78th Tony Awards facts for kids

Quick facts for kids 78th Tony Awards
Date	June 8, 2025
Location	New York City, New York
Television coverage
Network	CBS Paramount+ Pluto TV
< 77th Tony Awards 79th >

The 78th Tony Awards were held on June 8, 2025, to recognize achievement in Broadway productions during the 2024–25 season. The ceremony was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, airing on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. The ceremony was hosted by Cynthia Erivo.

Musicals Death Becomes Her, Buena Vista Social Club, and Maybe Happy Ending tied for the most nominated shows, with ten nominations apiece. At the ceremony, Maybe Happy Ending took home the most awards, six, including Best Musical and Best Actor in a Musical. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Purpose won Best Play. The remaining leading acting awards were taken by Nicole Scherzinger (Best Actress in a Musical), Cole Escola (Best Actor in a Play), and Sarah Snook (Best Actress in a Play).

Ceremony information

Pluto TV streamed the pre-ceremony broadcast The Tony Awards: Act One, hosted by Darren Criss and Renée Elise Goldsberry. Brian Stokes Mitchell served as the announcer.

Cynthia Erivo served as host. Following the ceremony, NPR praised her comedy, the Associated Press described her as an "amiable host", and Deadline called her "absolutely flawless". Vulture praised her opening number, noting she had "a really smart strategy...: joking to a minimum (not her strong suit), vocals on max (there’s no one better)".

The ceremony opened with a brief sketch of Erivo walking from her dressing room to the stage, while various people advise her on what she should do for the opening number, before Oprah Winfrey advises her to be herself. Upon reaching the stage, Erivo sang "Sometimes All You Need Is a Song", an original piece written by Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul which referenced various nominees. She was joined by the Broadway Inspirational Voices choir partway through the number.

Erivo and Sara Bareilles performed a duet of "Tomorrow" for the In Memoriam section of the ceremony. The original cast of Hamilton also performed a medley of eight songs from the show in honor of the musical's 10th anniversary, choosing to wear all-black rather than their original costumes. The closing number was an adapted version of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going," with lyrics changed to reference events of the night.

Eligibility

The Tony Awards eligibility dates for the 2024–2025 Broadway season were April 29, 2024, through April 27, 2025. Productions had to also meet all other eligibility requirements as set forth by the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League. There are 41 legitimate Broadway-eligible theaters in which a production must be performed in to attain eligibility for award consideration. Nominations for the 2025 Tony Awards were announced on May 1, 2025.

Winners and nominees

The nominees for the 78th Tony Awards were announced on May 1, 2025, at 8:30am EDT by Wendell Pierce and Sarah Paulson. The winners were announced on June 8, 2025. The ceremony was hosted by Cynthia Erivo. The awards were largely spread out across various shows, with no one show "sweeping" the awards. Vulture criticized the choice to exclude some awards from the main ceremony, including Best Book, Best Score and Harvey Fierstein's acceptance of the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Purpose, written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, won Best Play. Jacobs-Jenkins had received Best Revival of a Play for his play Appropriate at the 77th Tony Awards. Maybe Happy Ending received six awards including Best Musical, while its director Michael Arden won Best Direction of a Musical and Darren Criss won Best Actor in a Musical for his role as Oliver, the first Asian-American man to do so. Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard won Best Revival of a Musical with Nicole Scherzinger winning Leading Actress in a Musical, the second Asian-American woman to do so. Paul Tazewell won Best Costume Design in a Musical for his work in Death Becomes Her. Actors who won on their Broadway debut included Sarah Snook who won Best Actress in a Play for her 26 roles in The Picture of Dorian Gray, most notably Dorian Gray, and Jak Malone, who won Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his role in Operation Mincemeat as Hester Leggatt.

Other winners included Cole Escola who won Best Actor in a Play for their role in Oh, Mary! as Mary Todd Lincoln and Kara Young who won Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role in Purpose as Aziza Houston. Escola was the first non-binary actor to win the category, while Young became the first Black actor to win a Tony Award in two consecutive years. Francis Jue won Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for his role in Yellow Face, and said in his acceptance speech that 20 years prior, "he was gifted his tuxedo from another Asian actor who wanted him to wear it to the Tonys". Jue was the second Asian-American man to win the category, the first being B.D. Wong for M. Butterfly in 1988.

In an upset to some critics, the revival of Gypsy, headed by Audra McDonald, who is tied for the most awarded performer in Tony history, did not win a single award. Additionally, Death Becomes Her, which tied for most nominated with ten nominations, won only a single award for costuming.

Awards

Source:

‡ The award is presented to the producer(s) of the musical or play.

Non-competitive awards

Those being recognized with non-competitive awards are below.

Multiple nominations and awards

Productions with multiple nominations and awards

Individuals with multiple nominations and awards

Presenters and performers

Presenters

Performances

The ceremony featured performances from 11 nominated musicals, along with four additional performances.

See also

• 2025 Laurence Olivier Awards
• Drama Desk Awards
• Outer Critics Circle Awards
• New York Drama Critics' Circle
• Theatre World Award
• Lucille Lortel Awards
• Obie Award
• Drama League Award
• Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography