Going into the 79th annual Tonys, it was unclear which show would win Best Musical, the evening’s most coveted prize. In the end, Schmigadoon!, writer Cinco Paul’s fun-loving send-up of shows from Broadway’s Golden Age, bested The Lost Boys, and schmade off with that honor and three more (book, score, orchestrations) to win a total of four Tonys.

Liberation, a memory play by Bess Wohl about a 1970s women’s consciousness-raising group, won Best Play after winning the Pulitzer Prize in May. Wohl is only the fourth woman to ever win a Best Play Tony Award. In her speech, she sent a message to “all the girls out there: May you speak your truth, and may the world be wise enough to listen.”

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In a neck-and-neck Best Musical Revival race between Ragtime and Cats: The Jellicle Ball, Ragtime took home the win and three other honors. But Jellicle Ball still proved a feline fan favorite with three awards of its own.

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Arthur Miller’s classic drama of a fading American Dream won six Tonys, the most of the evening and the most ever for a play revival. They included Best Play Revival as well as honors for featured actress Laurie Metcalf, now a three-time Tony winner; director Joe Mantello; and lighting, scenic, and sound design.

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All four musical acting winners this year are celebrating their first victory.

In the revival of Ragtime, Joshua Henry plays Coalhouse Walker Jr., a Black pianist radicalized by racial mistreatment, and Caissie Levy plays Mother, a white woman of privilege who finds herself. As widely expected, they won the Tonys for Best Actor and Best Actress in a musical. This year marked Henry’s fourth Tony nomination and Levy’s first.

The most recent musical to sweep both leading musical acting categories was The Band’s Visit in 2018, featuring winners Katrina Lenk and Tony Shalhoub.

Best Featured Actor and Actress in a Musical went to The Lost Boys’s Ali Louis Bourzgui, on his first nomination, and Shoshana Bean, on her third. The show also won for set design by Dane Laffrey and lighting by Jen Schriever and Michael Arden, marking his first Tony in a technical category after winning twice for directing.

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A burning question going into the Tonys was whether John Lithgow or Nathan Lane would take home Best Actor in a Play for their respective star turns in Giant and Death of a Salesman. We got an answer right after the opening number, when Lithgow won for his searing portrait of author Roald Dahl as he's accused of antisemitism.

“I’m such a lucky actor,” said Lithgow, who called the drama by Mark Rosenblatt “a play about cruelty in a cruel age.” Lithgow won his first Tony 53 years ago for The Changing Room and his second in 2002 for the musical Sweet Smell of Success.

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While many predicted that Lesley Manville, an Oscar nominee for The Phantom Thread, would be honored for her performance as Jocasta in Robert Icke’s adaptation of Oedipus, a role for which she’d already won an Olivier in 2025, it was still a closely watched category. In the end, Manville was the victor as Best Actress in a Play. Not a tragic ending for her Broadway debut.

Alden Ehrenreich, famous for roles on screen in Solo: A Star Wars Story and Weapons, took home a Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his striking work in the dark comedy Becky Shaw as a money manager who’s as mean and cynical as he is vulnerable.

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It was practically a given that P!nk would fly while emceeing Broadway’s biggest awards show. To start the Tonys, the pop star soared into view at Radio City Music Hall in midair as Peter Pan. But when Neil Patrick Harris, a four-time Tonys host in his own right, popped by and suggested a change.

So, P!nk traded the pixie wear for a top hat and pink corset and belted bits of The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables and Wicked before launching into “Leading Lady Marmalade,” a remix of the song she famously covered for Moulin Rouge! She was joined by Tony nominees Sara Chase and Marla Mindelle, plus Lea Michele, Megan Thee Stallion, and many others as she shouted out Broadway's many leading ladies and more. We can't wait to see her as a Broadway leading lady herself — it's just a matter of when.

It takes two. Laura Benanti, a Tony winner for Gypsy, and Tituss Burgess, seen twice as a boozy first lady in Oh, Mary!, stepped up expertly to emcee The Tony Awards: Act One, a pre-show that streamed on Pluto TV before the main 8 p.m. broadcast on CBS. They made for a hilarious start to the evening with easy banter and plenty of laugh-out-loud jokes that made an excellent case for them to keep hosting... well, everything.

In addition to the performances from the Best Musical and Best Musical Revival nominees, there were multiple special performances of iconic modern classics. To celebrate its 15th Broadway anniversary, The Book of Mormon reunited original cast members including Josh Gad, Andrew Rannells, Rory O’Malley, and Nikki M. James, while the show’s ever-irreverrent creators — Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Robert Lopez — introduced the number.

P!nk later rouged her knees and rolled her stockings down for a performance celebrating Chicago's 30th anniversary on Broadway, also featuring the starry likes of Queen Latifah, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Whitney Leavitt. Rachel Zegler sang a tribute to A Chorus Line for its 50th anniversary, and Hamilton Tony winner Leslie Odom, Jr. led the In Memoriam section with a moving rendition of “Without You” from Rent, honoring its 30th.

Unlike many years when there’s a single Lifetime Achievement honoree, the 2026 ceremony celebrated a trio of theatre legends. André Bishop, who led Lincoln Center for decades; renowned lighting designer Jules Fisher; and Tony-winning writer and director James Lapine (Sunday in the Park with George) were celebrated in the pre-show.

One major winner from the Act One portion of the night was Cinco Paul, who won Best Book and Best Score for Schmigadoon! The show, drawn from an Apple TV series, revolves around a couple whose opinions about Broadway musicals diverge.

Paul used his victory lap to “clear up a misconception” that’s come up. “People have the impression my wife hates musicals,” he said. “I deeply regret this. Amy really likes musicals, just not as much as I do.”

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Qween Jean became the first openly trans Tony winner of Best Costume Design of a Musical for designing the elaborate looks for Cats: The Jellicle Ball. “Happy Pride,” she said, overjoyed in her acceptance speech. “We are here for the legacy of queer people, trans people [...] We have to take up space. We have to shift the paradigm.”

She joins a handful of non-binary actors — including Cole Escola, J. Harrison Ghee, and Alex Newell — as the only openly trans Tony winners in history.

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Tony Awards photo credits: Kevin Mazur, Theo Wargo, Valerie Terranova, Jenny Anderson, and Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions