Tony Nominations 2025: "Death Become Her" and more...
Friday, May 2, 2025 at 7:00PM
NATHANIEL R in Audra McDonald, Death Becomes Her, Gypsy, Jessica Hecht, Jonathan Groff, Maybe Happy Ending, Megan Hilty, Smash, Sunset Boulevard, Tony Awards

by Nathaniel R

Movie to musical adaptations "Death Becomes Her" and "Buena Vista Social Club" dominated the Tony nominations with 10 each. But they weren't alone. The critically acclaimed original musical about two robots in love "Maybe Happy Ending" tied them -- that's a lot of productions in the double digits this year despite robust competition in terms of eligibility (41 or 42 ? were eligible, split roughly in half between musicals and plays).

The 78th Annual Tony Awards will be held June 8th in New York City, and broadcast on CBS Paramount+. This year's festivities will be hosted by Tony and Grammy winner and three-time (already!) Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo. The nominations and a few comments are after the jump... 

MUSICALS

Best Musical

"Maybe Happy Ending" is the earliest of these musicals to open (Nov 2024) but was a critical darling and eventually built great word of mouth. It's quite excellent! I would break down which of the musicals has been the most successful but Broadway grosses are very difficult to understand since each show has a different earning capacity based on the number of seats, different operating budgets to keep the show running (depending on size of cast/orchestra, etc), different "in order to recoup" initial spend, and different tickets prices!  At least from my very limited perspective, though, all of these shows appear to be doing well. 

Eligible but missed the top category: Considering that it landed 6 nominations, "Just in Time", the Bobby Darin biographical musical starring Jonathan Groff, was possibly just on the outside looking in. Or maybe the just-miss production was either "Boop! The Musical" (3 noms), "Real Women Have Curves" (2 noms), "Smash" (2 noms), or "A Wonderful World" (1 noms). What'cha think?

Completely shut-out:  "Swept Away" and "Tammy Faye" (which both closed quickly), "Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends"  and "Redwood" were all left with zero nominations, a tough break in a crowded season. "Old Friends" is a limited run revue (closing June 15) so it's "Redwood" (currently playing at 75% capacity) that is probably in the most danger for a quick closing notice post-Tony nominations.

 

Best Revival of a Musical 

"Sunset Boulevard" and "Gypsy" both arrived in 2024 so they aren't the shiniest of new toys for Tony voters to play with but "Sunset Boulevard" is surely still a threat to win this prize... unless "Floyd Collins" proves a spoiler.

Eligible but completely shut out: Only seven productions were eligible and the ones that missed the top category, missed ALL categories: the already closed "Elf" and "Once Upon a Mattress" which means that the freshly opened "The Last Five Years" (based on my fav Off Broadway musical that has already had a movie adaptation) is in danger to close. 

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical

 

Iglehart, who won the Tony for "Aladdin" 11 years ago, and Groff, who won the Tony last season for "Merrily We Roll Along" are the only previous winners in the mix. We don't have a guess of who might win this but Criss is so excellent in "Maybe Happy Ending" that he could add a Tony to sit beside his Emmy on a shelf at home. 

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical

Hilty and Simard, who are playing the Streep and Hawn roles in the musical adaptation of Death Becomes Her (1992) both have one previous nomination as "Featured" so it's a beautiful symmetry that they graduated to lead nods together! In Hilty's case, isn't it funny that her big duet triumph is in the same season that "Smash" (based on the tv series she starred in) finally arrives on Broadway?  Simard was absolutely amazing a couple of seasons ago in what is usually not a stand-out part in "Company" -- but she brought so much to it she landed a nomination.

But we think Scherzinger takes  this one. 

Record-Breaking: Audra McDonald, already the most Tony-winning performer with six Tonys (which includes at least one trophy from all four female acting categories!) , has now become the most-nominated performer of all time, nabbing her 11th nod. 

Shut Out: Our beloved Sutton Foster, a Tony regular with 7 nominations and 2 wins, didn't make the cut this time for the short-lived "Once Upon a Mattress" revival. 

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical

It's a category with ALL first timers. And it feels like a toss up (at least from the outside looking in). Machado (Six Feet Under, The Horror of Dolores Roach, One Day at A Time) is just perfect in "Real Women..." with unsurprisingly wonderful comic timing and  strong singing, too. But support for the show was definitely muted among Tony voters.  Joy Woods has the benefit of a famous role that's always Tony nominated when the show is produced, but only one previous "Louise" has ever won: Laura Benanti (in the Patti Lupone revival)

Best Direction of a Musical

Jamie Lloyd has the distinction of being the only director of a Revival to make it into this category for the season, so that surely gives "Sunset Blvd" the edge in the Best Revival category. He's up against strong competition here. Arden, who won for, feels like a threat since "Maybe Happy Ending" feels like exactly the kind of show that would fall flat if the direction weren't so incisive - He won two years ago for the revival of "Parade".  David Cromer previously won for "The Band's Visit". Gatelli has been up for several Tonys for Choreography but this is his first time directing a Broadway show. 

Best Book of a Musical

"Buena Vista Social Club"
"Dead Outlaw"
"Death Becomes Her"
"Maybe Happy Ending"
"Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical"

Best Costume Design of a Musical

“Sunset Bouelvard”
“Buena Vista Social Club”
“Floyd Collins”
“Maybe Happy Ending”
“Death Becomes Her”

Best Scenic Design of a Musical

“Buena Vista Social Club”
“Maybe Happy Ending”
“Death Becomes Her”
"Just in Time"
"Swept Away"

Best Lighting Design of a Musical

“Sunset Blvd”
“Buena Vista Social Club”
“Floyd Collins”
“Maybe Happy Ending”
“Death Becomes Her”

Best Sound Design of a Musical

“Sunset Blvd”
“Buena Vista Social Club”
“Floyd Collins”
“Maybe Happy Ending”
“Just in Time”

Technically speaking plays are also eligible in these last three categories though they're rarely nominated...

Best Choreography

“Smash”
“Buena Vista Social Club”
“Gypsy”
“Death Becomes Her”
“Boop! The Musical”

Best Orchestrations

“Sunset Blvd”
“Buena Vista Social Club”
“Floyd Collins”
“Maybe Happy Ending”
"Just in Time”

Best Original Score

“Dead Outlaw”
“Death Becomes Her”
“Maybe Happy Ending”
“Operation Mincemeat”
“Real Women Have Curves”

 

 

PLAYS

A good portion of plays, unlike musicals, are "limited runs" rather than open-ended so if something is closing quickly it isn't always because it's not successful. This is especially true if the play has movie/tv stars who generally won't sign on more than a few months (given screen projects)

Best Play

"Oh Mary!" is as hilarious as you've been hearing. Tyler Burgess took over the lead role of Mary Lincoln for a while but writer/star Cole Escola is back on the boards in time for the Tony Awards. 

Eligible but missed the top category: Was it "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (6 noms), "Good Night and Good Luck" (5 noms), or "Stranger Things: The First Shadow" (5 noms... also receiving a special Tony for its Effects work) that just missed this top category? It probably wasn't "The Roommate" (a single nomination) 

Completely shut-out: "All In: Comedy About Love" "Cult of Love" "Job", "Left on Tenth", "McNeal", "The Picture of Dorian Gray"

Best Revival of a Play

Eligible but not nominated: "Home" and two star-studded productions: "Glengarry Glen Ross" (1 nomination) and "Othello"

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play

 

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play

I'm rooting for Sarah Snook who is just incredible and exhausting to watch playing every role in this Oscar Wilde adaptation. The night I saw it Jodie Foster (!!!) was on the aisle seat just a handful of rows ahead of me.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play

 

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play

 

 

I'm getting impatient for the always great Jessica Hecht to actually win a Tony... or anything really. She was Emmy nominated a handful of years ago as the stressed out mom in "Special". In "Eureka" she plays a grief stricken anti-vaxxer mom. 

Kara Young has such a crazy perfect track record. Four shows in and she's been nominated every single time, always in this category. The others were "Clydes" "Cost of Living", and last season's "Purlie Victorious" (she won)

Best Direction of a Play

Knud Adams, “English”
Sam Mendes, “The Hills of California”
Sam Pinkleton, “Oh, Mary!”
Danya Taymor, “John Proctor Is the Villain”
Kip Williams, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”

Best Scenic Design of a Play

“English”
“The Hills of California"
"Good Night, and Good Luck"
"The Picture of Dorian Gray"
"Stranger Things: The First Shadow"

Best Costume Design of a Play

“Oh Mary”
“The Hills of California"
"Good Night, and Good Luck"
"The Picture of Dorian Gray"
"Stranger Things: The First Shadow"

Best Lighting Design of a Play

“The Hills of California"
"Good Night, and Good Luck"
"The Picture of Dorian Gray"
"Stranger Things: The First Shadow"
"John Proctor is the Villain"

Best Sound Design of a Play

"Good Night, and Good Luck"
“The Hills of California"
"The Picture of Dorian Gray"
"John Proctor is the Villain"
"Stranger Things: The First Shadow"

 

Do you always watch the Tonys? If you've been to any of the shows which have you loved? 

 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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