Tony winners: ‘Hadestown’ racks up 8 awards including best musical — and women make history
Anaïs Mitchell accepts the award for original score for “Hadestown,” which made Tonys history by becoming the first production written and directed by women to win best musical. David Bryne presented the award.
The Tony Awards sank deep into the underworld Sunday as “Hadestown” took home a leading eight statues and made Broadway history as the first production written and directed by women to win best musical.
“The Ferryman” picked up four awards including best play, but it was Anaïs Mitchell’s folk-operatic re-imagining of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth that led the night. Mitchell took home the Tony for score, while Rachel Chavkin, the lone woman in her category, won for direction of a musical.
For the record:
11:15 a.m. June 10, 2019An earlier version of this article said Sam Mendes is directing the next James Bond film. He is not.
“It’s about keeping faith when you are made to feel alone, and that is how the power structures try to maintain control — by trying to make you feel like you’re walking in the darkness, even when your partner is right behind you,” she said, holding back tears. Chavkin called for more inclusion among Broadway’s ranks of stage directors and critics, adding: “There are so many women who are ready to go, there are so many artists of color who are ready to go. … It is a failure of imagination by a field whose job it is to imagine how the world could be.”
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Rachel Chavkin, winner for director of a musical, in the Tonys press room after her “Hadestown” win.
(Jemal Countess / Getty Images for Tony Awards Pro)
Ali Stroker made history as the first performer in a wheelchair to win a Tony, taking home honors for featured actress in the re-imagining of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” The production also took the prize for musical revival.
“This award is for every kid who is watching tonight who has a limitation or a challenge, who has been waiting to see themselves represented in this arena,” Stroker said after a standing ovation.
Despite speculation that Tonys producers would build a ramp from the Radio City Music Hall audience area to the stage for Stroker, the actress was positioned offstage when her category was announced. She rolled out to give her acceptance speech, then headed to the media room, where she said she hoped theater owners and producers would make their backstages more accessible for performers with disabilities.
Ali Stroker performs a song from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” during the Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.
(Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Tony Awards Pro)
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André De Shields was the sentimental favorite in the category of featured actor in a musical.
Broadway veteran and sentimental favorite André De Shields, 73, won his first Tony for his featured performance in “Hadestown.” Channeling his wise and godly character Hermes, the actor shared three pieces of advice in his acceptance speech: “One, surround yourself with people whose eyes light up when they see you coming. Two, slowly is the fastest way to get to where you want to be. And three, the top of one mountain is the bottom of the next, so keep climbing.”
“Network” star Bryan Cranston beat Jeff Daniels and Adam Driver, among others, to win lead actor in a play.
“Finally, a straight old white man gets a break!” joked Cranston in his acceptance speech.
He dedicated his win “to all the real journalists around the world, both in the print media and also broadcast media, who are actually in the line of fire in pursuit of the truth. The media is not the enemy of the people. Demagoguery is the enemy of the people.”
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The cast and producers of “Hadestown” accept the award for best musical at the 2019 Tony Awards.
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Stephanie J. Block accepts the award for her lead performance in the musical “The Cher Show.”
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Santino Fontana accepts the award for his lead performance in the musical for “Tootsie.”
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Cynthia Erivo performs during the “In Memoriam” section at the 73rd Tony Awards.
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Brian Stokes Mitchell speaks during the 2019 Tony Awards.
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Playwright Jez Butterworth and the cast and producers of “The Ferryman” accept the award for best play.
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Bryan Cranston accepts the Tony for his lead performance in the play “Network.”
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“What the Constitution Means to Me” writer-performer Heidi Schreck talks about her play at the 73rd Tony Awards.
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The cast of “Kiss Me, Kate” performs during the 73rd Tony Awards.
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“Kiss Me, Kate” star Kelli OHara introduces an excerpt from the show during the 2019 Tony Awards.
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The cast of “Kiss Me, Kate” performs “Too Darn Hot” during the 2019 Tony Awards.
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Anaïs Mitchell accepts the Tony Award for original score for “Hadestown” from David Byrne during the 2019 Tony Awards.
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BeBe Winans introduces a performance by the cast of “Choir Boy” at the 73rd Tony Awards.
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The cast of “Choir Boy” performs during the 2019 Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.
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Tarell Alvin McCraney, author of the play “Choir Boy,” at the 2019 Tony Awards.
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Author Mart Crowley and the cast and producers of “The Boys in the Band” accept the award for best revival of a play at the 73rd Tony Awards.
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Marisa Tomei and Michael Shannon present the award for best revival of a play.
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Isabelle McCalla, center left, and Caitlin Kinnunen seal “The Prom” with a kiss during an excerpt from the musical at 73rd Tony Awards.
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Ali Stroker accepts the award for her featured role in “Oklahoma!”
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Rosemary Harris accepts a lifetime achievement Tony Award during the 2019 ceremony.
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Alex Brightman and the cast of “Beetlejuice” perform during the 2019 Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.
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Catherine O’Hara introduces a performance by the Broadway company of “Beetlejuice” at the 2019 Tony Awards.
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James Corden, left, and Ben Platt sing a duet during the 2019 Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.
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André De Shields accepts the Tony for his featured performance in “Hadestown.”
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Presenters Sienna Miller and Darren Criss at the 2019 Tony Awards.
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“The Ferryman” playwright Jez Butterworth speaks during the 2019 Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.
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Ali Stroker performs “I Cain’t Say No” from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” during the 2019 Tony Awards.
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Judith Lights accepts the Isabelle Stevenson Award at the 73rd Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.
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Santino Fontana, center, and the cast of “Tootsie” perform during the 2019 Tony Awards.
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Spouses Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson Jackson are Tony presenters.
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Bertie Carvel accepts the Tony for his featured role in the play “Ink.”
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Celia Keenan-Bolger accepts the award for her featured role in the play “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
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The cast of “Ain’t Too Proud - The Life and Times of the Temptations” performs during the 2019 Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
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Tina Fey and Jake Gyllenhaal announce the featured actor in a play award.
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James Corden opens the 2019 Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
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Host James Corden, left, sidles up to the cast of “Oklahoma!” while opening the 73rd Tony Awards.
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The Tony for regional theater is presented to TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in Palo Alto, Calif.
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Celia Keenan-Bolger, featured actress nominee for “To Kill a Mockingbird,” arrives for the Tony Awards. She took home the prize.
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Ben Platt, musical lead actor winner in 2017 for “Dear Evan Hansen,” arrives at the 73rd Tony Awards.
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Lead actress nominee Annette Bening and husband Warren Beatty arrive at the 73rd Tony Awards.
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Tony Awards host James Corden and his wife, Julia Carey, arrive for the ceremony at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
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“Pose” actor and Broadway stalwart Billy Porter arrives at the 73rd Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.
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Kristin Chenoweth attends the 73rd Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.
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Actress Jane Krakowski at the 73rd Tony Awards.
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Jake Gyllenhaal arrives at the 73rd Tony Awards.
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Actress Ashley Park attends the 73rd Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.
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Tina Fey, whose “Mean Girls” is playing on Broadway, attends the 73rd Tony Awards.
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Josh Groban attends the 73rd Tony Awards.
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Actress Marisa Tomei arrives at the 73rd Tony Awards.
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Husbands Todd Spiewak, left, and Jim Parsons arrive at the 73rd Tony Awards.
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Actress Judith Light works the red carpet at the 73rd Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.
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Terrence McNally, left, and his producer husband, Tom Kirdahy (“Hadestown”), arrive at the 73rd Tony Awards in New York in 2019. (Evan Agostini / Invision/Associated Press)
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Bee Shaffer Carrozzini and her mother, Vogue Editor Anna Wintour, attend the 73rd Tony Awards.
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Actress Lucy Liu arrives at the 73rd Tony Awards.
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Spouses Robin Dearden and Bryan Cranston arrive at the 73rd Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.
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Actress Samira Wiley arrives at the 73rd Tony Awards.
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Darren Criss and his wife, Mia Swier, arrive at the 73rd Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.
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Actress Cynthia Erivo walks the red carpet at the 73rd Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.
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“Beetlejuice” actress Sophia Anne Caruso arrives at the Tony Awards.
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Shirley Jones, left, and son Shaun Cassidy arrive at the 73rd Tony Awards.
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Producer Jordan Roth attends the 73rd Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.
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Camille A. Brown, the first black woman choreographer nominated for a Tony Award in over 20 years (for “Choir Boy”), attends the 73rd Tony Awards.
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American Theatre Wing President and Chief Executive Heather Hitchens arrives at the 73rd Tony Awards. The Theatre Wing awards the Tonys.
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Madeline Michel, recipient of the excellence in theater education award, arrives at the 73rd Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.
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The Radio City stage before the start of the 73rd Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York.
In the best play race, Jez Butterworth’s Ireland-set epic “The Ferryman” beat out Heidi Schreck’s dark-horse “What the Constitution Means to Me,” which ended the night empty-handed.
“The Ferryman” also picked up the award for direction. Sam Mendes, who is directing a film, shared his acceptance remarks via email: “It’s a little bit bonkers trying to make theater on Broadway — to be dealing with something so fragile in such a rough-and-tumble environment,” he said. “But when it works, it’s like nowhere else in the world.”
The star-studded staging of “The Boys in the Band,” which producer Ryan Murphy is adapting for Netflix, won the award for play revival.
“I remember being a very, very young guy — 6 or 7, seeing ‘Boys in the Band’ on television — and it was the only thing that I had, the only group of gay men I had ever seen,” he told reporters backstage. “I’m just excited about the evolution of that idea and bringing it to a new audience.”
Elaine May scored a victory for lead actress for her performance in “The Waverly Garden,” beating a packed field that included Annette Bening, Janet McTeer and Laurie Metcalf. “Ink” actor Bertie Carvel and “To Kill a Mockingbird” actress Celia Keenan-Bolger won for their featured performances in plays.
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Host James Corden had the Tonys audience laughing.
James Corden, hosting the Tonys for a second time, sprinkled in crowd-pleasing pokes at annoying audience members’ phones ringing during shows, how expensive Broadway tickets have become and how low the industry’s paychecks and the CBS telecast’s ratings tend to be.
Performances are the center of any Tonys telecast, which doubles as a three-hour commercial for current Broadway offerings. Highlights this year included a hit parade by the cast of the jukebox musical “Ain’t Too Proud,” who showcased a bit of the Temptations catalog and Sergio Trujillo’s Tony-winning choreography; a spirited performance of “Believe” by lead actress winner Stephanie J. Block of “The Cher Show,” spotlighting Bob Mackie’s Tony-winning costumes; and a “Tootsie” musical performance by lead actor winner Santino Fontana that featured lines from Robert Horn’s Tony-winning book and Fontana’s skilled quick-change into the sparkling red gown made famous in the 1982 Dustin Hoffman movie.
The cast of “The Prom” drove home the show’s themes of acceptance and inclusion with a same-sex kiss.
“When you love someone, you kiss them — it’s not a big deal,” actress Caitlin Kinnunen told The Times before the performance. “Yes, there’s always backlash from the people who think it’s wrong and unacceptable, but there’s also always 10 times the amount of people who say, ‘Thank you, we feel seen and represented; this should be the norm.’ It’s been amazing the amount of love and support we get.”
Ashley Lee is a staff reporter at the Los Angeles Times, where she writes about theater, movies, television and the bustling intersection of the stage and the screen. An alum of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Critics Institute and Poynter’s Power of Diverse Voices, she leads workshops on arts journalism at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. She was previously a New York-based editor at the Hollywood Reporter and has written for the Washington Post, Backstage and American Theatre, among others. She is currently working remotely alongside her dog, Oliver.
