Who Are the Most Tony-Nominated People of All Time?

Do you have a burning Broadway question? Dying to know more about an obscure Broadway fact? Broadway historian and self-proclaimed theatre nerd Jennifer Ashley Tepper is here to help with Broadway Deep Dive. BroadwayWorld is accepting questions from theatre fans like you. If you're lucky, your question might be selected as the topic of her next column!

Submit your Broadway question here!

This time, the reader question was: Who are the most Tony-nominated people of all time?

---

With the 2025 Tony nominations out, the legendary Audra McDonald has now become the most Tony Award-nominated performer of all time. Honored for her turn as Rose in this season’s Gypsy, McDonald has previously won the big award for playing Carrie in Carousel (1994), Sharon in Master Class (1996), Sarah in Ragtime (1998), Ruth in A Raisin in the Sun (2004), Bess in The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (2012), and Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill (2014). For those who are counting, that’s six Tony Awards! Prior to Gypsy, McDonald was also nominated for the title role in Marie Christine (2000), Lizzie in 110 in the Shade (2007), Frankie in Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (2020), and Suzanne in Ohio State Murders (2023). With 11 Tony Award nominations, McDonald has now passed Chita Rivera and Julie Harris, who each attained 10 nominations for acting categories. 

Lighting designer Jules Fisher has earned 24 Tony Award nominations in Lighting Design categories (plus one as a producer of Best Musical for Dancin’ in 1978). Fisher has nine wins, including for Pippin (1973) and then three years in a row, from 1990-1992, for Grand Hotel, The Will Rogers Follies, and Jelly’s Last Jam. 

Continuing with design categories, Santo Loquasto is the recipient of 16 Tony Award nominations for Scenic Design—and also eight nominations for Costume Design! The multi-hyphenate Loquasto has three Costume Design Tony Awards and one Scenic Design Tony Award—although he has been nominated double the amount of times for Scenic Design. If all categories are considered, Loquasto has a total of 24 Tony nominations and Fisher a total of 25. 

Costume Designer Jane Greenwood has been nominated for 22 Tony Awards! It took her until 52 years after her first nomination (in 1965, for Tartuffe) to win (in 2017, for The Little Foxes). Greenwood was honored with a Special Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2014.

As far as creative, non-design categories, musical theatre writers John Kander and Fred Ebb, Stephen Sondheim, and Andrew Lloyd Webber are tied with 11 nominations each for their scores, from Cabaret to Company to The Phantom of the Opera. Each has received other Tony honors as well, including Lifetime Achievement Awards.

And for playwrights, Neil Simon takes the cake for nominations, with 12 nominations for writing including both straight plays (The Odd Couple, Lost in Yonkers) and books for musicals (Sweet Charity, Promises, Promises). If counting Book of a Musical as its own art form and a separate category, the writer with the most nominations there is Michael Stewart, nominated five times for his books of indelible shows like Hello, Dolly! (1964) and 42nd Street (1981, co-written with Mark Bramble).  

Bob Fosse boasts 11 nominations for Best Choreography—and eight wins! Fosse was awarded for his choreography on shows including The Pajama Game (1955), Damn Yankees (1956), Sweet Charity (1966), and Pippin (1973). He was also nominated six times for Best Director, once for Best Actor in a Musical (in 1964, for Pal Joey), and twice for Best Book of a Musical. This adds up to 20 total nods. 

Harold Prince’s stunning 35 Tony Award nominations in competitive categories make sense given his illustrious career. Prince earned 19 Tony Award nominations for producing categories, including both Best Musical and Best Producer of a Musical when that was a separate category briefly in the 1960s. Then he earned 16 Tony Award nominations for directing categories. Among those 35 nominations are wins for the shows The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, Fiorello!, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Candide, Sweeney Todd, Evita, The Phantom of the Opera, and Show Boat. Prince was also honored with a special Tony Award in 1972 in honor of Fiddler on the Roof becoming Broadway’s longest running musical and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. 

If counting Best Director of a Play as its own category, Mike Nichols racked up an impressive 11 nominations, the most of any artist. Nichols won in that category seven times, notably including tying with himself in 1965 for directing both The Odd Couple and Luv and in 2012 for Death of a Salesman only two years before he died. Nichols was also nominated twice for Best Director of a Musical and six times in producing categories. 

Jonathan Tunick holds the record for most nominations for Best Orchestations, having been honored 12 times since the award was instated in 1997. Peter Hylenski has 10 nominations in Best Sound Design, considering both the musical and play categories; he won for Moulin Rouge! in 2020 and could potentially win again this year for Maybe Happy Ending. 

Other than the great Audra McDonald, who are this season’s current Tony Award nominees with the most previous nominations? McDonald has 10 previous nominations as noted. After her, this year’s actor with the most previous nominations is Danny Burstein, who has eight. Following behind them are Jonathan Groff and Kara Young who are each being honored by the Tony Awards for the fourth time. (Young was nominated for the fourth consecutive season in a row—a feat!) 

As far as directing honorees, both Michael Arden and Sam Mendes received their 4th nomination this year; each also has nominations for producing. This year, Jerry Mitchell received his 8th choreography nomination, Chris Gattelli his 6th, and Camille A. Brown her fourth; each also has directing nominations. 

David Yazbek’s nomination for Dead Outlaw is his 6th for Best Score; he is also nominated as a co-producer of Buena Vista Social Club. 

In the scenic department, Scott Pask earned his 12th nomination, Derek McLane earned his 10th, and Rob Howell earned his 9th. Howell was also nominated a 5th time for costumes. In costume design, Catherine Zuber earned her 16th nomination, Gregg Barnes earned his 10th, Paul Tazewell his 10th, and Clint Ramos his 7th. Natasha Katz racked up her 20th nomination for lighting design, making her four nominations away from catching up to Jules Fisher’s record above. Also for lighting design, Ben Stanton has his fifth nomination for his work on Maybe Happy Ending. As far aș sound design, Peter Hylenski earned his 10th nomination, Dan Moses Schreier earned his 6th, and Paul Arditti earned his 5th.
 

To post a comment, you must register and login.