Overview
- The 79th Tony Awards, held Sunday at Radio City Music Hall on June 7, gave Schmigadoon! Best Musical plus four total awards including book, original score and orchestrations while Joe Mantello’s revival of Death of a Salesman won six Tonys and Best Revival of a Play.
- John Lithgow won best actor in a play for Giant and in doing so became the oldest male acting winner and opened the longest gap between competitive acting Tony wins in the awards’ history.
- The ceremony handed major acting prizes to Joshua Henry for Ragtime and Laurie Metcalf for Death of a Salesman, and it delivered surprise first-time wins for Ali Louis Bourzgui and Shoshana Bean for The Lost Boys plus Alden Ehrenreich for Becky Shaw.
- Design and craft awards were split across revivals and new shows after organizers moved several technical categories to a free pre-show on Pluto TV, where Qween Jean won a costume-design Tony and was reported as the first openly transgender woman to win in any Tony category.
- Broadway’s producers and organizers sought wider reach by televising full musical numbers and staging a high-profile opening with host P!nk, a strategy that may sustain box-office momentum and increase national interest in future seasons.