Recap the 2026 Tony Awards Acceptance Speeches
They said what?! Read all of the Tony Awards acceptance speeches in full.
The 79th Annual Tony Awards have come and gone! As winners took the stage at the big event, BroadwayWorld brought you full text of all of the acceptance speeches; from the emotional to the humorous, and everything in between.
Did you miss some, or just want to relive your favorites? Check out all of the speeches below!
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Check out the full list of Tony Award winners here, plus the Tony Awards Live Blog and Winners Show By Show.
Best Musical
Schmigadoon!
Lorne Michaels: It's been a long night. So I I just want to say that on behalf of all the people who are standing here, and the others who work every night at Schmigadoon!, we're really grateful for this and it means everything. Sometimes, singing, dancing, a lot of jokes, and a happy ending is really all you need. Thank you.
Christine Schwarzman: Well, I think I should start by thanking Apple TV for canceling the third season of Schmigadoon! the TV show. Because, without them dropping it, we couldn't have picked it up and ran with it. So thanks, Apple TV. I also want to express my thanks to the theater community, who gave a wayward lawyer a chance ten years ago. You've changed my life. I've been so grateful. And next, thanks to my No Guarantees team, yes, the name of my company is No Guarantees. Guys, you know who you are. Megan, Taylor, and Dylan, you really brought this one home. But without Rob, Amram and our newbie, we wouldn't have made it happen. My co-lead producers, Broadway Video. Now, that's a really good name for a company tonight. Lorne Michaels, you are a living legend, and you're super cool. Micah and Caroline, you're just delight to work with.
And now, really, now for the creative team, because we're nothing, nothing, without the creative team. Cinco, your singular creative mind, combined with your authentic personal charm, have brought forth a new stage classic, filled with theater joy. And Chris Gattelli, our director, and choreographer, took that word from the page, and using his talent and style, along with our absolutely amazing cast, filled the stage with a glorious show. Thanks, everyone.
Joshua Henry
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical
Ragtime
Thank you. Thank you all so much. Thank you to the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing for this incredible award and all the incredible men in my category. I have to thank God, my endless creative source for gifts, like Catherine Henry. Thank you for dreaming with me. Even when it's been hard. Thank you for putting our kids to bed. Thank you for your love and your sacrifice. And to my boys, Samson the champion, Leo my hero, and Max the great. This is incredible, but remember it's the practice that you do when no one is looking. And how you fall down and how you get back up again. That's what makes you great. Everyone at the Vivian Beaumont telling the story under the stage, backstage, on stage. Thanks for making it a joy to come to work every single day. The ensemble of Ragtime, each and every one of you are stars. Lear deBessonet, thank you for your incredible vision, and pursuit of excellence. And speaking on excellence for a second, Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell. Thank you for your Black-don't-crack legacy of artistic brilliance, showing us that we can shine in the fullness of who we are. It is an honor to play this role, Coalhouse Walker Jr., a Black musician whose art led him to his love and to his dream. And even in the face of pain and tragedy, he found a way to be heard. Every artist in this room, every artist at home, fight, fight, fight to be heard. I want to dedicate this to Birgit Fioravante, my first voice teacher. She's here today. She gave me free voice lessons and told me I could do this, when I didn't even know what she was talking about. I love you so much! Thank you all, God bless.
Caissie Levy
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical
Ragtime
Thank you to the Broadway League and to the American Theater Wing for this incredible honor. I grew up in Canada, watching the Tonys and dreaming of a life on Broadway. I'm 20 years in, and the most important thing I've learned is that no one does it alone.
My parents, Mark and Lisa Levy, who are here tonight, I love you so much. Thank you for teaching me, by example, how to be a good person and a team player. My husband, David, where are you? Oh, God, wave at me. Hi. I'm so proud of the life we've built together.
I love you. You are the best thing that ever happened to me.
Thank you to Gail Abrams. Brian Davidson, Gary Gersh, everyone at Innovative. My brothers, Josh and Roby. Liz Kaplan, and every babysitter who's made it possible for me to be both a Broadway actor and a mother. Thank you to my Ragtime family. Lear deBessonet, our producers, our cast crew and orchestra, and Fran and Danny, to Liner and Stephen Flaherty, and the late great Terrence McNally. Thank you for your masterpiece - playing Mother has been one of the greatest gifts of my artistic life, and being mother to my kids has been the greatest joy of my life - Isaiah and Talulah. I love you. And although I'm not there to tuck you in each night, you have to know that a part of my heart stays home with you. I love acting. I love theater. I love this incredible community. I am so, so honored. Thank you so much.
Best Revival of a Play
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Nathan Lane: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. On behalf of everyone associated with Death of a Salesman, everyone who works nightly at the Winter Garden Theatre, our entire cast, crew, a creative team, design team, and producing team. Our heartfelt thanks to the American Theatre Wing for this tremendous honor. Of course, we all wouldn't be standing here without the genius of Joe Mantello, who created this revelatory production. And most importantly, the genius of Arthur Miller, who created this monumental masterpiece, which is still, sadly, as relevant as it was in 1949, and still continues to teach us who we are, as humans and Americans. Thank you so much.
Alden Ehrenreich
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play
Becky Shaw
Thank you so much. I want to thank the American Theater Wing and the Broadway League. I want to thank Gina Genfrido, our incredible playwright, who cares so much about these characters. want to thank the brilliant Tripp Coleman, who saw me in this role and cast me in it. I want to thank our incredible cast, Maddie Brewer, Lauren Patten, Linda Eamond, Patrick Ball. You were with me there every night. I share this with you. Our back of house, crew, best, Kat, Emily, and everyone who are the hands that hold this up. I want to thank my team, Joanne Colona, who's been my manager since I'm 16 years old, Kevin Lynn, Franklin Latt, Chris Andrews. I want to thank a lot of people.
Everyone at Huron Station Playhouse, my theater in LA. Oh, thanks Jesse Alice, who is my brother in arms in this, and keeps the fire for this art alive for me. All my friends, my family, Harry who raised me, my mother, who was joyful and strong in the face of tragedy, and believed in every dream I ever had. My partner, Alyssa Mielka, who is the most compassionate, strong, badass, wonderful person I can wish for this art of acting has given me so much that has given me a life that has given me opportunity to be around artists like the people in this room. Most of all, it has shown me that when I am very afraid and things are very hard, there is in this present moment, right here, right now, of sustaining mystery that is there to catch you. And I am grateful for that and the magic that it is allowed to happen in my life. Thank you so much for this honor. I can't believe it.
Ragtime
Best Revival of a Musical
Lear DeBessonet: Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you to the American Theater Wing and the Broadway League on behalf of all of us at Lincoln Center Theater. Thank you to our incredible staff and board, to Mike, Bart, Nicole, Naomi, Maria, Kewsong Lee, to our producers, Kevin, Tom, Bob, Lamar, New York City Center, Rodge and Barbara Cohen, Eric, and Stacy Mindich. We want to thank every single human being who poured their love and gifts into ragtime, on stage and off. To our extraordinary cast, led by Joshua Henry, Caissie Levy, and Brandon Uranowitz. To the Beaumont crew. I shared this with Eleanor Scott and our design team. Thank you, Cody Renard Richard, Victoria, David, John, Anne James, Jim Moore. Thank you. Above all, Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty, and Terrence McNally, it is so great, wonderful, and gratifying to see your masterpiece celebrated. We're in this work because we believe the arts are an antidote to despair, and we at Ragtime are so grateful to partner with the entire theater community in the project of building towards hope, empathy, and democracy.
Stephen Flaherty: Speaking for living myself, and Terrence is very much present tonight. Thank you so much for this big honor.
Lesley Manville
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play
Oedipus
I mean, really, the day couldn't get any better. Thank you, Annette. Oh, I'm a bit overwhelmed. It was my first time on Broadway, so this is such a big deal. My formidable competition, Carrie, Kelli, Susannah, Rose…absolutely formidable, wonderful actresses. I don't know you, I just met Rose briefly, but, would somebody like to write a play for five women? We are quite bankable, you know?
Anyway, Oedipus. Our genius director and writer, Robert Ike, took a 2,500 year old play, and, brought it up to the present day, with shocking, the startling results, and it was, oh, it was, uh, an extraordinary thing to do every night, but really shocking how little has changed in those 2.5,000 years. for women. Been very slow. It was the most wonderful experience, and Rob wrote me, the most glorious speech that I did every night, to my fantastic co-partner on stage, Mark Strong. You sat and listened, and it's amazing that you did that with such style and grace, and we had a difficult role roles to play. I had to be your wife and your mother. I preferred the former, frankly. And the wonderful cast that we had here, it was just a spectacular production to do every night.
Our producers, Sonia Friedman, Wagner Johnson, and Sonia, I said this to you a long time ago. I feel like you're my fairy godmother because you've given me the two most significant plays of my career, Ghosts and Oedipus, and, like me, theatre's in your blood, in your bones, and you want to bring important plays like this to a wider commercial audience, and you are to be saluted for that, absolutely.
And my thanks to my amazing agent, Sue Latimer. My team at home at public eye, and my lovely family, my little family, but, you know, back in London, it all matters. And I closed a play last night in London, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and to all of that lovely company, too. You leave one family and you join another one that let's hope it goes on forever.
Thank you so much. I'm so honored.
Ali Louis Bourzgui
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical
The Lost Boys
Thank you. I have so many people to thank, but I'm going to thank everyone in person. Or check out my Instagram stories, where I've been doing a whole feature about everyone backstage and everything, because I have some things to say. Sometimes humanity needs a fantastical lens outside of ourselves to look at and explore questions about our own nature. Vampires represent those who have shunned their own humanity in order to achieve a nonexistent sense of superiority. The billionaires will never find happiness from their money. The colonizers will never find fulfillment from the land that lives they steal. The fascists will never find meaning from their conformity, not in this lifetime or eternity.
People like to say that theater is a form of escape, but I found more than ever that in this season and time that the theater is one of the last places people can come to worship the power of true collective human presence. We take a moment to recondition our addiction to desensitization. We ask how we can see ourselves in a stranger's story and then carry that sentiment out into the world that needs us to ask that more than ever.
This is dedicated to the beautiful tapestry of immigrant families who make this country really special. May you one day not have to audition for the empathy that should be freely given by this country that benefits from your beauty. For the queer and trans communities who have and always will exist, no matter what people in power try to take away from them. For the people of Palestine, who deserve to live a free life, a full life, without occupation. For Arab theater makers and artists, may we continue to tell our stories, and show our faces, who our humanity becomes undeniable, and our families can no longer be written off as merely collateral damage. May they know the beauty of our kisses upon each cheek and the romance of a language rooted in passion for love and life itself. If there's one thing we can learn from vampires is that life is short, but that's his gift. Find beauty in the ephemeral, and gratitude, and what is not promised, and always invest in the people that want to see you blossom into your truest self, and hold that space for them in return. I dedicate this award to my late mentor, Ralph Petillo. Thank you.
Bess Wohl
Best Play
Liberation
Thank you, American Theater Wing. Thank you, Broadway League, for this incredible, incredible award, which I share with all of these people up here. Thank you so much.
I really need first to thank my mom, who taught me to use my imagination. I need to thank my daughters, who loved to remind me that I couldn't have done it without them.
And they're right to our lead producers, Daryl Roth, Eva Price, Rachel Sutman. Thank you.
Thank you for believing that an ensemble play about women's lives belonged on Broadway? And you are visionary director, Whitney White. Ricky White, none of us would be here without you. Thank you to our cast, our designers to everyone who believed in this play, roundabout, Jenny Gerson, our family of co producers, and our real families, especially my husband, Steven. I want to say that it has been almost 40 years since an American woman playwright… that was... Wendy Wasserstein for her brilliant play, Heidi Chronicles. Tonight, I want to honor her, I want to honor women everywhere who have the courage to use their voice. And do all the girls out there. May you speak your truth, and may the world be wise enough to listen. Thank you.
Shoshana Bean
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical
The Lost Boys
I can't believe it. Um, all right. Mikey, Patty, Jimmy, Marky, especially you, our entire Lost Boys family. Belonging to you, is, like, the most singular gift of my entire career. I love you, cast, crew, creatives, everyone at The Palace. Oh my God, I will never stop screaming about how special this combination of humans is. I am grateful for you, that I get to come to work and play with you every day. Thank you. Paul Nolan, you are the leading man of my dreams. Benjamin and LJ, I love you so much. This doesn't exist without you. Being your mama on stage and off has been the greatest gift of this entire experience. This is for the mamas. This is for the single mamas. This is for my single mama. You are the wild heroes. This is for the incredible army of women that surround and uplift me. This is for every woman who ever felt like she was too much or not enough. I beg you not to wait for permission to be all of who you are. Take up space, make your own path, make mistakes, make messes, make new things. Be free, be loud, be brave... I love you!
Joe Mantello
Best Direction of a Play
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Thank you so much. The idea for this production began with an offhanded comment to Nathan, where I said to him, "One day, I'm going to direct you in Death of a Salesman." I don't think any of us, either of us, knew, that one day meant over 30 years later. I have good follow through. Nathan, you are….we all know it - you are just one of our greats.
You are, and you've always been the inspiration behind this production, and I want to share this with you.
Joe Mahoda, thank you for being my creative partner, and friend, and for believing me, especially on nights that didn't look like this. Thank you for to our producers, our designers, our backstage team, our fearless ensemble of actors that are out there. And make no mistake, as thrilling as this is, what I will remember most about this experience is the days where we were completely uncertain, and we were sure we'd lost our way, only to realize that those were actually the days that were, when the most interesting things happened. We discovered a play that we thought we knew so well, and could still surprise us, and that real thrill comes from risk.
If you're lucky, this is your job. If you're really lucky, you get to do your job with extraordinary people. I'm really lucky. But none of this could have existed without the great Arthur Miller. Who, over 75 years ago, gave us this magnificent work that still talks to us through time, and yet it just feels like it was written yesterday. On behalf of all of us at the Winter Garden Theater, may I say that it has been a pleasure to spend some time in its company.
Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch
Best Direction of a Musical
Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Ballroom is about audacity and disruption, and the words of Junior LaBeija, it do take nerve. From our fellow co-conceptualizers, Josie and Amari, to our lead producers, Mike and Michael, to Andrew and his team at Lloyd Webber Entertainment, everybody at PAC NYC, everyone who gave a fearless yes.
Ballroom's about authenticity. Our brilliant creative team, stage managers, and crew bring authentic expertise in ballroom, or Broadway, or both. Broadway's about camaraderie through competition. Our fellow nominees are fierce and we respect y'all. Ballroom's about legacy. We honor the Black and Brown trans women and gay men who were ballroom's pioneers, as well as today's icons. And our cast of astonishing triple threats, including people from their 20s to their 80s, and every decade in between. Ballroom welcomes everyone. To the 12 year old kid who doesn't fit in, who may be watching this on the television, in their bedroom, with the volume turned down low. Come find your home at the Jellicle Ball.
Finally, ballroom is about chosen family. I am nothing without my family, my friends, my partner Brandon, and especially my mother, Shannon Livingston. Every core value I learned from you. We chose each other, my husband, Christopher Liam Moore, 42 years ago. And you and our kids, Liam and Xava, are at the heart of anything to do in this any value in this world. And that, my friends, is what we call tag team performance.
Laurie Metcalf
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
When I was in college, I met six fellow students in the theater department. We worked really hard to amuse each other, and I still consider them family, and I still draw on lessons that I learned from them. They were Gary Sinace, Moira Harris, Al Wilder, Jeff Perry, Terry Kinney, and John Malkovich.
But I would like to thank Zoe, Will, Donovan, and May for their patience of having an actor in the family. I would like to thank Joe Mahoda for his humor and his honesty. Christian Syriano, Guido Gatz, and David Benjamin for their generosity. I would like to thank the casting crew of Death of a Salesman, especially the mini ensemble, which is the Loman family, Nathan Lane, Christopher Abbott, and Ben Ullers. They shaped my performance in this play. And so I do share this with them.
And Joe Mantello, I know you know this, but some of the best moments of my career have been in a rehearsal room with you. I hope we get to experience that many more times.
John Lithgow
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play
Giant
Oh my God, this is wonderful. The other gentleman in my category, you're all marvelous actors. You all deserve this. But, I got it. Because I played the lead role in an extraordinary play, Giant. A stunning play made by a bunch of people full of love and kindness, but it's a play about cruelty and a cruel age. And it's an extraordinarily important play of this moment. A play written by Mark Rosenblatt, his very first, amazingly. Directed by Nick Heitner, designed by Bob Crowley, performed by a company of actors I absolutely love, and produced by producers who did everything right. I thank all of you just profoundly for this. I thank Tony Lip, UTA, Viewpoint, all my reps. I thank my family, especially my wife, Mary, who has seen me through two exhilarating, but exhausting, years bringing this incredible play to Broadway and to this evening. I'm such a lucky actor. This is my third Tony Award, my first one was 53 years ago at my Broadway debut in the American premiere of an English play, which, by an amazing coincidence, originated at London's Royal Court Theater, just like Giant. Two Tony bookends, with 53 years between them. In those years, I have worked with hundreds of just fantastic theater artists. I've had dozens and dozens of ecstatic moments on the stage. But I have to tell you, right now, this moment... has got to be one of the best. Thank you all so much.
Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons
Best Choreography
Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Oh my god. We wrote something down because we didn't want to forget anyone. This has been an amazing journey while standing here is truly, truly humbling. Thank you, everyone. First, we would like to just thank the American Theatre Wing, the Broadway League, and all of the Tony voters for this incredible recognition. Oh my god, I can't believe I'm standing here.
We wrote something now but we're gonna speak from the heart. Might as well. So, we would love to thank our amazing choreography team. Our associate choreographer, Chelsea Arce, Bryce, Deva, Michael, Shay. Our producers, Michael Harrison, thank y'all so much for taking the chance on us. Our amazing directors, Bill, Zhalion, we love you so much. Thank you Qween Jean for those late night calls all the time. Thank you, Josie, for all of your hard work and dramaturgy, just keeping us ready with consulting and making sure the hard work we put there was being represented and represented right.
Thank you, ballroom. Because if it wasn't for you, we would not be here. We have been in ballroom for over 30 years combined. Serving, battling, competing. But this is not a competition. This is celebrating all the hard work of all the choreographers, all the talented cast members of Cats: The Jellicle Ball, who put their blood, sweat, and tears, every show, eight times a week, on that floor. That's what's up.
Thank you, Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber for allowing us to do this. Thank you to the amazing musicians and to William. There's so many people, but thank y'all so much. We'll be here all night.
Dane Laffrey
Best Scenic Design of a Musical
The Lost Boys
Thanks, everybody. This is amazing. Thank you to the wing and the Broadway League.
This is incredible honor. I first want to thank our producers over there who had a really, really bold vision for this show and insisted that the rest of us did, too. And I want to thank, uh, Jimmy and Nick, and everybody at the Nederlander are for giving us a truly amazing home to play in.
I suspect a lot of people standing up here feel a bit like the tip of an iceberg. I certainly do, so I want to take a moment to share this Tony, with the people who brought this design to life. The people who make it move, the insane, brilliant people who figured out how to build a three story building inside another building that had recently been lifted above Times Square, three stories.
You're brilliant. I need to thank my incredible associate of the past decade, Matt Ayakoza. Our props, supervisor Ray Wentmore, whose details make are the lifeblood of all of my work.
You know, because building a world like this that can sweep audiences away is as much about vision as it is about execution. And I think there is nowhere where that's more evident than with our unbelievable company, of whom we ask the most extraordinary things, like Michael said, and who climb more stairs every evening than I care to think about. It's insane.
Our show is about finding a family, and building a family, and holding onto that family, and I think that is what those of us who made it did, I feel forever connected to all of you, especially, of course, my creative partner and producing partner, and a very recent Tony Winner, Michael Arden. And finally, I want to thank all of the partners and families of Team Lost Boys, especially my partner, Jen Silverman. I love you.
For, you know, we were in the dark in a theater for a really long time to make this show, and there was a lot of patience and sacrifice. So thank you to everybody who put up with us while we made it. Thanks so much.
Chloe Lamford
Best Scenic Design of a Play
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Thank you so much. Thank you so much to the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League. This is a huge honor and such an enormous moment. To Joe. There you are. To Joe Mantello, thank you so much for asking me to do this show with you. I love our collaboration so much. I loved working with you so much. Thank you. The rest of the creative team, it was so brilliant and poetic and wonderful to work with you all. Thank you so much to Ryan Murphy, to Showmotion, to the, scenic art studio. Everyone worked so hard. Thank you to Ed Pierce, my brilliant associate, Kelly, who assisted him, my team back in London, thank you so much. It's such an honor to work in this industry, and also to make theater and storytelling in this time feels so important. I really want to thank my kids, who were one and three when I designed this show. A real massive love to all the mums in the room. It's no easy feat to make this as a new mom. So, huge love to all of you, and thank you so much. This is really amazing. Thank you.
Jen Schriever and Michael Arden
Best Lighting Design of a Musical
The Lost Boys
Jen Schriever: Okay, I can't believe how lucky I am to be able to say thank you to the American Theatre Wing. In this room in front of all of you, my little brother is running a follow spot right now. He is. We grew up making theater in high school, getting lost, in building pretend worlds that helped us make sense of our own. I think it can feel really easy to be a cynic in the world right now, and there's no better antidote than the open hearted vulnerability it takes to make theater. The Lost Boys at his heart is about finding your people, and also realizing who has been with you all along. Thank you, Joe, to my husband for being my North Star, to my son, Henry, watching from his besties, always house. I love you so much. Your creative spirit and kind heart inspire me every day. Sharing this creative process with Michael Arden has taught me so much, not just about art making, but about the incredible things that can come out of yes saying, I love you.
Michael Arden: I love you. I'm so honored to share this award with the incredible gentry group, who I have been a fan of forever, and the fact that you let me in is so astounding. The Lost Boys is a show about wanting to belong. And this room of people, this community, has allowed me to belong somewhere for the last 20 years, and I am so, so grateful. I started out making shows in my grandparents' garage for just them. They're no longer here, but I am so grateful that they let me dream of impossible things, and I'm so grateful to be working on the Lost Boys, where we dreamed impossible things, that we had a score by The Rescues, a book by David Hornsby and Chris Hope, amazing producers, who let us swerve out of our lanes with abandon and trying new things and make magic into our company, who is risking life and limb every night on this stage, they are actually flying. They actually fly. Thank you for finding the light for staying in the dark when we need you to. And it's my beautiful husband, Andy. I love you so, so much. And to anyone out there who feels like they don't belong, the theater is here for you. Thank you.
Jack Knowles
Best Lighting Design of a Play
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Wow. This is amazing. Broadway is such an incredible, supportive community. Shout out to all the designers over there. You all rock, love you all. The Salesman creative team, you are a joy to work with, a dream, so inspirational. Mikhail, Chloe, Joe, Rudy, Caroline. It's such an honor. Thanks to the nominating committee. Thanks to the Wing, the League, for embracing our show. Thanks to our producers, for bringing us here. This is a joy. I'm getting a bit scared, so I'm gonna go, but love you all. Thank you.
Cinco Paul
Best Original Score
Schmigadoon!
Thank you so much. I already talked, you're probably sick of me already. Thank you so much for this. This is so amazing. I have to give huge thanks to the music team at Schmigadoon!, Stephen Malone, David Chase, our arranger, Doug and Mike who you already gave this to, because they are the best. Our Schmorchestra is fantastic. They're the best. Our cast, they sing the heck of this, our ensemble, the best ensemble on Broadway right now. They are amazing. True triple threats.
I just want to say that, there are only six new musicals this season. That is not enough. We need more new musicals on Broadway. I can't do that. There are people out here who can help make that happen, so I implore you all to please do all you can. There are amazing musical writers out there, support new musicals. Everybody go see our show, of course, but see Lost Boys, Titanique, Two Strangers Carry a Cake...support musicals. Thank you so much.
Freddie Hendricks
Excellence in Theatre Education Award
First, I want to thank God for blessing me with good health and strength. Thank you to my mama, Betty Jean Hendrix. I know you have something to do with this from heaven. I'm sure of it. I love you.
Thanks to my whole family, for their continued support. My journey began at Lincoln Memorial University, where, in my freshman year, I met my mentor, Dr. Mabel Dunkirk Smith, who inspired me to pursue a career in acting and musical theater. Years later, God gave me a vision of children at my window asking me to help them. This was not a dream. It was a vision. And that vision led me to start the Youth Ensemble of Atlanta, YEA.
Then I went on to teach and create original work all around the world. And from teaching drama at Tri Civics High School, of the performing arts, I am now a teacher at Utopian Academy for the Arts, founded by one of my students. Dr. Artesius Miller.
My greatest joy is seeing my students excel in all areas of the entertainment industry. including Broadway, of course. Thank you to the American Theater Wing, the Broadway League, and Carnegie Mellon University for this amazing honor, because teaching is my passion. And my one desire is for all of my students to know that they are special, that everyone is someone, and that art, it matters. To all my students, to all my babies, look at us!
Kai Harada
Best Sound Design of a Musical
Ragtime
I am gonna read from this because I can't remember anything. I'm not usually on this side of the microphone, but this is a great honor, and thank you. Especially thank you for the American Theater Wing, the Broadway League. You know, I didn't even hear which musical becauase I got nominated [for two]. Ragtime. Ragtime. Great. Okay. You know? It's not a great quality for a sound designer.
But anyway, thank you to Lincoln Center Theater, Tom Carnegie, Bob Greenblatt, our other producers. Thank you to our fearless leader, Lear deBessonet, for bringing me on board. Thank you to Lynn and Stephen, and Terrence for creating such a beautiful musical that is so relevant in 2026. Special sounds to my fellow designers, our amazing orchestra, our cast. It's just an honor to have worked with you. Sound doesn't exist in a vacuum, and sound designers don't work in a vacuum. So there's a ton of people I need to thank in the next 20 seconds. Lucas Gobeau, Charles Shells, Jack O'Bride, Pride Van Tassel, Colin Breger at Ragtime. I have to thank our other team members, Bella Curry, Ashton McGorda, Juliet McIntyre, Mark Fisher, Michelle Reese, Josh Blaisdell, Jake Scotter, Ian Carr, Joseph Hickardy... This award is for all of us, because we are a team. But I'm gonna hold on to it. Special thanks to my mom, who's up there, thanks to my parents. Thank you.
Mikaal Sulaiman
Best Sound Design of a Play
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Wow. I'll get close to the mic. I am a sound designer. I should know better. Um, thank you, Mom. She's here with me tonight, Madeline. Thank you to my father, my brother Ben, my brother Amir, um, brilliant associates, DJ Potts, Will Pickens, unbelievable associates who killed it. Um, and Walter Trarbach, who's also nominated today, Walter, what the, what's going on, man?
This is so weird, right? Alex Tobin, my A1. Those are the majors, but the biggest one is Joe. Montello, you've created an immense piece of art. You trusted the process that I brought these weird ideas into the process, and you were totally gay, you were so generous, so kind. Thank you. Thank you, Max Grossman at UTA. I got to thank my agent and Michael, I don't know. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.
Outstanding Regional Theatre
American Players Theatre
We are both humbled and proud to receive this honor, and we thank the Broadway League, the American Theater Wing, American Theater Critics Association, and City National Bank. And we thank everyone who has ever worked for APT. You know that you are all essential to what we do and this is for every single one of you. And this is also for our extraordinary audience, our tenacious, radically committed audience, people who have believed in us and stood with us for 47 years. We are here for you and because of you.
Being from the woods of rural Wisconsin, you might imagine we believe in regional theater. APT is statistically impossible. We only exist because of a deep faith in storytelling, and that when you bring greater artists and a curious audience together, it creates community. And for us, community is the point. We are very lucky to have talents of people from all over the country to come work for us, and when they get there, they're like, "what the hell am I doing here in the middle of nowhere?" until they meet our audience, and they experience poetry under the stars. Then they know whether they're there. And many of them will stop and say, "Wow, I remember why I started doing this in the first place." Because we all know in this room that live theater can crack people open. It can bridge those differences that we've convinced exist between us. And as artists, we live to walk across those bridges. So thank you so much for the opportunity for, like, acknowledging our work in the woods of Wisconsin. We love what we do, and we are so, so, very grateful. Thank you so much.
Doug Besterman and Mike Morris
Best Orchestrations
Schmigadoon!
They don't let us out of our room very often, so we're gonna read. Thank you so much. We are so incredibly honored. First, we have to thank Cinco Paul for his brilliant songs and for trusting us with this remarkable musical world, and to our music supervisor, David Chase, this award belongs to you as much as it does to us. Thank you for being our creative partner every step of the way. Also, many thanks to Broadway video, no guarantees, and our entire producing team, for their unwavering belief in Schmigadoon from the very start, and to the amazing Christopher Gattelli for bringing the show so beautifully to life on stage.
There's an extraordinary team of musicians, copyists, programmers, and other music staff, whose artistry is part of every note of the score, and we proudly share this award tonight with each one of you. And on a personal note, I'm deeply grateful to my family, especially my mom, my daughters, Melody, and Mandy, for their incredible love, patience, and understanding, and to my dear Marcy, fulfilling my life with love, laughter, and lyrics. And especially to my wife, Alita, and my family, thank you for a lifetime of love.
Qween Jean
Best Costume Design of a Musical
Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Happy Pride, y'all. Happy Pride! This is such an amazing experience. I just want to say thank you, thank you so much to the entire Tony Award nominating committee. I want to say thank you to the Almighty for breathing creativity and imagination. We are architects of imagination as costume designers that create so much love and compassion in this world. I just want to say thank you to the entire crew cast. My directors of Cats: The Jellicle Ball, Round, Jayla Livingston, I love you so much. Our incredible producers, Mike Bosner, I love you, Michael Harrison. Thank you so much for the entire crew, our cast, the icon, Andre DeShields. Thank you so much. This experience has been monumental. We are here for the legacy of queer people, trans people. We are taking up space in ways. We have to take up space. We have to shift the paradigm. So I just want to say thank you all so much for this incredible honor. The world right now is is deeply, deeply combating so many ailments, and we know, as a society, that when we come together, we can make real permanent change. Thank you so much for this honor.
Cinco Paul
Best Book of a Musical
Schmigadoon!
Thank you so much for this. This is amazing. Schmigadoon! on Broadway would never have happened without Lorne Michaels, all the amazing people at Broadway Video. Christine Schwarzmann, all the amazing people at No Guarantees. Our incredible genius director.choreographer, Chris Gattelli, our fabulous cast and crew and creative team. The original Schmigadoon! writers' room, Ken Dario, Julie Klostner, Allison Silverman, Kate Gersten, Bowen Yang. I've had one agent in my entire career, that's Frank Wullager. My mom, I've also had one mom my entire career. She's the one who instilled the love of musical theatre in me. This would make her so happy right now. I just want to take a moment to clear up a misconception. During the press run, I may have given people the impression of my wife, Amy, hates musicals. I deeply regret this. Amy really likes musicals, just not as much as I do. And I crazy love musicals, as you can imagine, but just not as much as I love Amy. Amy, this is for you, sweetie. Thank you.
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