All posts tagged: Broadway

How Pink’s Tony Awards Opening Came Together

How Pink’s Tony Awards Opening Came Together

Published by Daniella Wilson

The Tony Awards opening number Sunday saw Pink suspended from the rafters and lifting Neil Patrick Harris up in the air with her legs while belting, Megan Thee Stallion rapping about a best musical nominee and Lea Michele making jokes about not winning awards.  And then there was the lyric now etched into popular culture: “Gitchie, gitchie Lesley Manville. Gitchie, gitchie Carrie Coon.” More than 170 performers filled the stage, alongside Tony Awards host Pink, as she guided them through the number, set to a rewritten “Lady Marmalade” that honored Broadway’s leading ladies and included cast members from the season’s shows. This all came together as the brainchild of Dear Evan Hansen and The Greatest Showman composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul and Mark Sonnenblick, composer of KPop Demon Hunters‘ “Golden.” (Pasek and Paul also collaborated on last year’s opening number for Cynthia Erivo.) The three chatted with The Hollywood Reporter about how they convinced nominees to participate (spoiler: it wasn’t hard), that flying moment, getting certain jokes in the telecast and the complicated logistics …

2026 Tony Awards Snubs, Surprises 

2026 Tony Awards Snubs, Surprises 

Published by Daniella Wilson

Ragtime and Cats: The Jellicle Ball battled it out at the 2026 Tonys, leading to some unexpected wins and snubs. The musical revivals went into Sunday night’s awards ceremony with 11 and nine nominations respectively, and they ended the night with Ragtime in a slight lead with four Tonys to Cats: The Jellicle Ball‘s three awards. Ragtime triumphed in the best musical revival category, arguably the closest race of the night. However, Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, who directed Cats: The Jellicle Ball, won best direction of a musical over Ragtime director Lear deBessonet, triumphing in a close race. Another Cats snub and surprise win came in the featured actor in a musical race. Theater legend André De Shields was seen as having an edge in the category for his role as Old Deuteronomy, a literally show-stopping performance, but instead Ali Louis Bourzgui was the surprise winner for his role as The Lost Boys‘ charismatic vampire leader. Bourzgui delivered a powerful speech, in which he spoke out against fascists and billionaires and in support of …

Tonys 2026 Recap: Highlights, Winners

Tonys 2026 Recap: Highlights, Winners

Published by Daniella Wilson

Schmigadoon!, a parody of golden age musicals, took home the Tony Award for best musical Sunday, in a ceremony that recognized a number of longtime Broadway actors for the first time and well-known players like John Lithgow and Laurie Metcalf.  “Sometimes singing, dancing, a lot of jokes, and a happy ending is really all you need,” said Saturday Night Live’s Lorne Michaels, as he took the stage as lead producer of Schmigadoon! The musical, which is adapted from the Apple TV show, won four awards at the ceremony, which was hosted by Pink, in an energetic awards show that included wins for Alden Ehrenreich, for his sharp-tongued role in the dark comedy Becky Shaw, Joshua Henry and Caissie Levy of Ragtime and more.   Pulitzer Prize winner Liberation won the Tony for best play, beating out Giant and Little Bear Ridge Road, making playwright Bess Wohl only the second American woman to win in the category and the first in close to 40 years. While Cats: The Jellicle Ball, which reimagines the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical …

Aubrey Plaza, Christopher Abbott at 2026 Tony Awards Show Off Pregnancy

Aubrey Plaza, Christopher Abbott at 2026 Tony Awards Show Off Pregnancy

Published by Daniella Wilson

The 2026 Tony Awards will be one to remember for Aubrey Plaza and Christopher Abbott. Walking the red carpet prior to the ceremony, Plaza and Abbott posed for photos at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The couple was all smiles, wearing matching black-and-white looks, with Plaza showing off her baby bump. Sunday’s appearance marked their first red carpet arrival since People exclusively reported in April that the pair were expecting their first child. Plaza supported Abbott as he was nominated for best actor in a featured role in a play for Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Unfortunately, Abbott lost the award to Alden Ehrenreich (Becky Shaw). The Tony nomination was Abbott’s first, and his other fellow nominees included Danny Burstein (Marjorie Prime), Brandon J. Dirden (Waiting for Godot), Ruben Santiago-Hudson (August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone) and Richard Thomas (The Balusters). His co-star, Laurie Metcalf, won for best actress. While it’s unclear when The White Lotus actress and Girls star began dating, the pair previously worked together, co-starring in the 2020 …

Bess Wohl Is 2nd American Woman to Win

Bess Wohl Is 2nd American Woman to Win

Published by Daniella Wilson

Liberation won the 2026 Tony Award for best play, making playwright Bess Wohl only the second American woman to win in the category and the first in close to 40 years. The play, about a feminist group meeting in Ohio in the 1970s, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama last month. The play follows a narrator describing her mother’s creation of the group and inserting herself into the imagined group setting, amid infighting, pushes for progress and a radical reimagining of womanhood, as well as a reckoning of where that stands now.  Wohl has said the plot was partly inspired by her mother, Lisa Cronin Wohl, who worked for Gloria Steinem’s Ms. Magazine. “I really need first to thank my mom, who taught me to use my imagination. I need to thank my daughters, who love to remind me that I couldn’t have done it without them and their right,” Wohl said onstage. With the win, Wohl is also the first woman to win a Tony Award for best play since 2009, when Yasmina Reza …

Pink 2026 Tony Awards: The Host’s Best Moments

Pink 2026 Tony Awards: The Host’s Best Moments

Published by Daniella Wilson

Pink returned to the Moulin Rouge for a star-studded opening to the 2026 Tonys, singing theater-themed lyrics to her hit “Lady Marmalade” cover from the movie musical’s soundtrack. The singer began, though, by honoring a different, older musical: Peter Pan. Suspended high above the stage and twirling around, Pink sang “I’m flying” before Neil Patrick Harris interrupted her to wonder why she was performing such a dated show. “The flying twinks are all vampires now,” Harris said, referencing top Tonys nominee The Lost Boys, which went into the night up for 12 awards. “I just want to show how much I love theater even though I’ve never been on Broadway,” Pink explained, as she flipped upside down, showing off some of her trademark acrobatics. “I’m just concerned people might be like, ‘Why’s Pink hosting the Tonys?’” She belted a couple of lines from Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables and Wicked, lifting Harris off the ground with her legs during “Defying Gravity” from the last show. Ultimately Harris encouraged Pink to just be herself, “the …

All the Fashion From the Tony Awards 2026 Red Carpet

All the Fashion From the Tony Awards 2026 Red Carpet

Published by Sam Flores

If you, like Shakespeare, believe that all the world’s a stage, then the Tony Awards 2026 red carpet is primed for performance. Joined by first-time ceremony host Pink, a bevy of stage and screen stars will descend upon New York’s famed Radio City Music Hall to celebrate the best of a bustling Broadway season. As for who will win at the Tony Awards 2026, it’ll be a battle for best musical between The Lost Boys, an opulent adaptation of Joel Schumacher’s queer classic film, or Schmigadoon!, a cheeky ode to Broadway’s golden age based on a cult-favorite Apple TV+ comedy. They lead the Tony Award nominations as the year’s most nominated musicals with 12 nods each. Meanwhile, Death of a Salesman is the most recognized play with nine total nods—including individual honors for stars Nathan Lane, Laurie Metcalf, and Christopher Abbott. Expect them to grace the Tonys carpet, in addition to lead-actor-in-a-play nominee Daniel Radcliffe for Every Brilliant Thing, lead-actor-in-a-musical nominee Luke Evans for Rocky Horror, and Grammy winner Megan Thee Stallion, fresh off an …

2026 Tony Awards Winners: Full List

2026 Tony Awards Winners: Full List

Published by Daniella Wilson

The Lost Boys Producers: James Carpinello, Marcus Chait, Patrick Wilson, James L. Nederlander, At Rise Creative, Ayesha & Stephen Curry, Lauren Shuler Donner, Neil Patrick Harris, Douglas Sills, Slash, Kiefer Sutherland, Steve Young, Amy & Grady Burnett, Allison Bloom & Gabriel Mann, Hunter Arnold/Broadway Strategic Return Fund, Eastern Standard Time, DJD Productions/ZK Productions, Jay Marcus/Carl Moellenberg, Stark Sands, Jordan Silver/Kerri Mandelbaum, James Bolosh & Hillary Wyatt, Decca Broadway/Federal Films, Creative Partners Productions, Independent Presenters Network, The John Gore Organization, Stewart F. Lane/Bonnie Comley/Leah Lane, Greg & Lisa Love, MacPac Entertainment, Murray Entertainment, Inc., Oddly Specific Productions, The Shubert Organization, Toho Co Ltd., We R Broadway Artists Alliance, Stage Entertainment, Carrie & Joe Staley, W Thompson Family, Drew Elhamalawy/Kirsten & David Abdo, Brandon Blaser/Davis-Carroll, Crossroads Live/Marla McNally Phillips, Anthony & Maria Diaco/D’Angora Padgett Productions, Nancy Glass/Handler-Pawliuk Family, Grove Entertainment/KLIVE Entertainment, Howard-DePhillips/Jamie Stone O’Brien, Pam Hurst-Della Pietra & Stephen Della Pietra/ Polly & Ed Han, Willette Klausner/Waikit Lau, Knudsen-Weissberger Productions/April Dovey Productions, Nabatoff-Caise/Sean Nyberg, Andy Raab/Ratelle-Eliason, Orfeh/Braedon Young, David & Megan Scacco/Jason & Sarah Sobel, Jason Taylor/Michael …

The secret lives of Tony nominees: How 13 Broadway stars unwind after the show

The secret lives of Tony nominees: How 13 Broadway stars unwind after the show

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter “Step, kick, kick, leap, kick, touch — again.” The famous refrain from A Chorus Line could easily double as the mantra of a Broadway actor. Eight shows a week demands a punishing cycle of performance and recovery, with physiotherapy, gym work, dance classes and vocal coaching squeezed around sleep, meals and whatever passes for life beyond the stage door. At this time of year, that intensity is compounded by Broadway’s awards season, with the Tony Awards looming large over an already relentless schedule. “They are like Olympic athletes,” Tony-nominated director Bill Rauch tells me at the New Dramatists Spring Luncheon in New York. “What they are doing on that stage is so, so extraordinary. The fact that they’re doing it eight times a week is beyond, and I’m in awe of all those artists.” On top of the physical intensity is …