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Refresh for updates… Patti LuPone, Billy Crystal, Ruth Negga, Jaquel Spivey and Mary-Louise Parker are expressing their thanks for today’s Tony Award nominations, with LuPone and Negga extending appreciations to her co-stars who were not nominated.
“We are led every night by the beautiful, soulful, and extremely talented Katrina Lenk,” LuPone said in a statement. Negga said she is “deeply indebted” to co-star Daniel Craig. (See their comments below.)
Monday morning’s Tony Awards nominations delivered a reassuringly familiar sign of springtime after two-plus years of Covid upheaval on Broadway, and the reactions of nominees reflect that sentiment. Pulitzer winner A Strange Loop led the field with 11 nominations, followed by MJ and Paradise Square with 10 apiece.
Winners will be announced Sunday, June 12 at the 75th annual Tony Awards on CBS and Paramount+, live from Radio City Music Hall in New York, with Ariana DeBose hosting.
The following are initial reactions provided to Deadline. Check back for updates.
Ruth Negga, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play, Macbeth
“I am beyond thrilled and grateful for this acknowledgment… a dream come true for me to perform on the Broadway stage and in such incomparable company… I am deeply indebted to Daniel who is the best scene partner another actor could have asked for – it is a privilege to share the stage with him. I am so moved by the relentless work of this entire cast and crew whom I ADORE beyond words. And of course to Sam Gold for his leadership and wisdom and integrity and trust. And to Barbara for being the kindest and biggest champion. Feel truly blessed to be surrounded by this gang! So thrilled for the recognition of Mikaal and Jane’s hard work and brilliance as well!”
Patti LuPone, Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical, Company
“I’m thrilled for Marianne, Chris, Matt, Jen, the entire cast and creators of Company. We are led every night by the beautiful, soulful, and extremely talented Katrina Lenk.”
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play, Take Me Out
“The Tony Awards have always held a very special place in my heart. Growing up far away from NYC they were my view into a community I admired so much. To be honored amongst them today, and with my fellow cast mates Jesse Williams & Michael Oberholtzer makes my heart so full. I am so proud to be a part of Take Me Out and the season that is welcoming Broadway back!”
Jaquel Spivey, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical, A Strange Loop
“This type of stuff doesn’t happen for folks like me. Or so I thought. Until today….. I’ve put the possibility of even a Tony nomination out of my mind because I never believed it was possible for a person like me. I thought I had to be skinny, I thought I had to be masculine, I thought I had to be from a wealthy family, and I thought I had to be ‘Perfect.’ Turns out all I needed to be was Jaquel and that feels good as hell right now.”
Mary-Louise Parker, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play, How I Learned to Drive
“To be part of this play appearing on Broadway after decades of effort is an actual dream come true. There’s no higher honor than to perform Paula Vogel’s miraculous play alongside David Morse and Johanna Day and Alyssa May Gold and Chris Myers. The gift of participating in this first season back defies description, and I’m endlessly grateful to the audiences who come to any show, and bring life back into these houses that have been dark for so long, with so many out of work and struggling. I’m outrageously blessed and look forward to all the shows we have ahead of us. Just to walk through a stage door again feels like a miracle. It’s an embarrassment of riches and I’m forever grateful to Paula for having the courage to create this magnificent piece of theater. If I wasn’t saving my voice I’d open a window and scream my thanks to the heavens.”
Sutton Foster, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical, The Music Man
“I’m incredibly proud of this show and The Music Man company. It’s an honor to be amongst all of the companies that braved the pandemic to bring back theater. Being back on Broadway is an award in itself.”
Matt Doyle, Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical, Company
“I am so incredibly honored to be nominated for my first Tony Award, and especially for a role that means so much to me. This morning, I’m thinking back to when I was 19 and first moved to New York. To receive this recognition at this time in my life is so special. I’ve had quite a journey with Jamie over the past few years. I’m so grateful to the people who stood by my side through it all. I share this with our remarkable leader, Marianne Elliot, and the entire creative team, crew, and everyone at the Jacobs Theatre. I am here because of our unbelievable cast. I learn volumes from them every night and it is a gift to share the stage with them all. I have never been a part of a stronger ‘company’. This moment is bittersweet as we all lost a legend this year. To step onto that stage every night and get to perform one of Stephen Sondheim’s greatest scores is an absolute honor. Thank you, Steve. ‘I’m the next bride!’”
Myles Frost, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical, MJ
Frost told Deadline he was heartened by the reception he got in the Broadway world in making his debut at age 22. “I’m new to Broadway,” he said in a phone interview. “This is truly a community of people who care about each other. There hasn’t been a single person who denied me their experience or their support. … Everyone has taken me under their wing.”
Frost also said the recognition had extra resonance given the current Tony crop welcomed audiences back to live theater after an agonizing, months-long period of closures. “I’m grateful to have become part of the ‘Broadway’s back’ catalyst,” he said.
As for how the Tony veneration would affect the complicated legacy of Jackson’s music, he said, “I’m mostly excited for people to see who Myles Frost is. I’m blessed to be able to share this story.”
Lynn Nottage, Best Book of a Musical, MJ
“I’m thrilled to be recognized for my work during this historic year on Broadway, I want to acknowledge my fellow travelers who weathered this difficult moment to bring back theater. I had the joy of working with amazing collaborators, like Kate Whoriskey and Christopher Wheeldon, who infused the work with passion, love and joy.”
Billy Crystal, Best Book of a Musical, Best Performance by a Lead Actor in a Musical, Mr. Saturday Night
“I am so grateful for the five nomination Mr. Saturday Night received and for the amazing people who have made our show such a joy to experience.”
Lowell Ganz, Best Book of a Musical, Mr. Saturday Night
“It took me 50 years to get to Broadway. Worth every second.”
Babaloo Mandel, Best Book of a Musical, Mr. Saturday Night
“It’s a shame that all the teachers that failed me (and there were a lot!) are deceased.”
John-Andrew Morrison, Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical, A Strange Loop
“I was trying to pretend like I wasn’t going to watch and something forced me out of bed and in front of the TV. I’m in shock but I’m thrilled. I’m thrilled for our show, for all the folks that got nominated. It’s been a journey and I’m so very proud of us. I don’t know what to do with myself and my phone is going nuts. I keep telling myself to breath and remember where my feet are. This is amazing. I want a latte.”
Barbara Whitman, Producer, A Strange Loop
“When I first heard Michael R. Jackson’s work, I knew I was hearing an exciting and important new voice in American Musical Theatre. I was taken on a trip that was funny, insightful, wild, and challenging – and I wanted to share this story that I had yet to see on a Broadway stage. I am so grateful to be able to work with the most talented creators, actors, and designers who have come together to tell this game-changing story eight times a week.”
David Morse, Best Performance by a Lead Actor in a Play, How I Learned to Drive
“First, thank you to The American Theatre Wing and to all of the nominees. How I Learned to Drive is in fantastic company 25 years after we first did the play off-Broadway. I am so proud of everyone involved in our production at the Manhattan Theater Club. I am especially grateful to be on Broadway with Mary-Louise Parker in Paula Vogel’s spectacular play after all these years.”
Paula Vogel, Best Revival of a Play, How I Learned to Drive
“I am so honored to be nominated alongside my peers in this category! And so thrilled to walk the red carpet with Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse, who take my breath away every performance. My thanks to the entire cast and Mark Brokaw.”
Tom Kitt, Best Original Score, Flying Over Sunset
“This morning was another busy morning getting my kids to school, and getting ready for work on a new project, and I found out about the nominations on my walk to the subway. It’s the first time I’ve ever heard the news this way, and I got to just take in the moment. I feel such great appreciation for James Lapine and Michael Korie, and to Lincoln Center – for ushering us through the pandemic and allowing us to create this musical that I’m so proud of. And I also want to express my congratulations to all of the nominees!”
Michael Korie, Best Original Score, Flying Over Sunset
“This is thrilling news. I’m so grateful to Lincoln Center Theater and to all my collaborators most especially Tom Kitt and James Lapine, a wonderful cast, and brilliant design and musical team. Thanks so much to the Tony Award nominators for including us in the nominees.”
Lileana Blain-Cruz, Best Director of Play, The Skin of Our Teeth
“AAAAAAAH!!!!! I am overwhelmed with gratitude and joy at this nomination. Theater is the ultimate collaborative art form, and I am so thankful to the wonderful actors, designers, and Lincoln Center Theater for making it all happen!!”
Beowulf Boritt, Best Scenic Design of a Musical, Flying Over Sunset, and Play, POTUS
“After 18 months of dark, empty stages just getting to create the worlds of POTUS and Flying Over Sunset on Broadway was thrilling. Getting to do it with Susan Stroman and James Lapine was more than my younger self would ever have dared dream of. Getting a pair of Tony nominations for them leaves me speechless…” –
Benjamin Pearcy/59 Productions, Best Scenic Design of a Musical, Flying Over Sunset
“We are absolutely thrilled to be recognized alongside Beowulf Boritt and our talented colleagues for the scenic design of Flying Over Sunset – it’s been a strange trip, spanning a global pandemic, with 609 days between our final dress rehearsal and first preview! To create a new and wholly original musical on Broadway is a thrilling challenge in and of itself, and to succeed in doing it under these circumstances is a credit to the hard work and belief of the entire creative team.”
Bradley King, Best Lighting Design of a Musical, Flying Over Sunset
“When we set that ghostlight on the Beaumont stage the night of March 13, 2020, there was a big part of me that wondered if I would ever step foot in a theater again. Simply having the opportunity to sit back down at the table and make magic for a room full of living, breathing humans was more than I ever could have asked for. To be a part of the season of Broadway’s rebirth is truly more than I ever dared dream. We have so far to go to making Broadway the place it should be for all of us, but celebrating each other with JOY is so necessary, and I am just filled with joy and love right now for the entire theater community.”
Toby Marlow, co-writer, and Lucy Moss, co-writer and director of SIX, which received eight nominations, including one for Best Musical
“Gosh this is so wild. We created SIX as a fun summer project for us and our friends in 2017, thinking that, come the autumn, we’d be moving on with our lives and like becoming lawyers or accountants or something. So for that show to be nominated for a LITERAL Tony Award is just beyond. It’s a truly amazing, baffling honour to be even considered in the same category as these other wonderful pieces. We are so humbled, grateful, and handsome.
Lastly, we’d just love to give a major shout out to the American accent. In our own accents (the accent in which this music was originally written), the word ‘category’ is absolutely not stressed like it is, repeatedly, in our show’s final number. But having the opportunity to bring the show to Broadway really has allowed that lyric to blossom from noticeably shoddy writing to a seemingly innocuous rhyme. So thanks America.”
Camille A. Brown, Best Direction of a Play, Best Choreography, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf
“I am extremely honored to receive these two nominations! I never thought I would ever get the opportunity to direct on Broadway so to be recognized in this way is beyond what I ever imagined. Special thanks to the producers, cast, creatives, crew, and everyone at the Booth Theatre who made our show come to life. Lifting up Ntozake Shange and grateful for her choreopoem.”
Kenita R. Miller, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play, for colored girls
“I’m sitting here in the doctor’s office pinching myself. This feels like a dream! It has definitely been a dream for a majority of my life! But, I would have never dreamt of it happening while being with child, working on a show that is extremely important to me, with a family/tribe of Sisters that mean the world to me. So grateful for Camille A Brown for this experience and for her belief in me. I’m just grateful beyond grateful.”
Sharon D Clarke, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical, Caroline, Or Change
“A Tony Award nomination for my Broadway debut? Am I dreaming? I am Elated! The fact that Broadway has said to this British Actor from Tottenham, North London ‘We See You’ is humbling and such an honour. My journey with this magnificent character and this thought provoking, uplifting, ever timely show, has been nothing but The Deepest of Joys for many years now, and today I am feeling incredibly proud and very moved by this recognition. I must thank our director Michael Longhurst, and the brilliant Jeanine Tesori and Tony Kushner for gifting me with the role of a lifetime. I share this with the entire Caroline, Or Change company and creatives, and cannot wait to be back in New York City to celebrate our work. A special thank you to the Roundabout Theatre for sticking by our show when the pandemic made the future so uncertain. It was such a gift to bring it to Broadway, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. Thank you!”
Jennifer Simard, Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical, Company
“So grateful to the nominating committee. I share this honor in spirit with my entire Company, especially Christopher Sieber for being the Abbott to my Costello.”
Mare Winningham, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical, Girl From the North Country
“Girl From The North Country has filled my life with wonder and beauty for over 3 1/2 years and I am going to celebrate and honor it at the 2022 Tonys with our cast and creatives, and with Conor McPherson, our writer-director. Bob Dylan is a living legend and his poetry elevates everything in the world, including our play. When we sing his songs we are like a choir in harmony with the unknown. The mystery and uniqueness of our beloved musical has and will astound audiences going forward, but today is just a day to raise a glass for the love shown to our Girl, and to say heavens yes! Now I’m going to go put on a Dylan record and FaceTime with my new grandson.”
Tristan Baker and Charlie Parsons, producers of Best Musical nominee Girl From the North Country
“We are just so thrilled and honoured to be nominated for 7 Tony Awards including Best Musical, and we’d like to thank our incredible cast, crew, creative team, and everyone behind the scenes who has helped put this show on night after night. This is such a wonderful celebration for everyone who has been involved in the journey of this show and we could not be more delighted that from our opening night back in March 2020 we are back on Broadway and making our way to the Tony Awards, and as always want to express our gratitude to Conor McPherson, Bob Dylan and the rest of our incredible team for bringing Girl From The North Country to life.”
Conor McPherson, Best Direction of a Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Musical, Girl From the North Country
“I’m thrilled and humbled to learn of the seven nominations we received today from the Tony Awards. To have a musical on Broadway is already the stuff of dreams — but to be included and accepted into the heart of the Broadway community like this is something I will never forget. Bob Dylan has inspired us from the first day we started working on our show, and every single performer has brought such awesome talent to bear. As with all theatre, this has been a team effort and I’m thankful to all our wonderful Girl from the North Country family.”
Shoshana Bean, Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical, Mr. Saturday Night
“It’s still kind of sinking in… but what I do know for certain is I’m in a category with literal giants and for that I am so honored and humbled. I am proud to be part of the season that brought audiences back to the theater and as always… so grateful to be part of this magical community.
As far as Mr. Saturday Night– they’ve been working on this show for many, many years…I count myself so lucky Billy & Co. brought me along for the ride.”
Rob McClure, Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical, Mrs. Doubtfire
“I am ecstatic to have my name listed alongside those four brilliant artists for the next month, as we celebrate the resilience of this community. Our show has been through so much. This nomination honors all my remarkable colleagues at the Sondheim who make my performance possible. I love them. “
Michael Oberholtzer, Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play, Take Me Out
“This is a day I will never forget. To be a working actor is a blessing in of itself; To have the opportunity to do a Richard Greenberg play on Broadway is grace; to be nominated for a Tony for my performance is worth a lifetime of gratitude.”
Jennifer Schriever, Best Lighting Design of a Musical, A Strange Loop
“I’m sobbing in the Delta Sky Club near Terminal A in Boston Logan, where I’m flying back to NYC for 24 hours to see my 5-year-old son on my day of tech in Cambridge. I don’t know how to express how emotional it was to be sitting here as so many deserving artists, and my dear friends, got recognized for their amazing work, and then I realized, THIS PARTY IS GOING TO BE INSANE!”
Arnulfo Maldonado, Best Scenic Design of a Musical, A Strange Loop
“I am beyond thrilled and humbled by this nomination. I couldn’t be more proud of our Strange Loop family — over the moon I am a part of this big, black and queer-ass American Broadway show!”
Jared Grimes, Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical, Funny Girl
“I am super excited and grateful to be nominated for my first Tony. Since day one, I’ve received nothing but love and support from the cast and creatives of Funny Girl and that gives me the joy that I bring to the stage every night. It’s truly a dream come true that I get to honor my idols such as Sammie Davis Jr. and Gregory Hines in the form of Eddie Ryan.”
Charlie Rosen, Best Orchestrations, A Strange Loop
“I’m THRILLED to be nominated for my collaboration with the genius Michael R. Jackson on this project. It is truly an honor to contribute to this show and music which shares its truth honestly and without compromise. It will be a standout moment in my mind and heart for the rest of musical life.”
Stephen Brackett, Best Direction of a Musical, A Strange Loop
“My partner and I were watching, and he broke out into tears and then I got a phone call from my mom, I answered, and she asked me for tech support help. I love everything about this show and I am so honored to be nominated.”
L Morgan Lee, Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical, A Strange Loop
“My mind isn’t processing that this is real. I can’t stop crying. To specifically be a Trans actress in the company of these incredible women that I respect and have enjoyed for many years…This nomination is SO much bigger than me. I hope someone will see this moment and feel like they can go on. No matter what the world, or school, or people tell them they are “supposed” to be, how they are “supposed” to sound…that they will keep striving to love and embrace the fullest version of who they ARE. That they can safely find breath in choosing truth. That they will keep studying and working and dreaming the biggest dreams. I’m so full of gratitude this morning that I’m likely to burst! But first, an iced coffee and I’ll probably watch The View.”