Topline
The Tony Awards honoring Broadway shows from 2019 and 2020 will take place on September 26—coinciding with Broadway resuming performances—organizers announced Wednesday, finally assigning a date to the typically annual ceremony, which will take place nearly a year after nominees were announced and 18 months after theaters shuttered amid the pandemic.
The 73rd Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 9, 2019 in New York City.
Key Facts
The 74th Annual Tony Awards will celebrate Broadway shows that opened before shows stopped in March 2020—with the earliest nominated shows opening in summer 2019, more than two years before the awards ceremony.
The awards were initially slated to take place in June 2020 but were indefinitely postponed.
Tony Award nominees were announced in October and the New York Times reported at the time the awards ceremony was expected to take place virtually in December or January.
There was no reason given for why the awards ceremony was ultimately delayed for nearly a year and no winners have yet been announced in the interim, though the awards ceremony will now be held in person thanks to higher Covid-19 vaccination rates.
The Tonys date is in line with Broadway shows resuming performances: Hadestown will be the first show to begin performances on September 2, followed by hits like Hamilton, The Lion King and Wicked resuming September 14 and other shows opening over the next several months.
While the awards ceremony has typically been broadcast on CBS, it will now primarily take place on the Paramount Plus streaming service, with CBS airing a separate special directly afterward entitled The Tony Awards Present: Broadway’s Back!
What To Watch For
The New York Times reports that only three awards—Best Musical, Best Play and Best Play Revival—will be given out on the more performance-heavy CBS broadcast, with the rest of the 25 awards doled out on Paramount Plus. The agreement, which the Times reports came after lengthy negotiations between CBS and organizers the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League, will shift much of the awards to Paramount’s paid platform instead of network television. It will also, however, allow all of the awards to be broadcast to the public—unlike in past years, when many of the smaller awards were instead given out during commercial breaks.
Surprising Fact
While some of the nominated shows will be back on Broadway when it returns in September, many others are long gone: Slave Play, nominated for 12 awards, closed in January 2020, for instance, while a revival of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal with Tom Hiddleston (four nominations) closed in December 2019. A revival of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, which earned two nominations, closed more than two years before the awards ceremony in July 2019.
Tangent
The Tony Awards’ decision to hold out until the awards ceremony could be held entirely live comes after other awards ceremonies that moved forward during the pandemic—like the Oscars, Grammys and Emmys—all suffered from historically low ratings.
Crucial Quote
“To have tickets on sale, to have shows announcing their openings, and to have an announcement about the Tony Awards, feels exhilarating, and hopeful,” Broadway League President Charlotte St. Martin told the Times.
Key Background
Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Alanis Morrissette musical Jagged Little Pill and Slave Play are the top contenders for the upcoming Tony Awards, earning 15, 14 and 12 nominations each, respectively. Only 18 shows were eligible for Tony Awards in the 2019-2020 season due to the pandemic, as compared with 28 that could have been nominated if Broadway hadn’t shut down in March and cut the season short. Many of the shows that were slated to be part of the 2020 season but did not open in time will now be reopening in the fall and eligible for the next Tonys ceremony in 2022, such as Six, a musical adaptation of Mrs. Doubtfire and Bob Dylan musical Girl from the North Country.
Further Reading
Slimmed-Down Tony Nominations Reflect A Theater Industry Gone Dark (Forbes)
Broadway’s Tony Awards, Delayed by Pandemic, Set for September (New York Times)
‘Hamilton,’ ‘Wicked,’ ‘Lion King’ Among First Musicals Back On Broadway In September Reopening (Forbes)
Broadway Shows Will Be Back September 14, Cuomo Says (Forbes)
From ‘Hamilton’ To ‘Hadestown’— Here’s Every Show Returning To Broadway (Forbes)
