2024 Tony Nominations: ‘Stereophonic,’ Breaks Play Record, Ties Musical ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ to Lead with 13 Each

Two music artist-driven shows found themselves on the top of the Tony nominations this morning with the play Stereophonic and the musical Hell’s Kitchen earning 13 nominations each, including the top award and direction. Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Renée Elise Goldsberry, previous Tony Award winners themselves, announced the nominations on Tuesday morning.

Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, Mary Jane, Mother Play and Prayer for the French Republic join Stereophonic in Best Play while the Sufjan Stevens-based Illinoise, The Outsiders, Suffs and Water for Elephants go up against Hell’s Kitchen for best musical.

After a successful off-Broadway run last fall, Stereophonic opened on Broadway earlier this month to make the April 25 deadline and edged Slave Play’s record of 12 nominations from the pandemic-shortened 2019-2020 season.

Hell’s Kitchen managed four acting nods: Maleah Joi Moon for Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical, Brandon Victor Dixon for Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical and two in Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical, for Shoshana Bean and Kecia Lewis. Stereophonic‘s five acting nominations all came in the featured categories: Will Brill, Eli Gelb and Tom Pecinka in actor and Juliana Canfield and Sarah Pidgeon in actress.

The Outsiders, a musical adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s coming-of-age novel and the Francis Ford Coppola film of the same name, was right behind the nomination tally with 12, including best musical, direction of a musical and two acting nods.

Stars of stage and screen hit big with Daniel Radcliffe, Rachel McAdams, Jeremy Strong, Jessica Lange, Eddie Redmayne, Sarah Paulson, Amy Ryan and more all earning nominations today. It was the second nod for Lange, also an Oscar winner, and Redmayne already has both a Tony and an Oscar. This is the third nod for Ryan, who was a last minute replacement for Tyne Daly in Doubt: A Parable after Daly fell ill.

Multiple individual nominations were the name of the game this morning with several artists and artisans finding themselves with two or three nomination, often in the same category competing against themselves. Dede Ayite received three nominations, two for costume design for a play: Appropriate and Jaja’s African Hair Braiding and one for costume design for a musical for Hell’s Kitchen. Lighting designer Isabella Byrd earn nods for the play An Enemy of the People and the musical Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club.

The pair of Kelli O’Hara and Brian D’Arcy James earned dual nominations for their work and an alcoholic married couple coming apart at the seams in the musical adaptation of Days of Wine and Roses. O’Hara is an 8-time nominee and a winner for 2015’s The King and I. James is a five-time nominee.

The most notable snubs of the morning were the lavish adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, which earned a single nomination for costume design, and The Wiz, a high profile but not well liked revival of the 1970s cult classic musical was blanked completely. Individually, Roger Bar, Steve Carell and Michael Imperioli all missed the cut.

The 77th Tony Awards will be hosted by Ariana DeBose, her third go-round, and will be held in the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City on June 16. The broadcast will air on CBS and will stream on Paramount+.

Here is the complete list of nominations. 

Best Play

• Jaja’s African Hair Braiding
• Mary Jane
• Mother Play
• Prayer for the French Republic
• Stereophonic

Best Musical

• Hell’s Kitchen
• Illinoise
• The Outsiders
• Suffs
• Water for Elephants

Best Revival of a Play

• Appropriate
• An Enemy of the People
• Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch

Best Revival of a Musical

• Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club
• Gutenberg! The Musical!
• Merrily We Roll Along
• The Who’s Tommy

Best Direction of a Play

• Daniel Aukin, Stereophonic
• Anne Kauffman, Mary Jane
• Kenny Leon, Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch
• Lila Neugebauer, Appropriate
• Whitney White, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding

Best Direction of a Musical

• Maria Friedman, Merrily We Roll Along
• Michael Greif, Hell’s Kitchen
• Leigh Silverman, Suffs
• Jessica Stone, Water for Elephants
• Danya Taymor, The Outsiders

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play

• William Jackson Harper, Uncle Vanya
• Leslie Odom, Jr., Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch
• Liev Schreiber, Doubt: A Parable
• Jeremy Strong, An Enemy of the People
• Michael Stuhlbarg, Patriots

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play

• Betsy Aidem, Prayer for the French Republic
• Jessica Lange, Mother Play
• Rachel McAdams, Mary Jane
• Sarah Paulson, Appropriate
• Amy Ryan, Doubt: A Parable

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical

• Brody Grant, The Outsiders
• Jonathan Groff, Merrily We Roll Along
• Dorian Harewood, The Notebook
• Brian d’Arcy James, Days of Wine and Roses
• Eddie Redmayne, Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical

• Eden Espinosa, Lempicka
• Maleah Joi Moon, Hell’s Kitchen
• Kelli O’Hara, Days of Wine and Roses
• Maryann Plunkett, The Notebook
• Gayle Rankin, Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play

• Will Brill, Stereophonic
• Eli Gelb, Stereophonic
• Jim Parsons, Mother Play
• Tom Pecinka, Stereophonic
• Corey Stoll, Appropriate

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play

• Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Doubt: A Parable
• Juliana Canfield, Stereophonic
• Celia Keenan-Bolger, Mother Play
• Sarah Pidgeon, Stereophonic
• Kara Young, Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical

• Roger Bart, Back To The Future: The Musical
• Joshua Boone, The Outsiders
• Brandon Victor Dixon, Hell’s Kitchen
• Sky Lakota-Lynch, The Outsiders
• Daniel Radcliffe, Merrily We Roll Along
• Steven Skybell, Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical

• Shoshana Bean, Hell’s Kitchen
• Amber Iman, Lempicka
• Nikki M. James, Suffs
• Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer, Monty Python’s Spamalot
• Kecia Lewis, Hell’s Kitchen
• Lindsay Mendez, Merrily We Roll Along
• Bebe Neuwirth, Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club

Best Book of a Musical

Hell’s Kitchen
Kristoffer Diaz

The Notebook
Bekah Brunstetter

The Outsiders
Adam Rapp and Justin Levine

Suffs
Shaina Taub

Water for Elephants
Rick Elice

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre

Days of Wine and Roses
Music & Lyrics: Adam Guettel

Here Lies Love
Music: David Byrne and Fatboy Slim
Lyrics: David Byrne

The Outsiders
Music & Lyrics: Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance) and Justin Levine

Stereophonic
Music & Lyrics: Will Butler

Suffs
Music & Lyrics: Shaina Taub

Best Scenic Design of a Play

• dots, Appropriate
• dots, An Enemy of the People
• Derek McLane, Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch
• David Zinn, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding
• David Zinn, Stereophonic

Best Scenic Design of a Musical

• AMP featuring Tatiana Kahvegian, The Outsiders
• Robert Brill and Peter Nigrini, Hell’s Kitchen
• Takeshi Kata, Water for Elephants
• David Korins, Here Lies Love
• Riccardo Hernández and Peter Nigrini, Lempicka
• Tim Hatley and Finn Ross, Back To The Future: The Musical
• Tom Scutt, Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club

Best Costume Design of a Play

• Dede Ayite, Appropriate
• Dede Ayite, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding
• Enver Chakartash, Stereophonic
• Emilio Sosa, Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch
• David Zinn, An Enemy of the People

Best Costume Design of a Musical

• Dede Ayite, Hell’s Kitchen
• Linda Cho, The Great Gatsby
• David Israel Reynoso, Water for Elephants
• Tom Scutt, Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club
• Paul Tazewell, Suffs

Best Lighting Design of a Play

• Isabella Byrd, An Enemy of the People
• Amith Chandrashaker, Prayer for the French Republic
• Jiyoun Chang, Stereophonic
• Jane Cox, Appropriate
• Natasha Katz, Grey House

Best Lighting Design of a Musical

• Brandon Stirling Baker, Illinoise
• Isabella Byrd, Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club
• Natasha Katz, Hell’s Kitchen
• Bradley King and David Bengali, Water for Elephants
• Brian MacDevitt and Hana S. Kim, The Outsiders

Best Sound Design of a Play

• Justin Ellington and Stefania Bulbarella, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding
• Leah Gelpe, Mary Jane
• Tom Gibbons, Grey House
• Bray Poor and Will Pickens, Appropriate
• Ryan Rumery, Stereophonic

Best Sound Design of a Musical

• M.L. Dogg and Cody Spencer, Here Lies Love
• Kai Harada, Merrily We Roll Along
• Nick Lidster for Autograph, Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club
• Gareth Owen, Hell’s Kitchen
• Cody Spencer, The Outsiders

Best Choreography

• Annie-B Parson, Here Lies Love
• Camille A. Brown, Hell’s Kitchen
• Rick Kuperman and Jeff Kuperman, The Outsiders
• Justin Peck, Illinoise
• Jesse Robb and Shana Carroll, Water for Elephants

Best Orchestrations

• Timo Andres, Illinoise
• Will Butler and Justin Craig, Stereophonic
• Justin Levine, Matt Hinkley and Jamestown Revival (Jonathan Clay and Zach Chance), The Outsiders
• Tom Kitt and Adam Blackstone, Hell’s Kitchen
• Jonathan Tunick, Merrily We Roll Along