Tony Nominations ~ The Plays

by Nathaniel R

While I made a real effort to catch all the musicals this season I'm weaker on the plays having seen only 5 of the 18 that opened this past season. Let's talk about the nominees. I'll be sure to mention any film connections to keep the less theater-inclined interested...

BEST PLAY

• The Balusters (5 nominations)
  David Lindsay Abaire's new comedy about a contentious Home Owners Association grappling with changing times and demographics of the neighborhood. It's very funny.
  
  
• Giant (4 nominations)
  Mark Rosenblatt's play is about a period in Roald Dahl's life in the early 80s when he was under fire for anti-semitic comments.
  
  
• Liberation (5 nominations)
  Bess Wohl's moving play features a narrative trying to process her mother's history as a womens right activist in the 1970s. The lead actress plays both the narrator and the mother. 
  
  
• Little Bear Ridge Road (1 nomination)
  Samuel D Hunter's new play is about an aunt and her nephew who have to settle a family estate together during the COVID-19 epidemic. 

Liberation, having already won the Pulitzer, feels like the favourite. But Giant won the Olivier in 2025 before it transferred to Broadway (and is still open) so who knows. 

What they left out: While I've only seen The Balusters (go see it!) and Liberation (so good) I have a hard time believing that Punch (nominated in Best Actor and the Olivier Award winner for Best Play just one month ago overseas) didnt deserve to be here. It's a drama about an ex convict who agrees to meet the parents of the man he accidentally killed with a single punch while out drinking and causing trouble. By the end I was full on wet-face crying and that rarely happens to me.

Movie Connections: Giant is a reminder of the eternal conundrum about separating art from the artists. Though Roald Dahl is not exactly remembered as.a good person, the fact is that he wrote some of the most beloved children's books of all time. Many of them have made it to screen including Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr Fox, and The Witches.

One of Samuel D Hunter's (Little Bear Ridge Road) previous plays The Whale made it to cinemas and won Brendan Fraser the Best Actor Oscar.  

Two of the four nominated plays are led by former Oscar nominees who are multiple Tony winners: - John Lithgow for Giant and Laurie Metcalf for Little Bear Ridge Road. 

BEST REVIVAL

The new Loman family in DEATH OF A SALESMAN: (clockwise from top left) Laurie Metcalf, Ben Ahlers, Nathan Lane, Christopher Abbott © Thea Traff

• Becky Shaw (2 nominations. 1st time on Broadway)
  A finalist for the Pulitzer in 2009 after its original Off Broadway run. It's a comedy about a date which goes horribly awry. 
  
  
• Death of a Salesman (9 nominations. 7th time on Broadway)
  Arthur Miller's 1949 classic is over-Tony'ed at this point. In its seven Broadway runs it has taken home Best Play and three Best Revivals over the years... plus various acting wins! Four revival wins from six outings seems crazy to this theater fan but people always seem to go nuts for it. Will they again next month on Tony night? 
  
  
• Every Brilliant Thing (2 nominations. 1st time on Broadway) 
  Duncan McMillan's interactive monologue play from 2014 was filmed for HBO at the time of its first Off Broadway run. This Broadway outing stars recent Tony winner Daniel Radcliffe though Mariksa Hargitay replaces him in the role starting May 28th.
  
  
• Fallen Angels (5 nominations. 3rd time on Broadway) 
  Noel Coward's farce about two wives and the Frenchmen they both slept with before their marriages (gasp) first played Broadway in 1927 and was first revived in 1956. The new production stars fresh-off her-Oscar-nomination Rose Byrne and musical theater queen Kelli O'Hara.  
  
  
• Oedipus (7 nominations. 11th time on Broadway)
  Sophocles play Oedipus Rex first played Broadway in 1907 and came back frequently for about 75 years. But the latest adaptation, by Robert Icke (who also directs), is the first Broadway run in 42 years. It won the Olivier Award for Best Revival last year on the West End.

I'm guessing Oedipus wins this battle... though Salesman's insane winning track record could lead to an upset.

What Was Left Out? What's interesting about this category is that both Tracy Lett's Bug and August Wilson's  Joe Turner's Come and Gone missed the big ticket category despite landing so many nominations -- four and five, respectively. I personally thought the Bug production was a shadow of its original Off Broadway self (which I still remember vividly from 22 years ago!!!) but it had its devout fans. Joe Turner is apparently somewhat disappointing in relation to previous productions of the play.

Movie connections: Among the 'almost there's' Bug was adapted to film (quite well) in 2006 and Joe Turner's Come and Gone will eventually get there since we've already seen three plays from August Wilson's century cycle --  Fences (2016), Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020), and The Piano Lesson (2024) -- make it to screens in the past ten years. Three down, seven to go! 

Among the actual nominees Death of a Salesman became a 5 time Oscar nominated feature in 1951. In the seven decades since that Fredric March led movie, Arthur Miller's classic has also had four TV movie versions, the most famous of which won golden statues for both Dustin Hoffman (Willy) and John Malkovich (Biff) at the 1986 Emmys. Weirdly despite so many feature films coming from various Noel Coward plays over the past 95 years, Fallen Angels has never had a feature film adaptation. It did get one TV movie in the 1970s starring Joan Collins and Susannah York. Oedipus has inspired many films over the years, the most notable probably being Pier Paolo Passolini's 1967 adaptation though Christopher Plummer starred in an English language movie adaptation in 1968.  Apparently patricide with a side of mother-f***ing was all the rage in the late 1960s!

BEST LEADING ACTRESS IN A PLAY

• Rose Byrne, (2nd show, 1st nom) Fallen Angels
• Carrie Coon (2nd show, 2nd nom) Bug 
• Susannah Flood (3rd show, 1st nom) Liberation
• Lesley Manville (Broadway debut, 1st nom) Oedipus
• Kelli O'Hara (14th show, 9th nom, 1 win) Fallen Angels

See Oscar voters, stories can have TWO protagonists of the same gender!  Rose Byrne has had quite a year hasn't she? Oscar nominated in January and Tony nominated by May! How about that? We suspect that her fellow Oscar nominee Lesley Manville is going to win this, though, repeating her Olivier win across the ocean for her Jocasta performance in Oedipus.

Who was left out?: The always wonderful Anika Noni-Rose (who you'll know from films like Dreamgirls, The Princess and the Frog, For Colored Girls) seemed possible for The Balusters but in the end it proved too much of an ensemble play to get her the traction. And I was a bit surprised to see Emmy winner Jean Smart passed over for her solo performance in Call Me Izzy. I thought given her now long-running Hacks resurgence that she'd get a 'welcome back to Broadway' nomination. She does a Broadway show once every 20 years or so.

Fun Fact: This is Kelli O'Hara's first nomination for a non-musical!  O'Hara is a regular on The Gilded Age but it's a pity that that's not a musical comedy series since a) it's hard to take seriously as a drama and b) roughly 80% of the cast are gloriously talented musical theater regulars... even the one who was unceremoniously run over in the street to the horror of his gay lover last season.

NICHE TONY TRIVIA: If Kelli O'Hara lands one more nomination (with a win) for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, she will tie the all time leader in that particular category (the late great Chita Rivera who had eight nominations and two wins as Best Actress in a Musical over her long career). O'Hara is currently in a tie for second place with Sutton Foster though Foster has won twice and O'Hara just once. In the Best Actress in a Play category (the one we should be talking about right here but my musical obsession got in the way) the all time nomination leader is the late great Julie Harris (who cinephiles know and love from East of Eden and The Haunting and more). She received 9 nominations in the Best Actress in a Play category across her career. 

BEST LEADING ACTOR IN A PLAY 

• <-- Will Harrison (Broadway debut, 1st nom) Punch
• Nathan Lane (25th show, 7th nom, 3 wins) Death of a Salesman
• John Lithgow (26th show, 7th nom, 2 wins)  Giant
• Daniel Radcliffe (6th show, 2nd nom, 1 win) Every Brilliant Thing
• Mark Strong (2nd show, 2nd nom)  Oedipus

The press seems to think this is a showdown between two theatrical giants, Lane & Lithgow, whose shelves are already buckling under the weight of previous awards. It's true that Tony voters love both of them obsessively, and it's true that Lithgow already won the Olivier for his performance as anti-semitic author Roald Dahl. As for me, I will employ delusional thinking to believe that they split the vote to give Will Harrison a surprise win despite being a lone nominee for Punch.

Who was left out?: The big story was that two-time Oscar winner and Olivier nominee Adrien Brody missed for The Fear of 13, about an innocent death row inmate. The competition was stacked with an abundance of big name actors. Others included ubiquitous Jon Bernthal (Dog Day Afternoon) who is every movie and tv show and now also Broadway,  plus previous Tony favourites Bobby Cannavale, James Corden, and Neil Patrick Harris (all from Art), and Bill & Ted themselves, Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter (for Waiting for Godot).

BEST FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY 

MaryLouise Burke in THE BALUSTERS © Jeremy Daniel

• Betsy Aidem (4th show, 2nd nom) Liberation
• Marylouise Burke (6th show, 1st nom)  The Balusters
• Aya Cash, (Broadway debut, 1st nom) Giant
• Laurie Metcalf (11th show, 7th nom, 2 previous wins) Death of a Salesman
• June Squibb (5th show, 1st nom) Marjorie Prime

This average age of this lineup is about 73 years old. Wow. The youngest (Aya Cash) is 44 and the eldest (June Squibb) is 96. Anyway, I am beyond happy to see 85 year old Marylouise Burke finally get some flowers. She is best in show in The Balusters (which is saying a lot considering the quality of the ensemble). She plays an agreeable old lady in the HOA who gets the town's lesbians mixed up, but is kind-hearted and usually holds her tongue in tense meetings. Burke has popped up in a lot of movies and tv shows over the years (most famously as Paul Giamatti's mother in Sideways) but usually in itty bitty small parts. Aside from Series 7: The Contenders (2001), in which she plays a murderous emergency room nurse, she usually gets very little to chew on for her screen roles. 

Who was left out: Taraji P Henson (Joe Turner's Come and Gone) though she had no real buzz. More surprising was that so many Tony regulars with well liked performances couldn't sneak in like Linda Emond (Becky Shaw), Cynthia Nixon (Marjorie Prime),  Kara Young (Proof)... breaking her impressive streak of four consecutive nominations, Victoria Clark (Punch), and Jessica Hecht (Dog Day Afternoon).

Fun Fact: Oscar nominee June Squibb's Broadway debut was as a replacement cast member in the original run of the all-time musical classic Gypsy. So, yes, in her debut (1960) she worked with Ethel Merman who famously played "Mama Rose" for the entire 22 month run, never missing a single performance. Squibb played the stripper Electra. Electra is the one whose costume lights up in the beloved comic showstopper "You Gotta Have a Gimmick". Now sixty-six years later, Quibb has become the oldest person to ever be Tony-nominated for acting! The previous record holder was Lois Smith, who is one year younger than Squibb in real life, and was nominated (and deservedly won!) for The Inheritance back in the 2020 Tony Season when she was 89.

BEST FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY

• Christopher Abbott (2nd show, 1st nom) Death of a Salesman
• Danny Burstein (22nd show, 9th nom, 1 win) Marjorie Prime
• Brandon J Dirden (8th show, 1st nom) Waiting for Godot
• Alden Ehrenreich (Broadway debut, 1st nom) Becky Shaw
• Ruben-Santiago-Hudson (12th show, 3rd nom for acting) Joe Turner's Come & Gone
• Richard Thomas (16th show, 2nd nom) The Balusters

I have no idea who might win -- Alden Ehrenreich feels like the critical favourite (his reviews are out of this world)  -- but perhaps its finally Ruben's year in his third nomination connected to an August Wilson play (two for acting and one for directing)? I was happy to see Emmy winner Richard Thomas nominated. It must feel nice to have a good run of well-reviewed performances 50 years after your Emmy win (he was in his early 20s when he won for The Waltons). Thomas was also strong in The Little Foxes opposite Laura Linney and Cynthia Nixon in 2017 for which he received his first nomination.

Who Was Left Out? This category was competitive so no one felt safe for a nomination until they were read aloud. Other possibilities that were left out included Don Cheadle (Proof), Elliot Levey (for his Olivier winning performance in Giant), Ben Ahlers (winning much stronger reviews for "Happy" in Death of a Salesman than the character is usually afforded), and the Pitt's Patrick Ball (Becky Shaw)

Fun Fact: With this nomination, Danny Burstein is now the most-nominated male actor ever at the Tony awards... though he's still far behind Audra McDonald who, if we're relating this to the Oscars, is both the Meryl Streep AND the Katharine Hepburn of the Tonys as both the all time nomination leader (11) and the all time most-winning (6). Most of Burnstein's nominations have been in Featured Actor in a Musical which is also what he won for (playing Harold Zidler in Moulin Rouge!). If you ever get a chance to see him perform, TAKE IT. He looks like someone you'd barely notice on the street (a true everyman) and yet he is always mesmerizing / ridiculously enjoyable to watch on stage. 

Oh, no I feel a list coming on...

TOP TWELVE MOST NOMINATED ACTORS AT THE TONYS
†  deceased

1. Audra McDonald (11 noms, 6 wins)
2. Julie Harris† (10 noms, 5 wins)
3. Chita Rivera† (10 noms, 2 wins)
4. tie Kelli O'Hara & Danny Burstein (9 noms, 1 win each)
   Both nominated again this year so they continue to have the exact same stats 
   
   
5. Patti Lupone (8 noms, 3 wins)
6. Colleen Dewhurst† (8 noms, 2 wins)
7. tie Jane Alexander & Jason Robards† (8 noms, 1 win each)
8. Angela Lansbury† (7 noms, 5 wins)
9. Frank Langella (7 noms, 4 wins)
10. Nathan Lane (7 noms, 3 wins)
    Could win this year (again) and tie Frank Langella's record but even if he doesn't, one more nomination catapults him up to fifth place and into a tie with Patti Lupone!
    
    RUNNERS UP: There are several other people with 7 nominations (Bernadette Peters, Sutton Foster, Laurie Metcalf, John Lithgow, Stockard Channing, Christopher Plummer†, Frances Sternhagen†, Brian Bedford†) but none of them won three times like Nathan Lane so he closes out the top ten (twelve given the ties)
    
    The most winning actor to miss this list was Gwen Verdon†. She won 4 times from 6 nominations.

We now return you to you regular programming... 

BEST DIRECTION OF A PLAY 
Directing stats only in these numbers since many of them have other acting, writing, or producing credits, too

• Giant, Nicholas Hytner (5th nom, 2 wins)
• Oedipus, Robert Icke (2nd show, 1st nom)
• The Balusters, Kenny Leon (18th show, 5th nom, 1 win)
• Death. of a Salesman, Joe Mantello (37th show, 7th nom, 2 wins) 
• Liberation, Whitney White (4th show, 2nd nom)

People seem to think that Joe Mantello is going to win again. Whitney White will be back on the boards most quickly among these directors as School Girls, Or the African Mean Girls Play is the first play of the 2026/2027 season to open (First Preview: September 8)

Movie Connections: Kenny Leon has directed several TV movies and been up for 3 Emmys including Hairspray Live! (2017).  Mantello, who is also a wonderful actor (Emmy nominated for 2014's The Normal Heart  and recently seen as Truman Capote's boyfriend in Feud), has directed two feature films in 1997's Love Valour Compassion and 2020's The Boys in the Band both of which he directed on Broadway first. Hytner is more of a movie regular his feature film career stretching from 1994's The Madness of King George through 2025's The Choral. Icke and White haven't directed movies yet (though White had a small role as an actress in Oceans Eight). 

BEST SCENIC DESIGN OF A PLAY 

• Oedipus
• Bug
• Dog Day Afternoon
• Death of a Salesman
• Fallen Angels

Bug's (not undeserved) nomination was something of a surprise since the setting is a single shabby hotel room.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN OF A PLAY

The cast of LIBERATION © Joan Marcus

• Dog Day Afternoon
• Liberation
• Fallen Angels
• The Balusters
• Joe Turner's Come and Gone

Happy to see Liberation here for its unshowy 70s wear... it never felt like it was trying too hard to be "period" but still threw you backward in time. I personally loved The Balusters but a little surprised by its nomination since it's a contemporary play and the clothes aren't anything like the focus. 

BEST LIGHTING DESIGN OF A PLAY

Jon Bernthal in DOG DAY AFTERNOON © Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

• Dog Day Afternoon
• Oedipus
• Joe Turner's Come and Gone
• Bug
• The Fear of 13
• Death of a Salesman

 There must have been a statistical tie because we've got six nominees here. Dog Day Afternoon, adapted from the 1975 Oscar nominated classic by Stephen Adly Guirgis, didn't manage to score in the top categories but it did receive three design nominations (Lighting, Sets, Costumes) 

BEST SOUND DESIGN OF A PLAY

• Bug
• Death of a Salesman
• The Fear of 13
• Joe Turner's Come and Gone
• Oedipus

 And that's it for the Tony nominations. Will you watch the show in June?