Tony Awards
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50 free Tony Awards trivia questions with answers — pop culture quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Tony Awards have been the top honor in American theatre since 1947, and their history is full of the things that make good trivia: record-breaking sweeps, shock upsets, a tie for the top prize, and a star who turned her nomination down. One good night at the ceremony can make a show a household name, and a bad one has not stopped some productions from outlasting the shows that beat them. This quiz covers the awards from every angle. There are questions on Best Musical and Best Play winners from the first ceremonies to recent seasons, on the songwriters behind Best Original Score, on the performers and directors who hold the records, and on memorable hosts. A run of questions looks at the 2017 ceremony, and a few cover the award itself: where its name comes from, what the trophy looks like and who hands it out. It is written for theatre fans, cast-album collectors and anyone warming up for a Tony night party or a pub quiz. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will pick up a backstage story or two along the way.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Tony Awards are named after which actress and director, a co-founder of the American Theatre Wing?
Antoinette Perry
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.
Q 02Which 2016 Best Musical winner set a Tony Awards record with 16 nominations and went on to win 11?
Hamilton
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.
Q 03Which 2001 musical starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick won a record-breaking 12 Tony Awards?
The Producers
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.
Q 04Which puppet musical beat the blockbuster Wicked to the 2004 Tony Award for Best Musical?
Avenue Q
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.
Q 05Which star turned down her 1996 Tony nomination for Victor/Victoria because the show received no other nominations?
Julie Andrews
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.
Q 06Which director-choreographer won an Oscar for Cabaret, a Tony for Pippin and an Emmy all in 1973?
Bob Fosse
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.
Q 07Before the Tony medallion existed, prizes at the first ceremony in 1947 included a scroll and which pocket item?
A cigarette lighter
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.
Q 08Which Disney stage show won its director the first Tony ever given to a woman for directing a musical?
The Lion King
The Lion King also won director Taymor a second Tony the same night for her costume designs, and the show was named Best Musical.
Q 09Which performer became the first person to win Tonys in all four acting categories, playing Billie Holiday in 2014?
Audra McDonald
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.
Q 10Which rock musical won the 1996 Tony for Best Musical months after its creator Jonathan Larson died suddenly?
Rent
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.
Q 11Which Manhattan venue of nearly 6,000 seats hosted the Tony Awards ceremony in most years from 1997 to 2019?
Radio City Music Hall
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.
Q 12Which American network first aired the Tony Awards in 1978, taking over the telecast from ABC?
CBS
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.
Q 13Which New York hotel hosted the very first Tony Awards ceremony in its Grand Ballroom on April 6, 1947?
The Waldorf-Astoria
Q 21Which director of Evita, Sweeney Todd and The Phantom of the Opera collected a record 21 Tony Awards?
Harold Prince
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.
Q 22Which composer-lyricist of Company won both Tonys in 1971, the one year Best Score was split into music and lyrics?
Stephen Sondheim
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.
Q 23Which actress won her first Tony for Mame and her fifth, decades later, as Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit?
Angela Lansbury
The Waldorf-Astoria ceremony was hosted by Brock Pemberton, two decades before the awards reached national television.
Q 14What design fills the face of the spinning medallion handed to every Tony Award winner?
Comedy and tragedy masks
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.
Q 15Which Cole Porter show, built around a staging of The Taming of the Shrew, won the first Tony for Best Musical?
Kiss Me, Kate
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.
Q 16Which trade association of theatre owners and operators presents the Tony Awards with the American Theatre Wing?
The Broadway League
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.
Q 17Which Kander and Ebb musical was outshone by a rival show at the 1976 Tonys, then won six as a revival?
Chicago
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.
Q 18Which musical about Broadway dancers at an audition won nine Tonys in 1976 and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama?
A Chorus Line
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.
Q 19Which musical about a travelling con man in small-town Iowa beat West Side Story to the 1958 Tony for Best Musical?
The Music Man
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.
Q 20Which Mary Martin musical tied with Fiorello! for the 1960 Tony Award for Best Musical?
The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music won five Tonys from nine nominations, with Martin as Maria and folk singer Theodore Bikel as Captain von Trapp.
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.
Q 24Which actor hosted the Tony Awards in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013, then won one for Hedwig and the Angry Inch?
Neil Patrick Harris
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.
Q 25Which Australian actor won a 2004 Tony as songwriter Peter Allen and an Emmy for hosting the Tonys?
Hugh Jackman
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.
Q 26Which composer of Oklahoma! and Carousel was the first person to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony?
Richard Rodgers
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.
Q 27Which actor won a Tony and then an Oscar for playing the Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret?
Joel Grey
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.
Q 28Which Wicked star won the 2004 Tony for Best Actress in a Musical for originating the green-skinned Elphaba?
Idina Menzel
Idina Menzel had been nominated eight years earlier for her Broadway debut, then by her own account faded into obscurity until Elphaba came along.
Q 29Which Filipina singer won a 1991 Tony for Miss Saigon and later sang for two Disney heroines?
Lea Salonga
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.
Q 30Which actor won Tonys for The Great White Hope and Fences and had a Broadway theatre renamed in his honor?
James Earl Jones
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.