Hi friends!! Welcome to my live coverage of the 2026 Tony Awards! It’s 6:35 PM Eastern, so the pre-show has begun and the first awards are being given out. Let’s get into it. Keep refreshing as I provide live updates 🙂

Win counter: (updated live)

Death of a Salesman – 6 (Best Revival, Featured Actress, Direction, Sound Design, Lighting Design, Scenic Design)

Schmigadoon – 4 (Best Musical, Book, Orchestrations, Score)

Ragtime – 4 (Best Revival, Lead Actress, Lead Actor, Sound Design)

The Lost Boys – 4 (Featured Actress, Featured Actor, Lighting Design, Scenic Design)

Cats: The Jellicle Ball – 3 (Direction, Choreography, Costume Design)

Liberation – 1 (Best Play)

Oedipus – 1 (Lead Actress)

Giant – 1 (Lead Actor)

Becky Shaw – 1 (Featured Actor)

Fallen Angels – 1 (Costume Design)

Best Book of a Musical

Schmigadoon wins for best book! This is somewhat controversial, since Cinco Paul is solely credited as the book writer, but the entire musical is based on a TV show, which had a team of writers. So YAY! But also..yay to lots of other uncredited people.

Best Costume Design of a Play

Jeff Mahshie wins for Fallen Angels. This was a fun category. In my opinion, it was a tossup between Fallen Angels and Liberation. Liberation had some fun 70s period pieces, but Fallen Angels had opulent costumes that served a narrative purpose.

Best Costume Design of a Musical

Qween Jean for Cats: The Jellicle Ball. Not super surprising. The costumes are very cool, and a complete reinvention of a well-known IP.

Best Orchestrations

Schmigadoon takes it. This makes sense – it’s a big, golden-age inspired score. I’m fine with this.

Lifetime Achievement Award (#1 of 3 this evening)

Kelly O’Hara is chatting about being pregnant. And also the winner of the Lifetime achievement award, André Bishop, artistic director of Lincoln Centre. He seems to also like pregnant women. Hooray.

A Wisconsin theatre called American Players Theatre wins a regional theatre award and $25K. Perhaps that money will cover the cost of the recipients’ flights and hotel to and from the event.

Best Sound Design of a Play

Death of a Salesman takes it. There’s an awkward cut to someone in the audience taking a sip of a drink. Was it someone nominated that didn’t win? I love live TV.

Best Sound Design of a Musical

Ragtime wins. I saw Ragtime. The sound seemed good? Yay Ragtime.

Excellence in Theatre Education Award

Freddie Hendricks from Georgia. He’s giving a long speech, but it’d prob be rude to cut him off since we ❤ teachers, so we wait.

Best Original Score

This is a fun one because two of the nominated scores are from plays, which honestly seems like a personal slight against Stephen Schwartz. Queen of Versailles wasn’t that bad. Anyway, Schmiagdoon takes it, which is also slightly controversial since most of the songs came from the TV show. Less so than the book win, though. This was probably the one place that Two Strangers could’ve gotten a win, so we’ll have to see how the rest of the night plays out for them.

Isabelle Stevenson Award

LOL perhaps to add insult to injury, Kristin Chenoweth is presenting the next award. Mary-Mitchell Campbell wins a special award for her humanitarian efforts.

Lifetime Achievement Award (2 of 3)

Brian Stokes Mitchell presents it to Lighting Designer Jules Fisher.

Best Lighting Design of a Play

Death of a Salesman wins. Oh, he’s British. Neat.

Best Lighting Design of a Musical

The Lost Boys takes it. Michael Arden, best known as a director, made it into this category. He wasn’t nominated for Queen of Versailles and he’s prob not winning for The Lost Boys, so great he co-won this award. It’s pretty uncommon that a director is also a co-lighting designer.

Lifetime Achievement Award (3 of 3)

Bernadette Peters presents it to James Lapine.

Best Scenic Design of a Play

Death of a Salesman is near-sweeping the design categories. Oh, she’s also British. And a new mom. Yay moms.

Best Scenic Design of a Musical

The Lost Boys takes it. Moody flying vampires. Fun. And apparently this guy is married to playwright Jen Silverman.

Best Choreography

That was a funny bit, Laura Benanti. Cats: The Jellicle Ball wins, which is not surprising. They also contributed heavily to reinventing a classic. “This is not a competition” says a winner. It sorta is, though. Easy to say that when you won.

Ok, the pre-show has concluded. We’ve got 20 minutes to relax before the CBS broadcast begins. I’m going to say right now, if Pink doesn’t do some sort of aerial stunt, I’m going to be pissed. Also, is Schmigadoon winning Book, Orchestrations and Score a sign that they’re probably winning Best Musical? I don’t know if The Lost Boys was ever truly in contention for those three awards, anyway, so perhaps it’s too soon to call.

It’s 8:00 PM. Let’s get this show on the road…

Opening number

• Aaaaand Pink is flying already. Thank goodness!
• Neil Patrick Harris is here. And now more people are here, too. In their show’s respective costumes, performing a song from a different show. What is this, the Jimmy Awards?
• Love that Christiani Pitts just sung her own name.
• Lea Michele singing “and we don’t do it for the award” is bold.
• The bleep people just missed a curse word and decided to throw in a random bleep for an inoffensive word a few seconds later to overcompensate for their error.
• It seems the cast from every show is in this, except for Aaron Tveit.
• I’m liking this, but I’m not getting every word. Diction isn’t super clear.
• “For some reason, I’m your host, Pink.” Your words, not mine.

Lead Actor in a Play

This is a big one…and John Lithgow takes it for Giant. It was a 2-man race between Lithgow and Nathan Lane for Death of a Salesman. I love John Lithgow. Yay Giant! And he shouted out “producers that did everything right.” Yay Brian and Dayna!

Performance #1 – Schmigadoon

• This is cute
• The dancing is pretty fun. Lots of skirt swooshing.
• McKenzie Kurtz is giving a lot.
• I liked that. I’d see that. I’m whelmed.

Featured Actress in a Play

What’s this dress, Sarah Paulson? Laurie Metcalf wins for Death of a Salesman. This is not surprising.

Performance #2 – Ragtime

• Love the gigantic hydraulic lift.
• Hi, Ellie from summer camp.
• This has got to be one of the best opening numbers in musical theatre history, alongside Fiddler on the Roof and Sweeney Todd.
• Does Caissie Levy’s voice sound tired, or is it just me?
• Overall, I thought this was a great performance, but it’s much more impactful live. You really get a better sense of the scale of this production.

Best Direction of a Musical

Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch win for Cats: The Jellicle Ball. Not surprising.

Best Direction of a Play

Joe Mantello wins for Death of a Salesman. Also not surprising.

Performance #3 – Titaníque

• Marla Mindelle is captivating.
• I actually laughed out loud.
• This is so silly.
• I’m not sure I’d enjoy this for 100 minutes, but I’m enjoying it for these 4.5.

Featured Actress in a Musical

That’s a cool dress, Megan Thee Stallion. And Shoshana Bean wins for The Lost Boys. This is also not a surprise. She hasn’t won a Tony Award before, and has been around a while. I like your hairstyle, Shoshana.

Performance #4 – Cats: The Jellicle Ball

• Is this why Paul Rudd was invited to the Tonys? To be in this bit?
• I never thought you could take cats out of Cats, but they did and I’m into this.
• This would be a good time to mention that while this show is being described as “Cats reimagined as a ballroom competition,” they mean drag/LGBTQ+ ballroom, not Dancing with the Stars ballroom.
• The cast dances their butts off. André De Shields then stands up from a chair. Huge applause. A for effort.

Best Play

This is a big one. And it goes to…Liberation. No surprise. Love their logo. I didn’t see this play, so that’s basically all I’ve got to say.

Performance #5 – Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

• This show really needs Tony recognition to stay afloat. Ticket sales haven’t been great.
• John Lithgow looked at Sam Tutty like my son looks at his pasta: with undying love.
• This is sweet. But I don’t love how they’re cutting from song to song super quickly. I feel like I don’t have enough context to follow the whiplash jumps.

Featured Actor in a Musical

Titus Burgess is out here representing people who can’t read things well from afar. I feel seen. There’s a pun in there somewhere. Ali Louis Bourzgui wins the award for “Actor trying the hardest to make a political statement in their speech but coming across as self indulgent.” And also Best Featured Actor.

Performance #6 – Chicago‘s 30th anniversary (woah)

• What is on Queen Latifa’s shirt?
• Alex Newell. YES.
• The choreography is iconic.
• Oh, hi Pink.
• I honestly don’t know if I’m relieved or disappointed that the Mormon Wife didn’t sing.

Lead Actress in a Play

And Lesley Manville takes it for Oedipus, who was the favourite going in.

Performance #7 – The Rocky Horror Show

• Lots of energy
• Butt

Best Revival of a Musical

A big award this evening. Cats or Ragtime….and Ragtime took it! Exciting!

Performance #8 – In Memoriam

• Leslie Odom Jr. has a beautiful voice

Featured Actor in a Play

Who cares what the award is? Paul Rudd is presenting. Yay Paul Rudd! Alden Ehrenreich wins for Becky Shaw. Pretty competitive category, but many people picked Alden as the winner.

Performance #9 – The Lost Boys

• That’s a very big sound coming from only 3 singers on stage.
• Fire. Red and blue lights.
• The lyrics are sort of meh.
• I like the sunken stage thing.
• This show seems like it’s going to be really loud in person. Maybe grandma-me will bring earplugs if I attend.
• This seems fun but also terrible? I don’t know.

Best Revival of a Play

I mean, this is going to be Death of a Salesman, right? ….Yup. Duh.

Performance #10 – The Book of Mormon 15th anniversary (also wow)

• I saw the original cast 15 years ago. They look much older now. I feel old.
• I take that back. Andrew Rannells has not aged.
• Maybe my favourite performance of the evening?

Performance #11 – A Chorus Line 50th Anniversary (wowee)

• Well this is a big year for anniversaries.
• Rachel Zegler looks like she’s enjoying listening to herself sing. Which is fair..she sounds great.

Lead Actress in a Musical

Caissie Levy. Turning into a broken record here…but duh. Yay, Toronto girl!

Lead Actor in a Musical

Joshua Henry. Duh. He was sensational. Aww, he thanked his first voice teacher. That’s so sweet.

Best Musical

Aaaaand here it is. Though honestly, none of the shows in this category are truly excellent. The real exciting work came from the play categories and the musical revivals. Will it be Schmigadoon or The Lost Boys? We shall see after this commercial break…and we’re back. That’s a cool dress, Pink.

Bernadette Peters presents the award, and it goes to…Schmigadoon! Great.

Final Thoughts

No wins for Two Strangers, Chess or Titaníque. Look…this season wasn’t the strongest when it comes to new musicals. I wish Pink did more aerial stunts. Thanks for sticking with me. See you in the next one.