COMMENTARY
By SHARON EBERSON
I watch the Tony Awards with Pittsburgh in mind, because the pipeline of talent between here and Broadway is, hands-down, among the region’s chief exports. It also is the awards ceremony that gives and gives, showcasing live performances by the world’s top musical theater artists, especially for those who may never make it to New York.
This past season was Broadway’s best, in terms of money, with a total gross of $1.89 billion, and 14.7 million attendees. With those numbers, a trend in Tonys speeches was to declare “Broadway’s back!,” without ever mentioning the pandemic shutdown.
There also was an echo from the stage at Radio City Musical Hall to support theater where you are.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, playwright of Pulitzer Prize– and Tony-winning Best Play, Purpose, said, “I encourage everyone to please support their local theaters. A lot of great stuff happens in New York, but a lot more happens out in the region. So use your next commercial break to Google a local theater near you, or have a very difficult conversation with your family members.”
Here are a few highlights and observations from viewing the 2025 Tony Awards:
CARNEGIE MELLON ON BROADWAY
- Natalie Venetia Belcon, Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama Class of 1991, was a first-time Tony winner as Best Featured Actress in a Musical, for her role in multi-Tony winner The Buena Vista Social Club. Belcon appeared in the Pittsburgh Public Theater original production of the Flaherty-Ahrens musical The Glorious Ones, and previously was best-known for originating the role of Gary Coleman in the Tony-winning Avenue Q. Belcon, 56, had been away from Broadway for 11 years, telling People.com, “Age has literally nothing to do with someone’s gifts — they don’t rot, they get better.”
- CMU and Hamilton alum Renee Elise Goldsberry, who co-hosted the “first act” of the Tonys, introduced the Excellence in Theatre Education Award, a collaboration of CMU and the Tonys. The presenters were CMU president Farnam Jahanian, School of Drama head Robert Ramirez and alum and one of this year’s judges, Dan Amboyer. The award this year went to the eloquent Gary Edwin Robinson, the head of the Theatre Arts Program at Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn, New York. Goldsberry later reunited with alums including Leslie Odom Jr. in a Hamilton “mixed tape” number, honoring the show’s 10th anniversary.
- CMU president Jahanian noted that there have been Tony nominees from the university for 16 straight years. One of the reasons is Pittsburgh native and New York-based producer Jamie deRoy, seven nominations this year alone and adding to her now 18 Tonys as a producer, with Best Revival of a Musical winner Sunset Boulevard.
- Costume designer Paul Tazewell, a resident artist and associate professor of costume design at CMU from 2003–2006, added a Tony (for Death Becomes Her) to his 2025 Oscar for Wicked. He began his acceptance speech by saying, “The Black, queer, little boy, in Akron, Ohio, had no idea that in 2025, he would have the year that he had.”
- This past week on Broadway, CMU actors went on for leads who were Tony nominees: Zak Resnick for Jeremy Jordan in Floyd Collins, and Noah Plomgren for Andrew Durand in Dead Outlaw.
- Sorry to every CMU alum I haven’t mentioned, such as twice-nominated sound designer Peter Hylenski (Just in Time, Maybe Happy Ending).
IN MEMORIAM
Among the titans of theater in the In Memoriam segment of the Tonys were Charles Gray (a Broadway production manager throughout the 1960s and ’70s before taking the lead with Pittsburgh CLO) and director Mel Shapiro (the Tony Award-winning former head of the CMU School of Drama).
Tonys host Cynthia Erivo and Sara Bareilles sang and gave solace to one another during the In Memoriam segment, still reeling from the loss of Gavin Creel, the beloved theater artist who died of a rare form of cancer in September of last year, at age 48.
The American Theatre Wing, in partnership with Tony Award winner and honoree Celia Keenan-Bolger, Bareilles and others, have launched The Gavin Creel Fellowship for five young theater actors. (Read more about it here.)
‘MAYBE HAPPY ENDING’S’ HAPPY ENDING
The Best Musical winner continues the trend of top honors going to small-cast shows.
Gorgeous in its techno aesthetic, Maybe Happy Ending has a cast of four, with the impeccable Darren Criss onstage throughout. He maintains his robotic persona – it’s a show about robots who fall in love, and so much more – while also being among the most empathetic characters ever to grace Broadway.
Had Jonathan Groff not won a Tony last season, for Merrily We Roll Along, it has been speculated that things might have gone differently among voters. Groff’s a dynamo in Just in Time, but Criss is completely deserving.
As for the show itself, it joins a long list of David vs. Goliath musical victors. In some cases, such as this year going up against Buena Vista Social Club, original music and subject matter likely figure into voting. Similarly, Fun Home’s themes and score had that advantage over An American in Paris, and Kimberly Akimbo over the adaptation of Some Like It Hot.
I am still not over the audacious choice of Avenue Q in place of Wicked, but that’s a discussion for another time.
P.S. Tours of Maybe Happy Ending and The Buena Vista Social Club have already been announced, beginning in fall of next year.
ON WITH THE SHOW
Cole Escola turns history on its head in his raucous, hilarious comedy Oh, Mary!, but make no mistake – they know their stuff. The silvery gray gown they wore on the way to winning the Best Actor in a Play Tony Award was fashioned after the one worn by Bernadette Peters, when she accepted for Annie Get Your Gun in 1999. The first thing Escola said after sprinting to the podium was, “Julie Harris has a Tony for playing Mary Todd Lincoln!”
Escola is the first nonbinary performer to win the Tony for Best Actor in a Play, beating the likes of Hollywood’s George Clooney (Good Night, and Good Luck) and Daniel Dae Kim (Yellow Face), and Wilsonian Warrior Harry Lennix (Pulitzer Prize- and Tony-winning Purpose) in the process.
Along with Escola’s first, Jak Malone (Best Supporting Actor in a Musical, Operation Mincemeat) celebrated trans rights in his acceptance speech.
Malone plays the part of a woman named Hester in the comedic but also poignant World War II musical.
“If you watched our show and found yourself believing in Hester,” the actor said, “then I am so glad to tell you intentionally or otherwise, you might have just bid farewell to cynicism, to outdated ideas, to that rotten old binary and opened yourself up to a world that is out there in glorious technicolor, and isn’t going away anytime soon.”
And while I am at it, find your way to speeches by Celia Keenan-Bolger and Harvey Fierstein (2025 Isabelle Stevenson Award and Lifetime Achievement Award, respectively), from the Tonys’ “first act,” broadcast on Pluto TV. Have tissues handy.
DIVERSITY ON DISPLAY
It was a big night for The Buena Vista Social Club, a vibrant celebration of Cuban music that took home six Tonys, including Belon’s win and a Special Tony for the band.
The South Korean show Maybe Happy Ending was named Best Musical, with Criss taking home Best Actor in a Musical, and Broadway creators Will Aronson and Hue Park winning for Best Book of a Musical.
For the play Yellow Face – did you watch it on PBS’ Great Performances? – Francis Jue won Best Featured Actor. He said he was wearing actor Alvin Ing‘s tuxedo from the opening of Pacific Overtures in 1986, because, “He wanted me to wear it when I accepted my Tony Award. I’m only here because of the encouragement and inspiration of generations of wonderful Asian artists who came before me and never got the opportunity that I’ve had.”
Purpose star Kara Young took home her second straight Tony Award, the only multiple winner among 2025 performers. Scherzinger, Escola, Malone and Sarah Snook (Best Actress in a Play for The Picture of Dorian Gray) won in their Broadway debuts.
Which leads me to the Queen of the Tonys, Audra McDonald. The record-breaker for wins practically blew the roof of Radio City Musical Hall, with her performance as Mama Rose from Gypsy.
I could go on and on here, but it was a particularly rewarding show for anyone who values the representation of diverse voices and choices, on Broadway and stages worldwide.
IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING …
When nominee Jennifer Simard (Death Becomes Her) was holding up her little “That Was Rude” card for the cameras, she wasn’t talking about Nicole Scherzinger winning her category as Best Lead Actress in a Musical. It was a reference to a moment in her own show, which has become the subject of many memes.
I happen to think that it was rude to play Erivo’s snippet of My Way over the acceptance speeches that went past their allotted 90 seconds, and not give them a few seconds grace. It’s the winners’ night, and sometimes, their one and only. They are not cool and collected they moment they arrive at the mic, and there are often extended ovations before they can speak. Cut something else. The host’s trip to the balcony to avoid Groff-sauce comes to mind – cute, but give the time to the winners.
On the other hand …
Erivo’s opening number, the original Sometimes All You Need Is a Song, was a fitting homage to the year that was, and also, a perfect showcase of her enormous talents.
GOOD NIGHT, AND BREAK A LEG
On Saturday, Good Night, and Good Luck, the play with the hottest ticket on Broadway – mostly due to George Clooney’s star power – was broadcast live on CNN, with pre-show and post-show discussions about the media during the shameful era of McCarthyism, and the media today.
With Clooney reciting many of reporter Edward R. Murrow’s on-air reports, word for word, the play did not win any Tonys, despite five nominations, but it was a victor in other ways.
The post-show discussions of the threat to journalism by the current administration and by the misuse of A.I. were especially chilling and necessary topics – podcaster Kara Swisher was the most plugged in (yes, I know) talking about journalism and technology. Scott Pelley (more than 50 Emmys), speaking passionately about journalism and corporate influence, was electrifying, or should be to anyone who cares about free speech and Constitutional protections.
As a prelude to the Tony Awards, it was a great night, for both stage and screen.
Find a full list of 2025 Tony Award winners at https://www.tonyawards.com/winners/ .
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