The 78th Annual Tony Awards, honoring the best in plays and musicals on Broadway, is taking place on Sunday. And the 2025 awards ceremony comes after a record-breaking season.
Broadway’s biggest night is capping the highest-grossing Broadway season in recorded history, the Broadway League said, with high ticket prices for plays including Denzel Washington’s “Othello” and George Clooney’s “Good Night, and Good Luck” helping drive nearly $2 billion in gross ticket sales.
The 2024-25 season was also the second best attended season in recorded history. Overall, about 14.7 million audience members bought tickets, the agency said. Forty-three productions, including 21 musicals, 21 plays and one special engagement, raised their curtains, according to the Broadway League.
When are the 2025 Tony Awards?
The Tony Awards, at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall, begin on Sunday, June 8, at 8 p.m. ET.
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Where to watch the 2025 Tony Awards with cable
The Tony Awards ceremony airs on CBS television stations beginning at 8 p.m. ET.
How to stream the Tony Awards live
The Tony Awards are streaming on Paramount+ in the U.S. The ceremony is available live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers on Monday, June 9, the day after the special airs.
Before the main show, Darren Criss and Renée Elise Goldsberry are hosting “The Tony Awards: Act One.” The live pre-show is featuring exclusive content and will be available to viewers for free on the free streaming television service Pluto TV. The pre-show begins at 6:40 p.m. ET and runs until the start of the Tonys.
Who is nominated at the 2025 Tony Awards?
Fifteen musicals and 14 plays are nominated across 26 competitive categories at the Tony Awards.
Several nominees are making history. “Yellow Face” star Daniel Dae Kim is the first Asian actor to be nominated for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play. Kara Young, a Tony nominee this year for “Purpose,” is the first Black actor to be nominated four years in a row in any category. Last year, Young received the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.
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“I love the fact that we are being recognized as Asian Americans on Broadway, and I think it’s really important for where we are in our society, especially today, and yet I yearn for the day when it’s so commonplace and understood that anyone of any race or religion or gender identification can be nominated for these things,” Kim told CBS News New York. “I’ve always wanted to play Henry V, and you know we can always dream. And those dreams are becoming reality now.”
“Oh, Mary!” star and creator Cole Escola is the first non-binary nominee for Best Leading Actor in a Play. And “English” performers Tala Ashe and Marjan Neshat have become the first Middle Eastern actors to be nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Play, Ashe recently told CBS News New York.
Meanwhile, Broadway legend Audra McDonald has set a new bar: This year, she received her 11th Tony Award nomination for her performance in “Gypsy” — the most-ever for a performer. She has been awarded in every acting category at least once. If she wins on Sunday, she will become the performer with the most Tony Award wins, a title she currently shares with Julie Harris and Angela Lansbury.
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The full list of nominees can be found here.
Who is hosting the 2025 Tony Awards?
“Wicked” star Cynthia Erivo is hosting the ceremony. She teased her plans for the show during a Wednesday appearance on “CBS Mornings.”
Viewers can expect to see costume changes, she said, and Erivo attended numerous Broadway shows this season to prepare for the hosting gig.
Erivo said hosting the Tony Awards is “a beautiful full circle moment” in her career. She received a Tony Award for her performance in “The Color Purple” in 2016, which led to more career opportunities, including her starring role in “Wicked.”
“Because of Broadway and because of the work that we did in ‘The Color Purple,’ I get to sit with you now where I am and have done all the things that I’ve done since then,” Erivo said.
Who is performing at the 2025 Tony Awards?
Typically, the host takes part in an opening number to begin the show.
The five shows nominated for Best Musical — “The Buena Vista Social Club,” “Dead Outlaw,” “Death Becomes Her,” “Maybe Happy Ending” and “Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical” — all have performances.
The four shows nominated for Best Revival of a Musical — “Floyd Collins,” “Gypsy,” “Sunst Blvd.” and “Pirates! The Penzance Musical” — are also performing.
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The musicals “Just in Time” and “Real Women Have Curves,” which were not nominated for the top awards but have been nominated in other categories, are also expected to perform.
Members of the original cast of the smash hit “Hamilton” are set to reunite for a performance celebrating the musical’s 10th anniversary on Broadway. The Tony Awards did not announce what the cast would perform.
The choir Broadway Inspirational Voices, which received an honor for “Excellence in Theater” at the 2019 Tony Awards, is also performing.
Who is presenting at the 2025 Tony Awards?
The Tony Awards will see some of Broadway’s biggest names give awards and introduce performances. Pop star Adam Lambert, TikTok influencer Charli D’Amelio, and media mogul Oprah Winfrey are among the biggest names presenting at the awards.
Actors Samuel Jackson, Sarah Paulson, Bryan Cranston, Jean Smart, Katie Holmes and Keanu Reeves — all of whom have recently appeared, or are set to appear, in Broadway shows — will also be among the presenters. Former Tony hosts Sara Bareilles and Ariana DeBose were also set to present.
