The 2026 Tony Awards: Broadway’s Biggest Night

The 2026 Tony Awards
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That’s a wrap on the 2026 Tony Awards, hosted by P!NK at Radio City Music Hall! The ceremony was hosted by singer Pink, who kicked off the night with a rendition of Lady Marmalade that saw her adapt the lyrics to namecheck several of the nominees. The star called herself “Broadway’s biggest fan” who wanted to pay tribute to “the hardest-working people in showbiz”.

Dominant Productions and Big Wins

John Lithgow, Lesley Manville and Laurie Metcalf were among the big winners at Sunday’s Tony Awards, which celebrate the best US theatre of the past year. A new production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman dominated the night overall, notching up six wins in total.

“Schmigadoon!” and “Liberation” were the best musical and best play winners, respectively, at the Tony Awards on Sunday. Bess Wohl’s Liberation won Best Play, making Wohl only the fourth female playwright to win the award in Tonys history.

Musicals Ragtime, The Lost Boys and Schmigadoon! tied with four wins each. Ragtime earned the Best Revival of a Musical Tony Award, and stars Caissie Levy and Joshua Henry took home Best Performance by an Actress and Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical, respectively. This marks the first time in 28 years that a musical revival has claimed both prizes.

Other big winners included Ragtime, about three families pursuing the American dream at the dawn of the 20th Century, and Schmigadoon!, a comedic celebration of theatre’s golden age, adapted from the Apple TV series. Schmigadoon! producer Christine Schwarzman joked: “I think I should start by thanking Apple TV for cancelling the third season of Schmigadoon!, the TV show, because without them dropping it, we couldn’t have picked it up and ran with it.”

Historic Milestones and Memorable Speeches

Aged 80, Lithgow became the oldest male actor ever to win a Tony, for his portrayal of author Roald Dahl in Giant. The actor’s latest Tony trophy comes more than five decades after his first, when he won for his role in a 1972 Broadway production of Changing Rooms. “Two Tony bookends with 53 years between them,” Lithgow noted in his acceptance speech. “In those years, I have worked with hundreds of just fantastic theatre artists. I’ve had dozens and dozens of ecstatic moments on the stage, but I have to tell you right now, this moment has got to be one of the best.”

British actress Manville won the first Tony of her career for her performance as Jocasta in the Greek tragedy Oedipus. Accepting the award, Manville said: “I’m a bit overwhelmed, it was my first time on Broadway so this is such a big deal.” She also paid tribute to her fellow nominees — Rose Byrne, Carrie Coon, Susannah Flood and Kelli O’Hara — and joked: “Would someone like to write a play for five women? We are quite bankable.”

Death of a Salesman’s wins included best revival of a play as well as the lead actress prize for Metcalf, a Bafta and Oscar-nominated actress known for Roseanne and Lady Bird. Metcalf said: “When I was in college, I met six fellow students in the theatre department. We worked really hard to amuse each other, and I still consider them family – and I still draw on lessons that I learned from them.”

Cats: The Jellicle Ball received three wins: Costume designer Qween Jean made history as the first transgender Tony winner, Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch won for Best Direction of a Musical and Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons won Best Choreography.

Shoshana Bean won for playing the mom in “The Lost Boys” and Joe Mantello won for directing “Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.”

Sources: This article was directly quoted and compiled from texts written by Steven McIntosh (BBC), Jamie Kravitz (Broadway.com), and the Associated Press (via WECT).

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Leo FS is a digital marketing veteran and senior journalist at Virlan.co, where he covers the intersection of digital marketing, gaming, and breaking US trending news. With nearly two decades of hands-on experience in SEO and digital strategy, Max has consulted for and scaled hundreds of companies. His deep industry roots allow him to deliver sharp, fact-checked insights and analysis on the trends shaping today’s digital landscape.

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Tight

Lost Boys didn’t deserve best musical. But it absolutely deserved sound design over Ragtime. The sound design in Ragtime was its biggest deterrent for me. 

Mykidsf

I always thought Oedipus was pronounced “Edd-ipp-us” but it was pronounced “Ee-dip-us” when the nominations were announced and during the ceremony, too.

It’s the British pronunciation. When I saw it last year I was surprised by it too! But I learned it is the British way. Apparently also true for Waiting for Godot which I found weird to my ears when I saw that last year too. Oedipus should’ve won more awards. It was the most riveting play I’ve ever seen. Left shaking

Ely

omg

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