2017 Tony Awards: Dear Evan Hansen Wins Best Musical, Bette Middler and John Legend Move Closer to EGOT

[divider style=”normal” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]

Dear Evan Hansen won Best Musical at the 2017 Tony Awards tonight, along with its star Ben Platt winning Actor in a Musical, Rachel Bay Jones for Featured Actress, Oscar winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land) won for the score and the musical also won Book. Curiously, it lost Best Direction to Christopher Ashley for Come From Away (its sole win). This marked Michael Greif’s second loss in that category despite his musical winning the top award (he also lost for Rent).

John Legend picked up a Tony for producing August Wilson’s Jitney, which won Best Revival of a Play. This puts him just an Emmy away from EGOT status. Also moving closer to EGOT was Bette Midler. She won her first Tony on her first nomination tonight (at 70 years old) for Hello, Dolly!, which also won Best Revivial of a Musical and Featured Actor for Gavin Creel. Midler now has a Tony, Emmy and a Grammy and just needs an Oscar to complete her EGOT.

Laurie Metcalf won Actress in a Play for A Doll’s House Part 2 on her fourth nomination. Cynthia Nixon and Kevin Kline were the other acting winners tonight. Costume designer Jane Greenwood, who has dressed 125 shows and been nominated an astonishing 20 times, finally won tonight for Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes.

Oscar and Tony winner Kevin Spacey hosted the show for the first time, trudging out his tried and true impressions and making a giant wink to his sexuality in the tap dancing medley opening number.

Here is the full list of winners:

Best Musical:
Dear Evan Hansen – WINNER
Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
Groundhog Day The Musical
Come From Away

Best Revival of a Musical:
Hello, Dolly! – WINNER
Falsettos
Miss Saigon

Best Play:
Oslo – WINNER
Sweat
Indecent
A Doll’s House, Part 2

Best Revival of a Play:
August Wilson’s Jitney – WINNER
Present Laughter
Six Degrees of Separation
Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes

Best Actress in a Musical:
Bette Midler, Hello, Dolly! – WINNER
Patti LuPone, War Paint
Denee Benton, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
Eva Noblezada, Miss Saigon

Best Actor in a Musical:
Ben Platt, Dear Evan Hansen – WINNER
Andy Karl, Groundhog Day The Musical
Christian Borle, Falsettos
Josh Groban, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812

Best Actress in a Play:
Laurie Metcalf, A Doll’s House, Part 2 – WINNER
Jennifer Ehle, Oslo
Cate Blanchett, The Present
Sally Field, The Glass Menagerie
Laura Linney, Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes

Best Actor in a Play:
Kevin Kline, Present Laughter – WINNER
Jennifer Mays, Oslo
Denis Arndt, Heisenberg
Chris Cooper, A Doll’s House, Part 2
Corey Hawkins, Six Degrees of Separation

Best Book of a Musical:
Come From Away, Irene Sankoff and David Hein
Dear Evan Hansen, Steven Levenson – WINNER
Groundhog Day The Musical, Danny Rubin
Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1912, Dave Malloy

Best Original Score Written for the Theatre:
Come From Away, Irene Sankoff and David Hein
Dear Evan Hansen, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul — WINNER
Groundhog Day The Musical, Tim Minchin
Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1912, Dave Malloy

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play:
Johanna Day, Sweat
Jayne Houdyshell, A Doll’s House, Part 2
Cynthia Nixon, Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes — WINNER
Condola Rashad, A Doll’s House, Part 2
Michelle Wilson, Sweat

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play:
Michael Aronov, Oslo — WINNER
Danny DeVito, Arthur Miller’s The Price
Nathan Lane, The Front Page
Richard Thomas, Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes
John Douglas Thompson, August Wilson’s Jitney

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical:
Kate Baldwin, Hello, Dolly!
Stephanie J. Block, Falsettos
Jenn Colella, Come From Away
Rachel Bay Jones, Dear Evan Hansen – WINNER
Mary Beth Peil, Anastasia

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical:
Gavin Creel, Hello, Dolly! — WINNER
Mike Faist, Dear Evan Hansen
Andrew Rannells, Falsettos
Lucas Steele, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
Brandon Uranowitz, Falsettos

Best Scenic Design of a Play:
David Gallo, August Wilson’s Jitney
Nigel Hook, The Play That Goes Wrong — WINNER
Douglas W. Schmidt, The Front Page
Michael Yeargan, Oslo

Best Scenic Design of a Musical:
Rob Howell, Groundhog Day The Musical
David Korins, War Paint
Mimi Lien, Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812 — WINNER
Santo Loquasto, Hello, Dolly!

Best Costume Design of a Play:
Jane Greenwood, Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes — WINNER
Susan Hilferty, Present Laughter
Toni-Leslie James, August Wilson’s Jitney
David Zinn, A Doll’s House, Part 2

Best Costume Design of a Musical:
Linda Cho, Anastasia
Santo Loquasto, Hello, Dolly! — WINNER
Paloma Young, Natasha, Pierre, & The Great Comet of 1812
Catherine Zuber, War Paint

Best Lighting Design of a Play:
Christopher Akerlind, Indecent — WINNER
Jane Cox, August Wilson’s Jitney
Donald Holder, Oslo
Jennifer Tipton, Oslo

Best Lighting Design of a Musical:
Howell Binkley, Come From Away
Natasha Katz, Hello, Dolly!
Bradley King, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 – WINNER
Japhy Weideman, Dear Evan Hansen

Best Direction of a Play:
Sam Gold, A Doll’s House, Part 2
Ruben Santiago-Hudson, August Wilson’s Jitney
Bartlett Sher, Oslo
Daniel Sullivan, Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes
Rebecca Taichman, Indecent – WINNER

Best Direction of a Musical:
Christopher Ashley, Come From Away – WINNER
Rachel Chavkin, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812
Michael Greif, Dear Evan Hansen
Matthew Warchus, Groundhog Day The Musical
Jerry Zaks, Hello, Dolly!

Best Choreography:
Andy Blankenbuehler, Bandstand – WINNER
Peter Darling and Ellen Kane, Groundhog Day The Musical
Kevin Devine, Come From Away
Denis Jones, Holiday Inn, The New Irving Berlin Musical
Sam Pinkleton, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812

Best Orchestrations:
Bill Elliot and Greg Anthony Rassen, Bandstand
Larry Hochman, Hello, Dolly!
Alex Lacamoire, Dear Evan Hansen – WINNER
Dave Malloy, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812

Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre:
James Earl Jones

Special Tony Award:
Gareth Fry and Pete Malkin, sound designers for “The Encounter”

Regional Theatre Tony Award:
Dallas Theater Center in Dallas, Texas

Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award:
Baayork Lee

Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre:
Nina Lannan and Alan Wasser

• Author
• Recent Posts

Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

Latest posts by Erik Anderson (see all)

• 2025 BAFTA Longlist Predictions: Expect Big Numbers for ‘The Brutalist,’ ‘Emilia Pérez,’ ‘Kneecap’ and More - December 26, 2024
• 2024 North Texas Film Critics Association (NTFCA) Nominations - December 24, 2024
• 2024 Online Association of Female Film Critics (OAFFC) Winners: ‘The Substance” Dominates - December 23, 2024