The 77th Annual Tony Awards, with host Ariana DeBose, will be broadcast and streamed live from Lincoln Center tonight, celebrating the Broadway 2023 – 2024 theater season with performances from the shows, and acceptance speeches from those among this year’s Tony Award nominees who win over the largest number of the 836 Tony voters.
2024 Tony Award Winners so far
How to watch
Simple answer: From 8 to 11 pm EST, Sunday, June 16, the Tony Awards will air live on CBS and stream live on Paramount + for subscribers. (You can try Paramount + free for a week.)
Stream the Tony Awards for free on the CBS app or on CBS.com
Theater lovers answer: There are THREE different Tony shows you can watch, over a total of six hours:
- First, if you live in New York, you can watch the red carpet as the stars enter Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater showing off their glamorous garb and saying some upbeat things, starting at 5 p.m. EST on NY1.
- From 6:30 to 8 p.m. EST, a 90-minute so-called “pre-show” is streaming on Pluto, a free streaming service ( Click Pluto TV and clicking on the “ET” channel) with hosts Julianne Hough and Utkarsh Ambudkar both familiar from TV, but also with Broadway credits (she, POTUS, he, Freestyle Love Supreme) Officially entitled “The Tony Awards: Act One,” the show on Pluto will include a presentation of a slew of the awards (which will be briefly recounted in the main ceremony.)
- The main ceremony. This is when the “major” awards will be presented, including all eight categories for performers, and when the casts will perform. As I said, it’s available on your screens at home. There was no public sale of tickets to the Koch Theater this year, one can go to Lincoln Center to watch the event on a huge screen outdoors from 6:30 to 11 p.m. at Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park for FREE, first-come, first-serve “pending capacity,” with host Skylar Astin.
Why Watch
Ariana DeBose, an Academy Award winner for West Side Story and a six-time Broadway veteran, has been the host three years in a row now, and is quick on her feet, literally. She will be choreographing the opening number, which is always fun.
For those not obsessed with Broadway, the main reason to watch the show is surely the performances. There are performances planned from the casts of Stereophonic (nominated for Best Play but with a rock score), all five shows nominated for Best Musical (Hell’s Kitchen, Illinoise, The Outsiders, Suffs, Water for Elephants) and three of the four nominated for Best Revival of a Musical (Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, Merrily We Roll Along, and The Who’s Tommy)
Jay-Z and Alicia Keys will perform “Empire State of Mind” as part of a “Hell’s Kitchen” medley.
Nicole Scherzinger, who will make her Broadway debut next season in Sunset Boulevard, will perform the ‘In Memoriam’ segment. She will be introduced by the newly elected president of Actors’ Equity Association, Brooke Shields.
The producers of the broadcast have also promised to focus more attention on the non-musical plays, which is a welcome departure from past practice and I’ll believe it when I see it.
Of the twenty-eight shows of the Broadway 2023-2024 season that have received nominations, fifteen of them are still playing, (although five of these are scheduled to close as early as today, and no later than the end of the month.) If you like what you see at the Tonys, you can get tickets (That’s kind of the point of the TV show.) If you’re lucky, you can get them at a discount. (Broadway Rush and Lottery for Spring 2024 Shows)
Because of the Writers Strike, last year’s Tonys were unscripted. This year’s will be scripted, which has its pluses and minuses.
Presenters, who will presumably deliver most of the scripted material (that DeBose doesn’t handle), will include: Utkarsh Ambudkar, Nate Burleson, Cynthia Erivo, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Josh Gad, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Sean Hayes, Taraji P. Henson, Julianne Hough, Jennifer Hudson, Angelina Jolie, Nick Jonas, Idina Menzel, Ashley Park, Jim Parsons, Wendell Pierce, Ben Platt, Anthony Ramos, Andrew Rannells, Solomon Thomas, Taylor Tomlinson, Pete Townshend, Tamara Tunie, Adrienne Warren, Patrick Wilson and Jeffrey Wright.
As always, the unscripted moments at the Tony Awards will be among the most memorable — which is to say, the acceptance speeches.
Among the nominees this year you’d likely recognize even if you’ve never seen a Broadway show: William Jackson Harper, Jessica Lange, Rachel McAdams, Leslie Odom Jr., Jim Parsons, Sarah Paulson, Daniel Radcliffe, Eddie Redmayne, Amy Ryan, Liev Schreiber Corey Stoll, Jeremy Strong.
But it may be more exciting to watch the newcomers who become stars tonight.
Insidery Stuff:
2024 Tony Awards: Who SHOULD win, and why
“Merrily We Roll Along” Director Maria Friedman on Why It Works
The Tonys are a culmination of a month-long theater award season. Check out my New York Theater Awards 2024: Calendar and Guide, which explains the history of each award (including the Tonys) and links to the lists of winners (many of which/whom have been nominated for Tonys as well.)
