The 79th Tony Awards took place on June 7th at Radio City Music Hall, hosted by Pink. 

The big winner of the night was Death of a Salesman, the revival of Arthur Miller’s classic starring Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf, which swept six awards – the most of any show. It took Best Revival of a Play, Best Direction of a Play (Joe Mantello), and Best Lead Actress in a Play (Laurie Metcalf).

Best Musical went to Schmigadoon!, which also won for Best Score, Best Book, and Orchestrations – four awards total.

Best Play went to Liberation by Bess Wohl (a notable win as she’s the first American woman in nearly 40 years to take the prize as far as I can tell). The last was Wendy Wasserstein for The Heidi Chronicles in 1989.

Best Revival of a Musical went to Ragtime, with Joshua Henry winning Best Lead Actor in a Musical and Caissie Levy winning Best Lead Actress in a Musical – four Tonys in total.

The Lost Boys also won four awards, including Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Ali Louis Bourzgui and Best Featured Actress for Shoshana Bean.

John Lithgow won Best Lead Actor in a Play for Giant – his third Tony win overall (1973 for The Changing Room and 2002 for Sweet Smell of Success). Last year he was awarded his first Olivier award in the UK, also for Giant.

Cats: The Jellicle Ball won three of its nine nominations – Best Direction of a Musical (Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch), Best Choreography (Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons) and Costume designer Qween Jean who I believe is the first openly transgender person ever to win a Tony Award.

The big snubs of the evening were British-born musical Two Strangers (Carry A Cake Across New York) who didn’t win anything despite being nominated in eight categories and The Rocky Horror Show, which was nominated in nine categories and went home empty-handed.

Best musical

The Lost Boys
Schmigadoon! – WINNER!
Titaníque
Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

Best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical

Nicholas Christopher, Chess
Luke Evans, The Rocky Horror Show
Joshua Henry, Ragtime – WINNER!
Sam Tutty, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Brandon Uranowitz, Ragtime

Best performance by an actress in a leading role in a musical

Sara Chase, Schmigadoon!
Stephanie Hsu, The Rocky Horror Show
Caissie Levy, Ragtime – WINNER!
Marla Mindelle, Titaníque
Christiani Pitts, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

Best revival of a play

Death of a Salesman – WINNER!
Becky Shaw
Every Brilliant Thing
Fallen Angels
Oedipus

Best performance by an actor in a featured role in a play

Christopher Abbott, Death of a Salesman
Danny Burstein, Marjorie Prime
Brandon J. Dirden, Waiting for Godot
Alden Ehrenreich, Becky Shaw – WINNER!
Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
Richard Thomas, The Balusters

Best revival of a musical

Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Ragtime – WINNER!
The Rocky Horror Show

Best performance by an actress in a leading role in a play

Rose Byrne, Fallen Angels
Carrie Coon, Bug
Susannah Flood, Liberation
Lesley Manville, Oedipus – WINNER!
Kelli O’Hara, Fallen Angels

Best performance by an actor in a featured role in a musical

Ali Louis Bourzgui, The Lost Boys – WINNER!
André De Shields, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Bryce Pinkham, Chess
Ben Levi Ross, Ragtime
Layton Williams, Titaníque

Best play

The Balusters
Giant
Liberation – WINNER!
Little Bear Ridge Road

Best performance by an actress in a featured role in a musical

Shoshana Bean, The Lost Boys – WINNER!
Hannah Cruz, Chess
Rachel Dratch, The Rocky Horror Show
Ana Gasteyer, Schmigadoon!
Nichelle Lewis, Ragtime

Best direction of a play

Nicholas Hytner, Giant
Robert Icke, Oedipus
Kenny Leon, The Balusters
Joe Mantello, Death of a Salesman – WINNER!
Whitney White, Liberation

Best direction of a musical

Michael Arden, The Lost Boys
Lear deBessonet, Ragtime
Christopher Gattelli, Schmigadoon!
Tim Jackson, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, Cats: The Jellicle Ball – WINNER!

Best performance by an actress in a featured role in a play

Betsy Aidem, Liberation
Marylouise Burke, The Balusters
Aya Cash, Giant
Laurie Metcalf, Death of a Salesman – WINNER!
June Squibb, Marjorie Prime

Best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play

Will Harrison, Punch
Nathan Lane, Death of a Salesman
John Lithgow, Giant – WINNER!
Daniel Radcliffe, Every Brilliant Thing
Mark Strong, Oedipus

Best choreography

Christopher Gattelli, Schmigadoon!
Ellenore Scott, Ragtime
Ani Taj, The Rocky Horror Show
Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons, Cats: The Jellicle Ball – WINNER!
Lauren Yalango-Grant and Christopher Cree Grant, The Lost Boys

Best scenic design of a musical

dots, The Rocky Horror Show
Soutra Gilmour, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Rachel Hauck, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Dane Laffrey, The Lost Boys – WINNER!
Scott Pask, Schmigadoon!

Best book of a musical

David Hornsby and Chris Hoch, The Lost Boys
Cinco Paul, Schmigadoon! – WINNER!
Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli and Tye Blue, Titaníque
Jim Barne and Kit Buchan, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

Best orchestrations

Doug Besterman and Mike Morris, Schmigadoon! – WINNER!
Ethan Popp, Kyler England, Adrianne “AG” Gonzalez and Gabriel Mann; The Lost Boys
Lux Pyramid, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Brian Usifer, Chess
Andrew Lloyd Webber, David Wilson, Trevor Holder and Doug Schadt; Cats: The Jellicle Ball

Best original score (music and/or lyrics) written for the theatre

Caroline Shaw, Death of a Salesman
Steve Bargonetti, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
The Rescues, The Lost Boys
Cinco Paul, Schmigadoon! – WINNER!
Jim Barne and Kit Buchan, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)