NEW YORK — Black people have a long history of being underrepresented in the business of Broadway shows. That’s why the 77th annual Tony Awards—scheduled for June 16 at Lincoln Center in New York City—could mark a milestone with its potential for a record-setting number of Black winners. CBS will air the U.S. telecast of the show, which will be livestreamed on Paramount+ with Showtime. For the third consecutive year, Ariana DeBose will host.
“Hell’s Kitchen”—a musical named after New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood and based on Alicia Keys songs—has a Black-majority cast and is tied with the play “Stereophonic” for the most Tony nominations (13) this year. Keys is one of the producers of “Hell’s Kitchen” through her AK Worldwide Media, which is one of the Black-owned production companies that are nominated for Best Musical for “Hell’s Kitchen.” These production companies include Roc Nation (owned by Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter) and Sharpton Swindal Productions (co-owned by Al Sharpton’s daughter, Dominique Sharpton).
Other Black-oriented Broadway productions also received multiple Tony nominations. “Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch” has six nods, including Best Revival of a Play. “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” has five nods, including Best Play. For “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” Taraji P. Henson and LaChanze are among the nominated producers and share the nomination with playwright Jocelyn Bioh, while Whitney White is one of the rare Black women nominated for Best Direction of a Play. The “Purlie Victorious” revival has several Black producers nominated, including Kenny Leon (who also received a Tony nod for directing the play), Samuel L. Jackson, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Phylicia Rashad, Kerry Washington, Nnamdi Asomugha (Washington’s husband), and Leslie Odom Jr., who is also nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play.
In addition, almost every category for actors and actresses has one to three Black nominees, except for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play and Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play. Black nominees in this year’s Tony Awards actor/actress categories include three for “Hell’s Kitchen”: Maleah Joi Moon (Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical); Brandon Victor Dixon (Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical); and Kecia Lewis (Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical).
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Joshua Boone and Sky Lakota-Lynch of “The Outsiders” are two other contenders for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical. Amber Iman of “Lempicka” and Nikki M. James of “Suffs” are two of the other nominees for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical. Veteran actor Dorian Harewood of “The Notebook” is nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical.
William Jackson Harper of “Uncle Vanya” is a nominee for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play. Quincy Tyler Bernstine of “Doubt: A Parable” and Kara Young of “Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch” are among the nominees for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play.
According to a Tony Awards press release: “The nominees were selected by an independent committee of 44 theater professionals appointed by the Tony Awards Administration Committee. The 2024 Tony Awards are presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing.”
Director/producer/writer George C. Wolfe is getting the Lifetime Achievement Award at the ceremony. Actor/singer Billy Porter will receive the Isabelle Stevenson Award, a prize given to a member of the theater community “who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of one or more humanitarian, social service or charitable organizations,” according to a Tony Award press release. It’s the first time that Black people are getting these two prizes (which are non-competitive categories) at the same Tony Awards ceremony. Broadway show director Jack O’Brien, who is white, will be the other Lifetime Achievement Award recipient at the 2024 Tony Awards.
As an individual, Wolfe has won two Tony Awards in competitive categories: Best Direction of a Play (for “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches”) in 1993, and Best Direction of a Musical (for “Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk”) in 1996. Wolfe is the fourth Black person to receive the Tony Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award since the category was created in 1977. Black people who previously received this award are Lena Horne (in 1981), Sarah Jones (in 2006), and Jason Michael Webb (in 2019).
Porter has won two Tony Awards in competitive categories: In 2023, he won Best Actor in a Musical as drag queen Lola in “Kinky Boots.” In 2022, Porter was one of the people who won Best Musical as a producer of “A Strange Loop,” which became the first Black-oriented musical to win this Tony Award. Porter is the second Black person to receive the Isabelle Stevenson Award since it was created in 2009. In 2016, Brian Stokes Mitchell was the first Black person to get the award.
In addition, one of this year’s five recipients of the Tony Honors for Excellence is Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, who is Arizona State University’s vice president of cultural affairs and executive director of the ASU Gammage performing arts center. The Tony Honors for Excellence go to individuals and institutions who have “demonstrated extraordinary achievement in theater, but are not eligible in any of the established Tony Award categories,” according to a Tony Awards press release.
For behind-the-scenes jobs, costume designer Dede Ayite has three Tony nominations this year: Her work for “Appropriate” and “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” has garnered her two separate nominations for Best Costume Design of a Play, while her work for “Hell’s Kitchen” has resulted in a nod for Best Costume Design of a Musical. Paul Tazewell of “Suffs” is also a nominee for Best Costume Design of a Musical. Other “Hell’s Kitchen” nominees who are Black are Camille A. Brown (Best Choreography) and Adam Blackstone (Best Orchestrations). Branden Jacobs-Jenkins of “Appropriate” has a nomination for Best Revival of a Play for writing this play.
A complete list of Tony Award nominations can be found at the official Tony Awards website.
