Ambition, creativity, a willingness to risk—these don't always win.
Each June, Broadway submits itself to the ritual of collective judgment, and the 79th Tony Awards — arriving Sunday at Radio City Music Hall — reveal a season of striking imbalance: the play categories overflow with genuine artistic courage, while the musical nominees reflect a year in which the form played cautiously and the field thinned accordingly. The awards ceremony, hosted by Pink and broadcast on CBS, will crown winners in categories where some races feel inevitable and others feel like open wounds. What the evening ultimately measures is not only who won, but what the theater chose to honor — and what it chose to overlook.
- The play categories are so densely competitive that predicting winners feels less like analysis and more like guesswork — Nathan Lane, Daniel Radcliffe, and John Lithgow are all genuinely Tony-worthy in the same season.
- The musical categories tell a quieter, more troubling story: 'The Lost Boys' is favored not because it soars, but because nothing around it does.
- Glaring omissions — Kristin Chenoweth's fearless work in 'Queen of Versailles,' Ayo Edebiri's vital turn in 'Proof' — cast a shadow over the nomination process and its relationship to artistic risk.
- The revival musical race pits a star-driven 'Ragtime' against the genuinely radical reimagining of 'Cats: The Jellicle Ball,' raising the question of whether Broadway rewards transformation or familiarity.
- Pink's hosting role and a planned 'Chicago' celebration carry an undercurrent of institutional stakes, as CBS and Broadway quietly negotiate the future of their long broadcast partnership.
- Sunday night will not resolve the paradox at the heart of this season — that ambition and risk-taking are what theater demands, yet neither guarantees recognition.
The 79th Tony Awards arrive Sunday night at Radio City Music Hall with Pink as host and a Broadway season that tells two very different stories depending on where you look.
In the play categories, the competition is genuinely fierce. 'Death of a Salesman' anchors a revival slate so rich with worthy performances that any winner will feel almost arbitrary. Nathan Lane, Daniel Radcliffe in 'Every Brilliant Thing,' and John Lithgow in 'Giant' are all legitimate contenders for best actor. Laurie Metcalf's supporting turn in 'Salesman' has the feel of a settled matter, while the supporting actor race — Christopher Abbott's coiled Biff against Alden Ehrenreich's intricate work in 'Becky Shaw' — is a genuine knife fight. All five best revival nominees are excellent stagings full of theatrical risk. The one wound in the category is the absence of Ayo Edebiri, whose work in 'Proof' deserved a place at the table.
The musicals offer a starker picture. 'The Lost Boys' is the favorite for best new musical largely by default — the competition is thin, and shows like 'Schmigadoon!,' 'Titanique,' and 'Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)' would not have earned nominations in a stronger year. The revival musical race is more interesting: 'Ragtime' will likely win on the strength of three extraordinary performances from Caissie Levy, Joshua Henry, and Brandon Uranowitz, though 'Cats: The Jellicle Ball' arrived with a radical revisionist vision that genuinely deepened its source material — an achievement that deserved more recognition than it received.
The season's most glaring omission is Kristin Chenoweth, whose performance in the shuttered 'Queen of Versailles' was arguably the year's most courageous — a major star willing to play a genuinely unlikeable character. Stephen Schwartz's score for that production was also passed over. Meanwhile, a nomination went to Rachel Dratch for work in 'The Rocky Horror Show' that barely registered as a performance.
What this season ultimately exposes is a familiar tension: the plays took risks and were rewarded with depth; the musicals played it safe and produced a field that struggles to justify itself. Ambition and theatrical courage are what the form demands — but they don't always win, and they don't always get nominated. Sunday night will make the point, one way or another.
The 79th Tony Awards, arriving Sunday night at Radio City Music Hall with Pink as host, presents a Broadway season split down the middle: one half bursting with theatrical ambition, the other coasting on fumes.
The play categories are where the real competition lives. "Death of a Salesman" anchors a revival slate so densely packed with worthy performances that any winner will feel like a coin flip. Nathan Lane in that same production, Daniel Radcliffe in "Every Brilliant Thing," John Lithgow in "Giant"—any of them could walk to the podium and no one would blink. Laurie Metcalf's performance in "Death of a Salesman" has become something of a consensus inevitability for best supporting actress in a play, a gut-wrenching turn that seems to have settled the matter before the votes were even cast. But the supporting actor race is where the real knife fight happens. Christopher Abbott's writhing portrayal of Biff in "Death of a Salesman" sits alongside Alden Ehrenreich's complex work in "Becky Shaw," and both are performances that will stay with anyone who saw them. The five nominees for best revival of a play—"Fallen Angels," "Death of a Salesman," "Becky Shaw," "Every Brilliant Thing," and "Oedipus"—are all genuinely excellent stagings, each one brimming with new ideas and theatrical risk. Susannah Flood and Lesley Manville are equally deserving in the lead actress category, though the absence of Ayo Edebiri, who brought vital new energy to "Proof," stings as a clear oversight.
The musicals tell a different story entirely. "The Lost Boys" has emerged as the favorite for best new musical, but not because it represents some pinnacle of the form—rather, it wins by default. The competition is thin. "Schmigadoon!" is charming but lacks theatrical ambition. "Titanique" is a fun parody, but parody is not the same as creation. "Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)" leans on rom-com tropes that feel borrowed rather than earned. None of these shows would have merited a nomination in a stronger season, and everyone in the theater knows it.
The revival musicals present their own problems. "Ragtime" is likely to win best revival of a musical, and it will do so on the backs of three genuinely excellent performances: Caissie Levy, Joshua Henry, and Brandon Uranowitz, all of them Tony-nominated and all of them Tony-worthy. But the production functions primarily as a vehicle for those voices rather than as a unified artistic statement. "Cats: The Jellicle Ball," by contrast, arrived with a radical revisionist concept that somehow deepened rather than betrayed the material—a genuine achievement that deserved recognition. "The Rocky Horror Show" revival was largely a misfire, with only Luke Evans actually committing to the truth of Richard O'Brien's work; the rest of the cast ranged from insincere to arch, yet Rachel Dratch walked away with a nomination for what barely qualified as a performance at all.
The most glaring omission is Kristin Chenoweth's absence from the lead actress category. Her performance in the shuttered "Queen of Versailles" was the most courageous of the year—a star of her magnitude willing to play an unlikeable character, which is rarer than it should be. Stephen Schwartz's score for that same show was also overlooked, booted in favor of two separate nominations for incidental music in plays. Lea Michele's presence in "Chess" is harder to argue against; when she leaves the show, the show leaves Broadway. But to suggest that the work in "Titanique," "Schmigadoon!," or "Two Strangers" rises to the level of either Chenoweth or Michele is simply unjust.
Pink, who has contributed music to "Moulin Rouge! The Musical" and "& Juliet," will also perform in a celebration of "Chicago" during the broadcast on CBS and Paramount+. The performance carries weight beyond the moment itself—it signals something about whether CBS, which has held the Tony Awards for decades, will continue to do so. Both the network and Broadway need each other, though that negotiation will play out in rooms far from the theater.
What emerges from this season is a familiar paradox: the plays took risks and mostly succeeded, while the musicals played it safe and mostly failed to justify their existence. Ambition, creativity, a willingness to risk everything for a moment of truth—these are what matter in theater. They just don't always win. They don't even always get nominated. Sunday night will prove the point, one way or another.
Notable Quotes
In any other year, none of these musicals would have even been nominated.— Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune theater critic
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does the play side feel so different from the musicals this year?
Because the plays took real risks. "Death of a Salesman" didn't just revive a classic—it cast it in a way that made you see it new. Same with "Becky Shaw," "Oedipus," all of them. The musicals, though? They're mostly playing it safe. "Schmigadoon!" is charming, but charming isn't the same as ambitious.
So "The Lost Boys" is winning by default?
Essentially, yes. It's the best of a weak field. In a stronger season, none of these new musicals would have been nominated. That's not a knock on "The Lost Boys"—it's a statement about what else is on the ballot.
What about Kristin Chenoweth? Why isn't she nominated?
That's the real injustice. She played an unlikeable character in "Queen of Versailles," which takes guts for a star of her magnitude. Most stars won't do that. She did. And she got shut out.
Is this about the voters not understanding what they're voting for?
Partly. But it's also about what gets made and what gets celebrated. The plays this year had something to say. The musicals mostly wanted to entertain, which is fine, but it's not the same thing.
Will the audience at home notice the difference?
Some will. The people who care about theater will absolutely feel it. Everyone else will just see Pink perform and enjoy the spectacle. That's fine too.