2023 Tony Awards winners: ‘Kimberly Akimbo,’ ‘Leopoldstadt,’ ‘Some Like it Hot’ triumph; non-binary performers Alex Newell, J. Harrison Ghee make history

Kimberly Akimbo, Leopoldstadt and Some Like it Hot were the big winners at the 2023 Tonys, which also featured the show’s traditional showstopping numbers and some very historical wins for first-time nominees J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell, the first non-binary performers to win acting prizes.

Kimberly Akimbo, the story of a teenage girl suffering from a condition that causes her to age rapidly, was named Best Musical among its five prizes, the most of any show, including a lead win for Victoria Clark and a featured for Bonnie Milligan. Leopoldstadt won Best Play and Featured Actor in a Play for Brandon Uranowitz among its four awards. Some Like it Hot also won four awards, Life of Pi earned three and the revivals of Parade and Sweeney Todd won two apiece.

It was a night of 1000 stars and no writers at the 76th Tony Awards last night, as the American Theater Wing’s celebration of the best on Broadway became the season’s first fully-fledged awards show to go on in the midst of the Writer’s Guild strike.

Without the benefit of a written opening number, host Ariana DeBose cleverly began the show with the ‘Tony Awards script’ in front of her, opening the book to a series of blank pages, further underscoring the show’s support. That turned into a whirlwind of choreography from the lobby of the United Palace in Washington Heights into the theater itself.

After a period of of ‘will they or won’t they cancel the show,’ Tony producers committed not to include material written specifically for the awards show and the Writers Guild of America agreed not to picket the ceremony. The WGA then made a follow-up request, asking Tony-nominated guild members not to attend the show in strike solidarity, and to pre-tape acceptance speeches or have a non-member accept on their behalf. After conferring with the Dramatists Guild, many of those union members opted to attend the Tonys anyway and to use the opportunity to vocally support their writers and for writers in the WGA. Several, including lyricist David Lindsay-Abaire (winner for Kimberly Akimbo) and playwright Tom Stoppard (Leopoldstadt) jumping at the chance to laud them. Stoppard went further, attacking the idea of AI taking over writing jobs, saying, “I’m teeming with emotions that ChatBots wouldn’t begin to understand.”

Tom Stoppard is the most awarded playwright in Tony Awards history, bringing his total wins in the category to five, from eight nominations. His first was in 1968 for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

Rhonda LaChanze Sapp, known professionally as LaChanze, scored a major coup, winning both Best Musical (Kimberly Akimbo) and Best Revival of a Play (Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog) as a producer in the same night. She also has a 2006 Lead Actress in a Musical Tony Award for the original production of The Color Purple. LaChanze joins Debra Martin Chase (a winner this season for Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog) as the only two Black women to win Tonys for a combination of two different productions of plays, musicals and/or revivals in history.

Like many awards shows, the Tonys are famous for winners making grand pleas for social and political change and this year was no different as the U.S. is in a tumultuous era of anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation. Beowulf Boritt, winners for set design of a musical for his work “New York, New York,” made a plea for abortion rights and for gender parity in the theater industry; winning director Michael Arden (Parade) spoke up for queer and trans rights, exclaiming, “We must battle this, or else we are doomed to repeat the horrors of our history,” remarking his own life being called ‘the f-word’ more times than he can remember and then saying to his bullies, “Now I’m a faggot with a Tony!” to raucous applause. Actress Denée Benton went hard in her introduction of the Excellence in Theatre Education Award on Ron DeSantis, governor of her home state Florida, saying, “Earlier tonight, CMU and the Tony Awards presented the 2023 Excellence in Theatre Education Award. And while I am certain that the current Grand Wizard… I’m sorry, excuse me, governor of my home state of Florida will be changing…. I am sure that he will changing the name of this following town immediately. We were honored to present this award to the truly incredible and life-changing Jason Zembuch Young, enhancing the lives at students at South Plantation High School in Plantation, Florida.”

Former Glee alum Alex Newell joined his co-stars from the hit Fox show and the reality show, The Glee Project, that spawned their success, Jenna Ushkowitz and Ali Stroker, as fellow Tony winners. Newell’s Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical win, for their lauded performance in Shucked, marked the first win by an openly non-binary performer in Tony history.

“Thank you for seeing me Broadway,” Newell said. “I should not be up here as a queer, non-binary, fat, Black, little baby from Massachusetts.”

But Newell was quickly followed with the second non-binary performing winner when J. Harrison Ghee won Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for their star turn in Some Like it Hot, who nervously and anxiously tapping their Tony echoed Newell’s thoughts, saying, “For every trans, nonbinary, gender non-conforming human — whoever was told they couldn’t be seen, this is for you.”

All season has been set up as a fight between Jodie Comer in Prima Facie and Jessica Chastain in A Doll’s House for Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play and after winning every possible theater pre-cursor for her one-woman show for her performance about sexual assault and the justice system, Comer triumphed in her first major stage production ever. Comer had won the Laurence Olivier Award when the play was staged in London as well as the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award. Comer adds a Tony to her BAFTA TV and Emmy Award wins for Killing Eve, giving her two notches in her EGOT belt.

Also halfway to EGOT, Sean Hayes won the Tony for Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for Good Night, Oscar. Hayes previously won an Emmy Award for his work on the NBC hit series Will & Grace in 2000 then another in 2011 as the host of the 64th Tony Awards.

Legendary artists Joel Grey, Tony and Oscar winner for Cabaret, and John Kander, who with Fred Ebb created Cabaret and Chicago, each received the 2023 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. Grey, who was presented his award by his daughter actress Jennifer Grey, closed his speech with the final lines from the iconic Tony and Oscar-winning musical that put them both on the map; “Auf wiedersehen! A bientot! Good night.”

Here is the complete list of winners of the 76th Tony Awards.

Best Play: Leopoldstadt

• Ain’t No Mo’
• Between Riverside and Crazy
• Cost of Living
• Fat Ham

Best Musical: Kimberly Akimbo

• & Juliet
• New York, New York
• Shucked
• Some Like It Hot

Best Revival of a Play: Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog

• August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson
• A Doll’s House
• The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window

Best Revival of a Musical: Parade

• Into the Woods
• Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Best Book of a Musical: Kimberly Akimbo
David Lindsay-Abaire

• & Juliet
  David West Read
• New York, New York
  David Thompson & Sharon Washington
• Shucked
  Robert Horn
• Some Like It Hot
  Matthew López & Amber Ruffin

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre: Kimberly Akimbo
Music: Jeanine Tesori Lyrics: David Lindsay-Abaire

• Almost Famous
  Music: Tom Kitt
  Lyrics: Cameron Crowe & Tom Kitt
• KPOP
  Music & Lyrics: Helen Park & Max Vernon
• Shucked
  Music and Lyrics: Brandy Clark & Shane McAnally
• Some Like It Hot
  Music: Marc Shaiman
  Lyrics: Scott Wittman & Marc Shaiman

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play: Sean Hayes, Good Night, Oscar

• Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog
• Corey Hawkins, Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog
• Stephen McKinley Henderson, Between Riverside and Crazy
• Wendell Pierce, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play: Jodie Comer, Prima Facie

• Jessica Chastain, A Doll’s House
• Jessica Hecht, Summer, 1976
• Audra McDonald, Ohio State Murders

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: J. Harrison Ghee, Some Like It Hot

• Christian Borle, Some Like It Hot
• Josh Groban, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• Brian d’Arcy James, Into the Woods
• Ben Platt, Parade
• Colton Ryan, New York, New York

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical: Victoria Clark, Kimberly Akimbo

• Annaleigh Ashford, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• Sara Bareilles, Into the Woods
• Lorna Courtney, & Juliet
• Micaela Diamond, Parade

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play: Brandon Uranowitz, Leopoldstadt

• Jordan E. Cooper, Ain’t No Mo’
• Samuel L. Jackson, August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson
• Arian Moayed, A Doll’s House
• David Zayas, Cost of Living

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play: Miriam Silverman, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window

• Nikki Crawford, Fat Ham
• Crystal Lucas-Perry, Ain’t No Mo’
• Katy Sullivan, Cost of Living
• Kara Young, Cost of Living

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical: Alex Newell, Shucked

• Kevin Cahoon, Shucked
• Justin Cooley, Kimberly Akimbo
• Kevin Del Aguila, Some Like It Hot
• Jordan Donica, Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical: Bonnie Milligan, Kimberly Akimbo

• Julia Lester, Into the Woods
• Ruthie Ann Miles, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• NaTasha Yvette Williams, Some Like It Hot
• Betsy Wolfe, & Juliet

Best Scenic Design of a Play: Tim Hatley & Andrzej Goulding, Life of Pi

• Miriam Buether, Prima Facie
• Rachel Hauck, Good Night, Oscar
• Richard Hudson, Leopoldstadt
• Dane Laffrey & Lucy Mackinnon, A Christmas Carol

Best Scenic Design of a Musical: Beowulf Boritt, New York, New York

• Mimi Lien, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• Michael Yeargan & 59 Productions, Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot
• Scott Pask, Shucked
• Scott Pask, Some Like It Hot

Best Costume Design of a Play: Brigitte Reiffenstuel, Leopoldstadt

• Tim Hatley, Nick Barnes & Finn Caldwell, Life of Pi
• Dominique Fawn Hill, Fat Ham
• Emilio Sosa, Ain’t No Mo’
• Emilio Sosa, Good Night, Oscar

Best Costume Design of a Musical: Gregg Barnes, Some Like It Hot

• Susan Hilferty, Parade
• Jennifer Moeller, Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot
• Clint Ramos & Sophia Choi, KPOP
• Paloma Young, & Juliet
• Donna Zakowska, New York, New York

Best Lighting Design of a Play: Tim Lutkin, Life of Pi

• Neil Austin, Leopoldstadt
• Natasha Chivers, Prima Facie
• Jon Clark, A Doll’s House
• Bradley King, Fat Ham
• Jen Schriever, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
• Ben Stanton, A Christmas Carol

Best Lighting Design of a Musical: Natasha Katz, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

• Ken Billington, New York, New York
• Lap Chi Chu, Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot
• Heather Gilbert, Parade
• Howard Hudson, & Juliet
• Natasha Katz, Some Like It Hot

Best Sound Design of a Play: Carolyn Downing, Life of Pi

• Jonathan Deans & Taylor Williams, Ain’t No Mo’
• Joshua D. Reid, A Christmas Carol
• Ben & Max Ringham, A Doll’s House
• Ben & Max Ringham, Prima Facie

Best Sound Design of a Musical: Nevin Steinberg, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

• Kai Harada, New York, New York
• John Shivers, Shucked
• Scott Lehrer & Alex Neumann, Into the Woods
• Gareth Owen, & Juliet

Best Direction of a Play: Patrick Marber, Leopoldstadt

• Saheem Ali, Fat Ham
• Jo Bonney, Cost of Living
• Jamie Lloyd, A Doll’s House
• Stevie Walker-Webb, Ain’t No Mo’ Max Webster, Life of Pi

Best Direction of a Musical: Michael Arden, Parade

• Lear deBessonet, Into the Woods
• Casey Nicholaw, Some Like It Hot
• Jack O’Brien, Shucked
• Jessica Stone, Kimberly Akimbo

Best Choreography: Casey Nicholaw, Some Like It Hot

• Steven Hoggett, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
• Susan Stroman, New York, New York
• Jennifer Weber, & Juliet
• Jennifer Weber, KPOP

Best Orchestrations: Charlie Rosen & Bryan Carter, Some Like It Hot

• Bill Sherman and Dominic Fallacaro, & Juliet
• John Clancy, Kimberly Akimbo
• Jason Howland, Shucked
• Daryl Waters & Sam Davis, New York, New York

Photos: Theo Wargo/Getty Images and Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions