2024 Tonys: Leslie Odom, Jr. (‘Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp through the Cotton Patch’) May Join Elite Group of Tony-Winning Leading Men

With a Tony Award (for Hamilton) and Grammy Award (also Hamilton), not to mention a pair of Oscar nominations (both for One Night in Miami…) and trio of Emmy nominations (for Central Park, Hamilton and the 74^th Tony Awards) under his belt, Leslie Odom, Jr. has recently emerged one of the most celebrated performers of the stage and screen.

This year, with his bid in Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for the acclaimed Broadway revival of Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp through the Cotton Patch, Odom, Jr. is on the verge of adding another trophy to his crowded mantle.

Odom, Jr. earned across-the-board raves for his turn as the titular Purlie Victorious Judson, a traveling preacher who returns to his Georgia hometown to rescue the local church and cotton pickers working at the local plantation. The production, which ran from September 2023 to February 2024, was a revival of the 1961 Ossie Davis play, which was later adapted into a film (1963’s Gone Are the Days!) and long-running stage musical (1970’s Purlie).

Should Odom, Jr. emerge victorious, he will join an elite group of leading men who scored Tony Awards for both Best Musical Actor and Best Play Actor.

The first actor to pull off this impressive feat was Rex Harrison, who triumphed in Best Play Actor in 1949 (for Anne of the Thousand Days) and Best Musical Actor in 1957 (for My Fair Lady, a turn that would later lead to an Oscar). Harrison was followed by Zero Mostel, a winner in Best Play Actor in 1961 (for Rhinocéros) and Best Musical Actor in 1963 (for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) and 1965 (for Fiddler on the Roof).

In 1962, Robert Morse took home the Best Musical Actor prize for How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying and, nearly three decades later, in 1990, scored Best Play Actor honors for Tru. Christopher Plummer was a Best Musical Actor winner in 1974 (for Cyrano) and Best Play Actor honoree in 1997 (for Barrymore), while Harvey Fierstein earned Best Play Actor honors in 1983 (for Torch Song Trilogy) and the Best Musical Actor prize in 2003 (for Hairspray).

Most recently pulling off this combination was Kevin Kline, whose turn in The Pirates of Penzance was a Best Musical Actor winner in 1981, with Present Laughter in 2017 delivering the Best Play Actor trophy.

What are the odds Odom, Jr. emerges the seventh winner of both Best Musical Actor and Best Play Actor Tonys? Let’s take a deep dive into this year’s field of leading men.

It’s a plenty competitive race that sports actors who are no strangers to awards attention – two past Tony winners (Odom, Jr. and Liev Schreiber), a past Tony nominee (Michael Stuhlbarg), an Emmy winner (Jeremy Strong) and an Emmy nominee (William Jackson Harper). All five earned rave reviews and there doesn’t appear to be a commanding favorite.

In terms of precursors, Odom, Jr. and Stuhlbarg have been nominated at the Drama Desk Awards (as has Harper but for the Off-Broadway production of Primary Trust); Strong and Stuhlbarg (and Harper for Primary Trust) are nominees at the Outer Critics Circle Awards; and all but Schreiber (who was ineligible, as this group does not award past winners) are honored at the Drama League Awards.

All that said, if there are two long shots in the field, they are likely Schreiber (nominated for Doubt: A Parable) and Harper (up for Uncle Vanya).

This year’s revival of Doubt scored strong critical notices but missed in the category of Best Revival of a Play, perhaps hinting at limited love among voters for this production. It’s also perhaps tough to picture Schreiber winning here when Brían F. O’Byrne didn’t triumph at the 2005 Tony Awards for the original Broadway production (which took home four prizes, including Best Play).

While Uncle Vanya has emerged one of the season’s greatest commercial successes, no doubt in part due to the star power of its cast (which includes Steve Carell in his Broadway debut), reviews for the production were decidedly mixed. In the end, its lone Tony nomination would come here, in Best Play Actor. Jackson’s notices were stellar, and he’s perhaps helped a bit by his second turn in Primary Trust, but there is a daunting statistic before him – the last actor to win this prize as the lone nomination from their play was Christopher Plummer, nearly three decades ago for Barrymore.  

Stuhlbarg, honored as the lone nominee for Patriots, is facing this same hurdle. Yet, there is a real possibility he could pull this off. A mainstay of the stage, Patriots marks Stuhlbarg’s ninth Broadway appearance and has earned him some career-best notices. Even more reason to think Stuhlbarg could take this is the Tony track record of Patriots playwright Peter Morgan, whose two prior Broadway efforts, Frost/Nixon and The Audience, delivered Tony wins for Frank Langella and Helen Mirren, respectively. 

There is no lack of love for Strong’s production of An Enemy of the People, a critical and commercial smash that, unlike Doubt and Uncle Vanya, did score a nomination in Best Play Revival, alongside bids in Best Play Costume Design, Best Play Lighting Design and Best Play Scenic Design. The affection for Purlie Victorious is even stronger, with a total of six nominations, including Best Play Revival, Best Play Direction (Kenny Leon), Best Play Featured Actress (Kara Young), Best Play Costume Design and Best Play Scenic Design.

If there’s a potential hurdle for Odom, Jr. to overcome, it’s that his play, unlike An Enemy of the People, Patriots and Uncle Vanya, is no longer running, having closed in February. There is, however, precedent for Best Play Actor winners from closed productions – of the past 10 winners in this category, three (Simon Russell Beale in 2022, Andrew Burnap in 2020 and Tracy Letts in 2013) prevailed for shows no longer running. Plus, those half dozen nominations for Purlie Victorious suggest the production proved plenty memorable for Tony voters.

Ultimately, this contest feels exceedingly close between Odom, Jr. and Strong, with Stuhlbarg right on their heels. While any of these actors would make for a fantastic winner, there is something extra exciting about the prospect of Odom, Jr. making Tony history and ranking among the likes of some of the all-time great stage stars.

The 77th Tony Awards will be held on June 16, 2024 and hosted by Ariana DeBose for the third year in a row.

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Andrew Carden

Andrew Carden is a contributing writer at Gold Derby and writes about all things Oscar on his blog, The Awards Connection. When he’s not on Twitter, lamenting Thelma Ritter’s 0-for-6 record in Best Supporting Actress, Andrew works in Massachusetts politics.

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