50 Fun Facts About Tony Awards

The Tony Awards are named after which actress and director, a co-founder of the American Theatre Wing?

Antoinette Perry was nicknamed Tony, and the name passed to the prize created in her memory in 1947, the year after her death. Its formal title is the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre.

Which 2016 Best Musical winner set a Tony Awards record with 16 nominations and went on to win 11?

Hamilton finished with the second-most wins for a single production. Its cast performed at the ceremony without their prop muskets, out of respect for the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting that morning.

Which 2001 musical starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick won a record-breaking 12 Tony Awards?

The Producers broke a record of 10 wins that Hello, Dolly! had held for 37 years. Mel Brooks adapted the show from his own 1967 film.

Which puppet musical beat the blockbuster Wicked to the 2004 Tony Award for Best Musical?

Avenue Q courted Tony voters with a mock election campaign, including a new song written just for them that spoofed its three rivals. It also won the awards for its script and its score.

Which star turned down her 1996 Tony nomination for Victor/Victoria because the show received no other nominations?

Julie Andrews said she would rather stand with her overlooked cast and crew. The refusal made headlines and boosted ticket sales, and she declined to perform at the ceremony as well.

Which director-choreographer won an Oscar for Cabaret, a Tony for Pippin and an Emmy all in 1973?

Bob Fosse is the only person to win all three major industry awards in the same year. His Emmys came for the Liza Minnelli television special Liza with a Z.

Before the Tony medallion existed, prizes at the first ceremony in 1947 included a scroll and which pocket item?

A cigarette lighter was among the first prizes, alongside gold compacts and bracelets for the women and money clips for the men. The medallion was first handed out at the third ceremony, in 1949.

Which Disney stage show won its director the first Tony ever given to a woman for directing a musical?

The Lion King also won director Taymor a second Tony the same night for her costume designs, and the show was named Best Musical.

Which performer became the first person to win Tonys in all four acting categories, playing Billie Holiday in 2014?

Audra McDonald won her sixth Tony for Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, which set a new record for wins by a performer.

Which rock musical won the 1996 Tony for Best Musical months after its creator Jonathan Larson died suddenly?

Rent's first Off-Broadway preview fell on the day Larson died of an aortic dissection, and the cast turned it into a sing-through in his memory. It also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Which Manhattan venue of nearly 6,000 seats hosted the Tony Awards ceremony in most years from 1997 to 2019?

Radio City Music Hall has 5,960 seats, and its resident Rockettes joined casts from the nominated shows in the opening number of the 2004 ceremony.

Which American network first aired the Tony Awards in 1978, taking over the telecast from ABC?

CBS first broadcast the ceremony from the Shubert Theatre in 1978 and was still carrying it nearly five decades later. The awards had reached national television in 1967.

Which New York hotel hosted the very first Tony Awards ceremony in its Grand Ballroom on April 6, 1947?

The Waldorf-Astoria ceremony was hosted by Brock Pemberton, two decades before the awards reached national television.

What design fills the face of the spinning medallion handed to every Tony Award winner?

Comedy and tragedy masks fill the front of the medallion. The back once showed a profile of the award's namesake and now carries the winner's name, category, production and year.

Which Cole Porter show, built around a staging of The Taming of the Shrew, won the first Tony for Best Musical?

Kiss Me, Kate was inspired by the backstage battles of married actors Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne during a 1935 Shrew production. It won five Tonys in 1949.

Which trade association of theatre owners and operators presents the Tony Awards with the American Theatre Wing?

The Broadway League began in 1930, when Broadway theatre operators banded together, and it bargains with the theatrical unions for them. Until 2007 it was called the League of American Theatres and Producers.

Which Kander and Ebb musical was outshone by a rival show at the 1976 Tonys, then won six as a revival?

Chicago came back in 1996 in a stripped-back staging that became the longest-running American musical in Broadway history. Its six Tonys were a record for a revival until 2008.

Which musical about Broadway dancers at an audition won nine Tonys in 1976 and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama?

A Chorus Line was built from taped workshop sessions with real Broadway dancers, eight of whom ended up in the original cast. It ran for 6,137 performances.

Which musical about a travelling con man in small-town Iowa beat West Side Story to the 1958 Tony for Best Musical?

The Music Man won five Tonys even though West Side Story had opened nearly three months earlier. Its cast album went on to win the first Grammy for a musical theatre album.

Which Mary Martin musical tied with Fiorello! for the 1960 Tony Award for Best Musical?

The Sound of Music won five Tonys from nine nominations, with Martin as Maria and folk singer Theodore Bikel as Captain von Trapp.

Which director of Evita, Sweeney Todd and The Phantom of the Opera collected a record 21 Tony Awards?

Harold Prince won eight of his Tonys for directing and eight more for producing the year's Best Musical, beginning with The Pajama Game in 1955.

Which composer-lyricist of Company won both Tonys in 1971, the one year Best Score was split into music and lyrics?

Stephen Sondheim wrote the scores for five Best Musical winners, from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum to Passion, and collected eight Tonys in all.

Which actress won her first Tony for Mame and her fifth, decades later, as Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit?

Angela Lansbury tied the record for acting Tonys with that fifth win in 2009, at the age of 83. She later received a sixth, for lifetime achievement.

Which actor hosted the Tony Awards in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013, then won one for Hedwig and the Angry Inch?

Neil Patrick Harris won the 2014 Tony for Best Leading Actor in a Musical in the title role of the rock musical, a year after his fourth turn as host.

Which Australian actor won a 2004 Tony as songwriter Peter Allen and an Emmy for hosting the Tonys?

Hugh Jackman was hosting the ceremony on the night he won for The Boy from Oz, and that hosting turn earned him the Emmy. He fronted the Tonys four times in all.

Which composer of Oklahoma! and Carousel was the first person to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony?

Richard Rodgers also won a Pulitzer Prize, making him the first person to hold all five awards. His Emmy came for the music of a documentary series about Winston Churchill.

Which actor won a Tony and then an Oscar for playing the Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret?

Joel Grey originated the Emcee on Broadway in 1966 and repeated the part in the 1972 film. In 2023 the Tonys gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Which Wicked star won the 2004 Tony for Best Actress in a Musical for originating the green-skinned Elphaba?

Idina Menzel had been nominated eight years earlier for her Broadway debut, then by her own account faded into obscurity until Elphaba came along.

Which Filipina singer won a 1991 Tony for Miss Saigon and later sang for two Disney heroines?

Lea Salonga was the first Asian actress to win a Tony, and she went on to provide the singing voices of Jasmine in Aladdin and the title character in Mulan.

Which actor won Tonys for The Great White Hope and Fences and had a Broadway theatre renamed in his honor?

James Earl Jones saw the Cort Theatre take his name in 2022. He had acted on that same stage in 1958, at the start of his Broadway career, in Sunrise at Campobello.

Which pop star became the first woman to win the Best Original Score Tony on her own, for Kinky Boots in 2013?

Cyndi Lauper won on her first outing as a Broadway songwriter, and the show took six Tonys from a season-high 13 nominations.

Which songwriter won his first Tony for In the Heights, a show he first drafted as a college sophomore?

Lin-Manuel Miranda staged the first version with a student theater company at Wesleyan University in 2000. Eight years later it won four Tonys, including Best Musical.

Which British pop star shared the 2000 Tony for Best Original Score with lyricist Tim Rice for Disney's Aida?

Elton John had chosen not to take on another animated film after his earlier Disney hit, so studio executives suggested a stage version of Verdi's opera story instead.

Which songwriting duo won the 2017 Tony for Best Original Score months after an Oscar for a La La Land song?

Pasek and Paul wrote the lyrics for that film's songs, and later Grammy and Emmy wins made each of them an EGOT winner at the age of 39.

Which 2011 Best Musical winner was written by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone with Robert Lopez?

The Book of Mormon won nine Tonys, and Lopez went on to co-write the songs for Disney's Frozen films with his wife, Kristen Anderson-Lopez.

Which musical based on Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir won the first Best Score Tony for an all-woman writing team?

Fun Home won five Tonys in 2015, including Best Musical, with music by Jeanine Tesori and lyrics by Lisa Kron.

Which playwright of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead won the Best Play Tony a record five times?

Tom Stoppard won his fifth in 2023 for Leopoldstadt, set among the Jewish community of early 20th-century Vienna. No other playwright has won the award more than twice.

Which two-part play about the AIDS crisis won Best Play in back-to-back years, with one part honored each time?

Angels in America made Tony Kushner the first playwright to win consecutive Best Play Tonys, in 1993 and 1994. It also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Which playwright was honored at the first Tony Awards in 1947 as the author of All My Sons?

Arthur Miller won again two years later, when Death of a Salesman took the Tony for Best Play along with the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Which drama about back-channel talks behind a 1990s Israeli-Palestinian peace deal won the 2017 Tony for Best Play?

Oslo dramatizes the hidden negotiations that produced the 1990s peace accords named after the Norwegian capital. It also won a Tony for featured actor Michael Aronov.

Which musical about an anxious high school senior and a misunderstood letter won six awards at the 2017 Tonys?

Dear Evan Hansen made 23-year-old Ben Platt, at the time, the youngest solo winner of the Tony for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical.

Which singer and film star won the 2017 Tony for Best Actress in a Musical as matchmaker Dolly Levi?

Bette Midler had waited 43 years since her only previous Tony, a special award in 1974 for her contribution to Broadway.

Which musical about an Egyptian police orchestra stranded overnight in an Israeli desert town won 10 Tonys in 2018?

The Band's Visit lost only one of its 11 nominations and joined the few musicals to win all of the so-called Big Six, from Best Musical to both lead acting awards.

Which 2019 Best Musical winner did Anaïs Mitchell release as a folk concept album almost a decade before Broadway?

Hadestown blends the Greek myths of Orpheus and Eurydice and of Hades and Persephone. It won eight Tonys from 14 nominations, the most of any show that year.

Which 2009 Best Musical winner had three young actors share a single Tony for rotating in the title role?

Billy Elliot won ten Tonys, and David Alvarez, Kiril Kulish and Trent Kowalik jointly took the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical.

Which rock musical based on an 1891 German play about troubled teenagers won eight Tonys, including Best Musical?

Spring Awakening kept Frank Wedekind's 19th-century setting but gave its schoolchildren an alternative rock score by Duncan Sheik, with words by Steven Sater.

Which 2025 Best Musical winner follows two human-like helper robots who find each other in a future Seoul?

Maybe Happy Ending premiered in Seoul in 2016, nine years before its Broadway production won six Tonys from ten nominations.

Who was the first Black actress to win Best Actress in a Play, for a revival of A Raisin in the Sun?

Phylicia Rashad won in 2004 as the matriarch Lena Younger, and she took a second Tony in 2022 for a featured role in Skeleton Crew.

Which actress became the first wheelchair user to win a Tony, for a 2019 Broadway revival of Oklahoma!?

Ali Stroker won Best Featured Actress in a Musical four years after becoming the first actor who uses a wheelchair to appear on a Broadway stage.

Which Lincoln Center venue is the only Tony-eligible Broadway theater outside the Times Square Theater District?

The Vivian Beaumont has about 1,080 seats in a steeply sloped semicircle. Shows in the two small Off-Broadway houses in the same building qualify for the awards only if they transfer to a Broadway stage.