Stage

Tony Awards 2023: Leopoldstadt and Kimberly Akimbo win big in historic night for nonbinary actors

Jodie Comer takes best actress in a leading role in a play for the one-woman show Prima Facie

Tony Awards 2023: Jodie Comer accepts the award for best leading actress in a play for Prima Facie. Photograph: Theo Wargo/Getty

Benjamin Lee
Mon Jun 12 2023 - 09:06

Leopoldstadt and Kimberly Akimbo were the big winners at this year’s history-making Tony Awards, with the US writers’ strike affecting the format and content of the ceremony.

Tom Stoppard’s sprawling family drama Leopoldstadt was named best play, winning against Cost of Living and Fat Ham. Producer Sonia Friedman called it Stoppard’s “most personal masterwork”. The play’s director, Patrick Marber, also won. “I feel a little self-conscious up here,” the writer-director said, going on to call Stoppard his “beloved friend and still my hero”. Brandon Uranowitz was named best featured actor in a play for his role. “My impostor syndrome is on fire,” he said, thanking Stoppard for a play that tackled anti-Semitism, among other key issues.

[ Tony Awards 2023: Red carpet looks and ceremony highlights ]

History was made with two actors becoming the first nonbinary winners of acting Tonys. J Harrison Ghee was named best actor in a leading role in a musical for Some Like It Hot, paying tribute to their mother for telling them to use their talent “to be effective in the world, to help someone else’s journey”. Alex Newell won best featured actor in a musical for their role in Shucked. “I have wanted this my entire life,” they said, before adding: “I should not be up here, as a queer nonbinary fat black little baby from Massachusetts.”

Tony Awards 2023: J Harrison Ghee accepts the award for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical. Photograph: Sara Krulwich/New York Times

Jodie Comer won the Tony for best actress in a leading role in a play for the one-woman show Prima Facie. The Killing Eve star, who won an Olivier award for the role in the West End of London, plays a barrister dealing with sexual assault, a character she referred to as her “greatest teacher” in an emotional speech. She also spoke “to every person who feels represented by Tessa”. Comer won in a competitive category that included Jessica Chastain and Audra McDonald.

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Earlier this week, Comer stopped a performance of the show as a result of New York City’s unhealthy-air crisis. The actor said she couldn’t breathe, and was replaced by her understudy.

Kimberly Akimbo, about a teenage girl with a condition that causes her to age rapidly, was named best musical, with its star Victoria Clark named best lead actress. “We are nothing without our writers,” Clark said, referring to the US writers’ strike that almost led to the cancellation of this year’s ceremony. The Pulitzer-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire won for best book of a musical. “Tomorrow we’re going to be on the picket lines,” he said in his speech, adding, “We just want to be treated fairly.” Bonnie Milligan was also named best featured actress in a musical for the show.

Tony Awards 2023: Victoria Clark accepts the award for best performance by an actress in a leading role in a musical. Photograph: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

An agreement on May 15th meant that the night would not be picketed as long as it was unscripted. Reports suggested that a script had already been written before the strike began, but after host Ariana DeBose opened the event with a wordless musical number, she explained that there wouldn’t be a script for the night. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Writers Guild of America still asked nominated members not to attend. Lin-Manuel Miranda had been recruited to write a song for the evening but stopped writing as a result of the strike. – Guardian

Tony Awards 2023: All the winners

  • Best new play Leopoldstadt
  • Best new musical Kimberly Akimbo
  • Best play revival Topdog/Underdog
  • Best musical revival Parade
  • Best leading actor in a play Sean Hayes, Good Night, Oscar
  • Best leading actress in a play Jodie Comer, Prima Facie
  • Best leading actress in a musical Victoria Clark, Kimberly Akimbo
  • Best leading actor in a musical J Harrison Ghee, Some Like It Hot
  • Best featured actor in a play Brandon Uranowitz, Leopoldstadt
  • Best featured actress in a play Miriam Silverman, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window
  • Best featured actor in a musical Alex Newell, Shucked
  • Best featured actress in a musical Bonnie Milligan, Kimberly Akimbo
  • Best direction of a play Patrick Marber, Leopoldstadt
  • Best direction of a musical Michael Arden, Parade
  • Best book of a musical David Lindsay-Abaire, Kimberly Akimbo
  • Best original score Kimberly Akimbo, music by Jeanine Tesori; lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire
  • Best choreography Casey Nicholaw, Some Like It Hot
  • Best orchestrations Charlie Rosen and Bryan Carter, Some Like It Hot
  • Best scenic design of a play Tim Hatley and Andrzej Goulding, Life of Pi
  • Best scenic design of a musical Beowulf Boritt, New York, New York
  • Best costume design of a play Brigitte Reiffenstuel, Leopoldstadt
  • Best costume design of a musical Gregg Barnes, Some Like It Hot
  • Best sound design of a play Carolyn Downing, Life of Pi
  • Best sound design of a musical Nevin Steinberg, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
  • Best lighting design of a play Tim Lutkin, Life of Pi
  • Best lighting design of a musical Natasha Katz, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
  • Special Tony Award for lifetime achievement Joel Grey and John Kander
  • Isabelle Stevenson award Jerry Mitchell
  • Regional theatre Tony Award Pasadena Playhouse
  • Tony Award for excellence in theatre education Jason Zembuch Young
  • Tony honours for excellence in the theatre Lisa Dawn Cave, Victoria Bailey and Robert Fried
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