Sean Hayes’s win over Stephen McKinley Henderson in the leading actor category for plays, was not really that surprising, if a little disappointing.But since a little disappointment is normal, and probably desirable, all was comfy on the prize front. Perhaps too comfy. The pleasant predictability of the outcomes (and most of the performances) made the telecast, though once again divided awkwardly into two segments on separate Paramount platforms, seem canned, which is one thing we don’t want the Tonys to be. Leave that to programs that honor recorded performance, like the Oscars and the Emmys. The theater, a live medium, wants spontaneity and weirdness and even a taste of tackiness on its big night out.J. Harrison Ghee, the first out nonbinary performer to win a Tony for best lead actor in a musical.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesAlex Newell, the first out nonbinary performer to win a Tony for best featured actor in a musical.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesAs it happens, outness was a big theme, with J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell becoming the first openly nonbinary performers to win Tonys in acting categories. They were among the many winners and presenters who used their brief platforms to express support for diversity of all kinds: gender, orientation, race, religion, body type, ability, looks. But though heartening, that too was mostly dignified and predictable, except when the director Michael Arden turned a gay slur into a vector of vengeance upon winning for his staging of “Parade” and when the actress Denée Benton, introducing the education award to a teacher in Plantation, Fla., referred to Ron DeSantis as “the current Grand Wizard — I’m sorry, excuse me, governor” of her home state.For me, such vivid moments were striking exceptions in an even-tempered evening, if only for the brazenness of making political sentiments regardless of the risk of alienating some part of the audience that does not share them.Otherwise, the unscriptedness was a wash. Some performers offered banter that was just as inane as what writers usually provide. At one point, Julianne Hough, who with Skylar Astin hosted the first 90 minutes, on Pluto TV, ad-libbed, apropos of nothing, “When in doubt, shake it out.”Ariana DeBose, center, was the host of the main show.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesOn the other hand, the sententious segues and gassed-up encomiums to whatever B-list star was arriving onstage were eliminated. Near the evening’s end, the host of the main show, Ariana DeBose, seemed unable to read notes she had scribbled on her arm. “Please welcome whoever walks out on stage next,” she said.And the luck of her being a dancer meant that the lack of a purpose-written opening number could be finessed. Instead she performed a wordless choreographed sequence that also functioned as a tour of the spectacular United Palace theater in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood.Not that I saw DeBose do it. Paramount did not win any allies in the strike standoff by offering what felt like a deliberately confusing menu for streaming the evening’s events online. During the switchover from Pluto TV, on which I saw the first part, to Paramount+, on which I saw the second, I found myself (along with many others, who tweeted about it) misled into watching the 2022 awards show — also hosted by DeBose — for several minutes instead of this year’s.That it took so long for me to realize the problem says almost too much about the blandness and sameness of the Tonys under any circumstances. Even when writers aren’t striking, the tone is set by the people at the top of the credits crawl, who since 2003 have been Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner of White Cherry Entertainment. (They also directed and produced the Oscars in March.) However competent they are at television, they do a mediocre job of presenting the excitement of live theater — and especially its excellence.When in doubt, shake it out. More

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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