This Year’s Tony Awards Celebrated Women In An Epic And Historic Way

This year's 77th Annual Tony Awards was a ceiling-shattering moment for women directors. Out of a total of ten directing nominee slots, a record breaking seven were filled by women. Director Danya Taymor, who won a Tony for the Outsiders, became the sixth woman to win a Tony Award for directing a musical.

The historic moments continued. Kara Young, who won a Tony award for her performance in Purlie Victorious, is the first Black actor to be nominated three consecutive years in a row. In the press room she talked about the playwrights, directors and artists who have shaped her. Young also spoke about honoring the legacy of the Ossie Davis who wrote Purlie Victorious and Ruby Dee, who originated the role more than six decades ago.

“This is about continuing the legacy of Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee and their commitment to shifting the American tapestry,” said Young to a crowd of reporters in the Tony press room. “They have poured so much into me. At the end of the day they didn't get honored for their work 63 years ago. It’s acknowledging all the people who came before me who were never acknowledged for their work. I’m so grateful to even be the tiniest part of honoring their legacy.”

Costume designer Dede Ayite, a winner for Jaja's African Hair Braiding was the first Black woman to win a Tony for best costume design of a play. And Nikiya Mathis received a Special Tony Award for wig and hair design for Jaja’s African Hair Braiding. In fact, Mathis is the first hair and wig designer to be given a Tony for a single show.

Wig and hair design for the theater, which is not a regular Tony category, requires great artistry. “I don't think people understand all that goes into wig design,” says Mathis. “[Just like costume designers do], you have to build the underlying foundation. You take measurements, create a mold of the head and lay a lace foundation. There is intricate sewing and detail.” Additionally, hairs are added one by one and must be sourced. “Do we use European or Asian hair?,” says Mathis. “We have to know where we are going to get kinky, curly hair. It’s such an intricate process.”

The night was also record-breaking because all actors who won in their categories won for the the first time. 21-year-old Maleah Joi Moon, who won for Hell’s Kitchen, was not only not only making her Broadway debut, but the show also marks her first professional job. “You saw something in me a few years ago,” said Moon in her acceptance speech to Alicia Keys and the show’s creative team and cast. “And you nurtured that thing ever since.”

Moon’s co-star, Broadway veteran Kecia Lewis, made her debut in Dreamgirls in 1984 and was celebrating her first Tony. “This is extremely meaningful, primarily because it has literally been 40 years I stepped into the theater at the Imperial doing Dreamgirls when I was 18 years old, and I will be 59 in two weeks,” said Lewis in the press room. “But it means a lot of work, a lot of tears, a lot of wanting to give up.”

Lewis, who raised her son as a single mother, shared that her strong sense of faith inspired her to keep going. “Faith has been everything. I didn’t have it when I first started,” said Lewis. "When I began at 18, it was about, I’m going to be a star, will be fierce, look cute and win awards. And over the years, when life happens, you come to find out that faith is literally all you have.”

Daniel Radcliffe, who won a Tony for Merrily We Roll Along was asked about wining a Tony on Father’s Day now that he’s a father to a son born in April, 2023. “It’s been an emotionally charged day,” said Radcliffe who received a “sweet” text at 9am that morning about being a father. “It was just after we rehearsed for the [Tony] performance and I texted back, ‘what are you doing to me? I can't cry anymore.’”

Also meaningful was having his parents with him at the Tony ceremony. “My dad is a huge part of me listening to all the music I listen to,” said Radcliffe. “He listens to T. Rex and David Bowie but also Chicago and Cabaret. I grew up listening to Company and all the Sondheim shows because of him. So it’s really cool to get this today.”

Tony winner, Jonathan Groff, who also stars with Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez in Merrily We Roll Along, shared how is able to have the audience rooting for his character, Franklin Shepard. Even when he makes less than great choices and is not nice to the people he loves.

“Some people will say, “all of his bad choices,” and I genuinely say, "what bad choices?,” says Groff who credits director Maria Friedman for his performance.

“It's no mistake that it took a female director to find the humanity and the love inside of all of these characters. To not make it cynical...To focus on the friendships and the relationships. She helped me learn that he is a person who lost touch with music…his passion. That person is lost. That person is not bad,” says Groff. “When we in our in the first scene of the show, which is the end of the story, and some of the things we’re saying to each other is quite course, it’s coming from a deep place of pain and disconnect, as opposed to just surface villainousness. Like Beyonce says, “Playing victim and the villain at the same time.” It's trying to find the victim inside of the villain.”

In her first speech Shaina Taub, who won two Tonys, Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score, for Suffs, thanked her mother for teaching her the power of creativity. Afterward in the press room Taub elaborated how her mother, a former elementary school teacher, bound empty storybooks for Taub and her sister.

“She would tell us, ‘fill them with your stories, write your own stories.’ We were always doing some kind of creative arts project at home, just for fun. And she also advocated for my education,” says Taub whose musical Suffs spotlights the women who fought for the right to vote. “I was a really passionate, avid reader. And she would talk to my teachers about getting me to right books. She was always in my corner.”

Taub’s mother always nurtured her love for creating. “I have loved theater from a young age, and she never made me feel like that was crazy, stupid or unrealistic. She never judged or was critical of me,” says Taub who made history as the first woman to win both awards by herself. “And only as an adult have I realized how rare that is in a mom. What kept me going is that I grew up with someone who believed in me before I believed in myself.”

That sense of community seemed to be top of mind for many artists, like Alex Edelman who received a special Tony for his solo show, Just for Us. Adam Brace, Edelman's collaborator, best friend and longtime director passed away after complications from a stroke at the age of 43 weeks before Just for Us opened on Broadway. “My best friend died and left this huge hole and everyone else rushed in to fill it,” says Edelman. “No one will ever see that except for me. The amount of people who kept showing up was the craziest thing.”

After winning her Tony for Appropriate Sarah Paulson arrived at the press room still in shock. “I don’t feel like I’m in my body right now. I just can’t believe it. I can’t believe it,” said Paulson. “This is a childhood dream for me.… So it’s very hard to meet that moment in front of a lot of people without feeling like I’m exposing my insides to you.”

In her Tony speech, Paulson poetically talked about the kismet of performing in the same theater where she was so mesmerized seeing Janet McTeer do A Doll’s House in 1997.

“And some nights when I’m backstage I think about the indelible impact of her. I think about the walls of theaters all over this magical town holding the impact of each and every one of you in this room, and all of those who came before,” said Paulson. "And I think how lucky those walls are to bear witness to the relentless interrogation of human experience that we endeavor to explore nightly for each other—to give back to one another with the hope of finding some shared path towards the truth about being alive. This is the heart and soul of what we do, and I am so honored to be amongst you.”