Below are my preferences – not predictions – for the 2026 Tony Awards, in keeping with a tradition I’ve been maintaining since this blog began fourteen years ago. I am a critic, not a seer or a bookie or a political strategist. We’ll learn the choices of the 857 Tony voters soon enough — this Sunday, June 7.
But I also continue another annual tradition, posting the results of a poll of theater-loving readers, asking for their preferences (again, not their predictions) in 12 of the 26 categories, which helps gauge the nominees’ popularity.
(My comments are often pulled from my reviews, which are also linked to the show titles)
Best Play
The Balusters
Giant
Liberation
Little Bear Ridge Road
Poll Pick: Liberation
My Preference: Liberation
This category this year in particular demonstrates the folly and heartbreak of competitive theater awards, enough to make me wonder (albeit briefly) whether I should skip weighing in this year. I found all four productions impressive and three of them immensely satisfying. So let me linger on this first category.
“Liberation” is a warm, funny and thoughtful play that won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In it, playwright Bess Wohl wants us to know about the time before she was born when “women’s lib” was neither pejorative nor ironic. That’s what gives the edge to this play – we’re being asked to look freshly at something long caricatured and dismissed. The play focuses on a group of feminists meeting weekly in 1970, as recounted decades later by the daughter of the woman who led the consciousness-raising group, looking back without polemics, without parody; just with lots of questions. The real-life gathering was inspired by Wohl’s own mother, which helps give this play an extra layer of complexity that Wohl and director Whitney White navigate masterfully. Much of the strength of the production, which moved intact from an Off-Broadway run, resided in the ensemble acting, theater regulars portraying everyday women with grace and good humor.
The squabbling over whether to put a stop sign on the neighborhood’s prettiest street might not sound substantial enough to build a play around. But “The Balusters,” David Lindsay-Abaire’s fresh and funny comedy uses the pettiness, blind spots and outright biases of the diverse characters who are involved to comment with sharp insight on The Way We Live Now .
“Giant,” a play imagining an actual incident of antisemitism by children’s book author Roald Dahl, is given a first-rate production by Tony winning director Nicholas Hytner (War Horse, The History Boys, Carousel), and is, remarkably, Mark Rosenblatt’s playwriting debut, although he has been a director for two decades. He has a great ear for dialogue, and a fine-tuned sense of the complexity of character, which all six actors persuasively portray. “Giant” is too narrowly focused to be a portrait of Dahl, nor deep enough to be an analysis of why somebody is antisemitic (if such an analysis is possible), nor (given Dahl’s bigotry) a fair debate about Israel. But Rosenblatt is a brave and intelligent playwright taking on a subject that no one else seems willing to touch.
There are many small, revealing moments in “Little Bear Ridge Road,” the latest quietly amusing and powerfully affecting drama by Samuel D. Hunter, a playwright making his long-deserved Broadway debut. Like the many excellent plays I’ve seen Off-Broadway written by Hunter over the past dozen years, all of which are set in Hunter’s native state of Idaho, Little Bear Ridge Road” somehow transformed what seemed to be a simple story about ordinary people into a cosmic contemplation of loss and hope.
Best Musical
The Lost Boys
Schmigadoon
Titanique
Two Strangers Carrying A Cake Across New York
Poll Pick: Two Strangers (Carrying a Cake Across New York)
My Preference: Schmigadoon!
There is an argument to be made for “Two Strangers,” because it’s the only musical that’s not an adaptation, and for “The Lost Boys,” because it is a masterfully stage-crafted adaptation of a popular cult film, and “Titanique” because it’s become its own cult entertainment. But “Schmigadoon” is not just a knowing satire of Golden Age musicals; it’s a competent homage to the genre, with a terrifically talented cast putting over its tuneful pastiche songs, well-honed choreography, and careful plot cleverly constructed from its predecessors. Arguably, it even has something serious to say about the importance of being optimistic, the true meaning of love, the evils of bigotry, the possibility of change and redemption.
Best Revival of a Play
Becky Shaw
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Every Brilliant Thing
Fallen Angels
Oedipus
Poll Pick: Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
My Preference: Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
I make this selection with great reluctance, an acknowledgement of one of the greatest American plays being given a prestige production. I feel it’s overhyped; I don’t agree with many of the choices, including some of the casting. But it’s by process of elimination: “Becky Shaw” is a first-rate production of a less resonant script; the adaptation of “Oedipus” is intense and inventive but its modern setting forces a strained incompatibility with its ancient Greek origins. The other two are enjoyable with fun performances.
Best Revival of a Musical
Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Ragtime
Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show
Poll Pick: CATS: The Jellicle Ball
My Preference: CATS: The Jellicle Ball
The transfer of “Ragtime” from an Encores series concert to a full Broadway production on Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont’s grander stage turned this already superb revival into a sumptuous spectacle with an epic feel. By contrast, the transfer of “CATS: The Jellicle Ball” from its Off-Broadway home at the Perelman Performing Arts Center to Broadway was a more mixed bag, with the communal feel slightly curtailed. Still, “CATS: The Jellicle Ball” is something more than a revival. It’s a reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical as a Ballroom competition, with a cast of fabulously coiffured and coutured queer characters of color replacing the infamous felines in leotards and whiskers. Politically, their voluminous presence in such a mainstream entertainment feels almost like an act of resistance, given the current federal administration’s official bigotry. Artistically, the fresh interpretation not only offers the possibility of a renewed life and a new audience for this overly familiar 45-year-old show; it suggests how the art form as a whole can be reinvigorated. Broadway “has the power to introduce new audiences to forms of expression they knew nothing about, and to provide stages for performers who deserve the spotlight,” Betty Buckley, who originated the role of Grizabella on Broadway, wrote recently
Best Lead Actor in a Musical
Nicholas Christopher, Chess
Luke Evans, The Rocky Horror Show
Joshua Henry, Ragtime
Sam Tutty, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Brandon Uranowitz, Ragtime
Poll Pick: Joshua Henry, Ragtime
My Preference: Joshua Henry, Ragtime
As Coalhouse Walker Jr., a proud and talented musician, Joshua Henry starts out grand and generous in his enjoyment of life and ends up limitless in his rage at the betrayal of his dignity. One can question the general claim that “Ragtime” will be considered one of the great American musicals and still feel grateful to have been able to witness Joshua Henry, the Baritenor of Broadway, deliver a shattering “Make them hear you.”
Best Lead Actress in a Musical
Sara Chase, Schmigadoon!
Stephanie Hsu, The Rocky Horror Show
Caissie Levy, Ragtime
Marla Mindelle, Titaníque
Christiani Pitts, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Poll Pick: Caissie Levy, Ragtime
My Preference: Caissie Levy, Ragtime
None of the other roles in this category have the heft and drama of Mother, who grows into her own toward greater independence – emotionally, politically, and physically — over the course of “Ragtime,” as Levy has grown into her own over the course of a twenty-year Broadway career.
Best Lead Actor in a Play
Will Harrison, Punch
Nathan Lane, Death of a Salesman
John Lithgow, Giant
Daniel Radcliffe, Every Brilliant Thing
Mark Strong, Oedipus
Poll Pick: Nathan Lane, Death of a Salesman
My Preference: John Lithgow, Giant
John Lithgow won his first Tony in his Broadway debut 53 years ago. On stage and on screen, the eighty-year-old actor has been able to locate the humanity in such insufferable villains as the Trinity Killer in Dexter, Lord Farquaad in Shrek and Roger Ailes in Bombshell. He gives a virtuoso and nuanced performance as Roald Dahl, a role written in such a way as to allow Lithgow to engage us in the character’s bon homie, irascibility and sharp wit before unmasking him as a monster.
Every actor in this category has his strengths. In his extraordinary Broadway debut, for example, Will Harrison portrays the real-life character who meets the parents of the young man he killed, in one of the most moving scenes that I’ve ever witnessed in the theater. But I don’t understand the enthusiasm for Nathan Lane’s performance; he feels miscast as one of the most significant tragic figures in the American theater, a role that has been taken on by such weighty actors as Lee J. Cobb, George C. Scott, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Lane has a natural sardonic demeanor that he seems to be straining to demolish in moments of outright screaming.
Best Lead Actress in a Play
Rose Byrne, Fallen Angels
Carrie Coon, Bug
Susannah Flood, Liberation
Lesley Manville, Oedipus
Kelli O’Hara, Fallen Angels
Poll Pick: Lesley Manville, Oedipus
My Preference: Lesley Manville, Oedipus
There is an argument to be made for Susannah Flood, who portrays both the playwright’s stand-in and her mother, and as narrator more or less carries the show even though its strength is as an ensemble. But Manville, a well-known British actor who made a much-welcomed Broadway debut as Jocasta, had a late-in-the-play devastating extended monologue about her traumatic past that that was a master class in excavation, endurance and delivery
Best Featured Actress in a Play
Betsy Aidem, Liberation
Marylouise Burke, The Balusters
Aya Cash, Giant
Laurie Metcalf, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
June Squibb, Marjorie Prime
Poll Pick: Laurie Metcalf, Death of a Salesman
My Preference: No preference
Laurie Metcalf should have been nominated this year for her lead performance in “Little Bear Ridge Road,” which bowled me over by being so low-key funny and sad. In “Death of a Salesman,” her Linda Loman is steely rather than reticent. This is a novel, intriguing interpretation, but I’m not sure how much it makes sense for the character, and it also makes the role seem more like a lead; this brings into question whether she is in the right category.
In truth, all these performances are worthy, and I would be happy to see any of them acknowledged. Betsy Aidem is touching as the older, married woman among all the young feminists. Marylouise Burke at 85 has been a wonder in everything I’ve seen her in, and she’s exceptional as the oldest member of the neighborhood association; she gets the best zinger Aya Cash is essential as the character who confronts Dahl, June Squibb at 95 is delightful as the older widow with an AI projected companion, who herself becomes an AI projection.
Best Featured Actor in a Play
Christopher Abbott, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Danny Burstein, Marjorie Prime
Brandon J. Dirden, Waiting for Godot
Alden Ehrenreich, Becky Shaw
Ruben Santiago-Hudson, August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
Richard Thomas, The Balusters
Poll Pick: Alden Ehrenreich, Becky Shaw
My Preference: Alden Ehrenreich and Ruben Santiago-Hudson
That’s right, I want a tie. (These are the same two actors who both won this year’s Drama Desk Awards in the same category for these same roles.)
Everybody nominated in this category gives a solid, deserving performance. Ehrenreich is undeniably impressive in his Broadway debut as a cynical money manager who seems from the start to be a complete boor, shooting off a series of cutting one-liners, but eventually he reveals, subtly and grudgingly, a deep-seated vulnerability; did I actually notice his lips ever-so-slightly quiver with emotion ? But how is this not the lead? He has the most lines, and he and the title character go on a bad date, which is the central event of the play.
Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s role better fits the category, taking on and triumphing as Bynum Walker, a “conjure man” with long monologues — arias, in the distinctive rhythms of August Wilson. This is the fourth Tony nomination for this veteran of a dozen Broadway shows, including his own solo show Lackawanna Blues, and his Tony winning role in August Wilson’s Seven Guitars.
Best Featured Actress in a Musical
Shosnana Bean, The Lost Boys
Hannah Cruz, Chess
Rachel Dratch, The Rocky Horror Show
Ana Gasteyer, Schmigadoon
Nichelle Lewis, Ragtime
Poll Pick: Shoshana Bean, The Lost Boys
My Preference: Shoshana Bean, The Lost Boys
Shoshana Bean, ten-time Broadway veteran, three-time Tony nominated, turns what might have been the thankless role of the clueless mother of a half-vampire into a fleshed-out woman who by the end of the musical gains agency and, more importantly, gets some show-stopping numbers.
Among the other nominees, Ana Gasteyer is a vivid villain who especially stands out for the rocking Music Man pastiche song “Tribulation”
Best Featured Actor in a Musical
Ali Louis Bourzgui, The Lost Boys
André de Shields, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Bryce Pinkham, Chess
Ben Levi Ross, Ragtime
Layton Williams, Titanique
Poll Pick: Ben Levi Ross, Ragtime
My Preference: Ali Louis Bourzgui, The Lost Boys
In truth, I wish LJ Benet had also been nominated. But among The Lost Boys’ thrilling young performers with terrific voices, Bourzgui is undeniably a theatrical rock star. He demonstrated this literally two years ago in his Broadway debut in the title role of The Who’s Tommy, and does so again here as David, the charismatic leader of the teenage vampires – and of their band.
Best Book of a Musical
Jim Barne and Kit Buchan, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Tye Blue, Marla Mindelle and Constantine Rousouli, Titaníque
David Hornsby and Chris Hoch, The Lost Boys
Cinco Paul, Schmigadoon!
My Preference: Cinco Paul, Schmigadoon!
“Two Strangers” deserves kudos for not being an adaptation, but the story of a man and a woman who initially don’t get along, then do, isn’t all the original except for the very ending; The book writers for “The Lost Boys” make some smart choices in adapting the cult movie (such as their more enlightened treatment of the mother, as mentioned above.) Paul manages to weave in the plots of several old-time musicals, simultaneously making fun of them while creating a relatively coherent story.
Best Original Score
Steve Bargonetti, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
Jim Barne and Kit Buchan, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Cinco Paul, Schmigadoon!
The Rescues, The Lost Boys
Caroline Shaw, Death of a Salesman
My Preference: Jim Barne and Kit Buchan, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
I’ve heard talk that this is a thin category this year because two of the five nominations are for background music in straight plays. But I could be happy if almost any of these nominees win. I actually loved Steve Baronetti’s bluesy music. The Rescues produce several terrific numbers, although the score started to sound too much the same for me. Cinco Paul is absolutely the cleverest in composing pastiche songs that are so precise and knowing in their mimicry, but are sturdy enough to exist on their own. But here is where the originality of “Two Strangers” pays off; deserves acknowledgment. I was especially won over by the effervescent numbers “New York” and “American Express.”
Best Direction of a Play
Nicholas Hytner, Giant
Robert Icke, Oedipus
Kenny Leon, The Balusters
Joe Mantello, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Whitney White, Liberation
My Preference: Whitney White, Liberation
This is such an impossible category; everybody deserves kudos, for different reasons. Robert Icke has created his own world; Kenny Leon is able to find interesting ways to position a 10-member ensemble, and find the humor, heart and politics in their encounters. To acknowledge the world for a moment, it seems obvious that many Tony voters favor Joe Mantello; I thought he was onto something by casting each of the sons with two different actors; I was less impressed with the heavy reliance on a 1964 Chevy Chevelle Malibu, and the dark, partial-view garage, and the copious stage smoke. I go with Whitney White because of her handling of an ensemble across two different eras, and just as a matter of principle: If I’ve chosen “Liberation” as best play, shouldn’t the director get some credit for it?
Best Direction of a Musical
Michael Arden, The Lost Boys
Lear deBessonet, Ragtime
Christopher Gattelli, Schmigadoon
Tim Jackson, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
My Preference: Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
The directors are the artists who reimagined this 45-year-old staple into something fresh and different…and defiant.
Best Choreography
Christopher Gattelli, Schmigadoon
Ellenore Scott, Ragtime
Ani Taj, The Rocky Horror Show
Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Lauren Yalango-Grant and Christopher Cree Grant, The Lost Boys
My Preference: Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Christopher Gattelli has nailed the Golden Age Broadway-style, and the Grants are terrific in aerial choreography, but Wiles and Lyons have introduced a new genre of movement to Broadway, which may have lasting influence.
Best Orchestrations
Doug Besterman and Mike Morris, Schmigadoon
Brian Usifer, Chess
Andrew Lloyd Webber, David Wilson, Trevor Holder and Doug Schadt, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Ethan Popp, Kyler England, Adrianne “AG” Gonzalez and Gabriel Mann, The Lost Boys
Lux Pyramid, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
My Preference: Doug Besterman and Mike Morris, Schmigadoon
It takes a careful ear to make a new score sound so much like the Golden Age
Best Scenic Design of a Play
Hildegard Bechtler, Oedipus
Takeshi Kata, Bug
David Korins, Dog Day Afternoon
Chloe Lamford, Death of a Salesman
David Rockwell, Fallen Angels
My Preference: David Rockwell, Fallen Angels
here is also an appealing elegance in the stately English drawing room designed by David Rockwell, which enhances through contrast the humor of the drunken slapstick by the two elegant British ladies portrayed by Kelli O’Hara and Rose Byrne
Best Scenic Design of a Musical
dots, The Rocky Horror Show
Soutra Gilmour, Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)
Rachel Hauck, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Dane Laffrey, The Lost Boys
Scott Pask, Schmigadoon!
My Preference: Dane Laffrey, The Lost Boys
Dane Laffrey’s monumental set sometimes feels like its own show, flexible and full of moving parts, such as working freight elevators, home to suddenly appearing sets (the Emerson’s house, the boardwalk, the vampires’ hangout at an abandoned ironwork) on three different levels, evoking everything from awe-inspiring to outright evil
Best Costume Design of a Play
Brenda Abbandandolo, Dog Day Afternoon
Qween Jean, Liberation
Jeff Mahshie, Fallen Angels
Emilio Sosa, The Balusters
Paul Tazewell, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
My Preference: Paul Tazewell, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
The costumes capture with precision the lives of African Americans at the turn of the 20th century both in their everyday work clothes and their aspirational Sunday finery.
Best Costume Design of a Musical
Linda Cho, Ragtime
Linda Cho, Schmigadoon!
Qween Jean, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Ryan Park, The Lost Boys
David I. Reynoso, The Rocky Horror Show
My Preference: Qween Jean, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Qween Jean’s colorful costumes (and Nikiya Mathis’ outlandish wigs) are spot-on precisely because they are so fanciful – the fantasy that’s at the heart of ballroom subculture, an aspirational mirror of the rich and powerful as conjured up by the poor and powerless
Best Lighting Design of a Play
Isabella Byrd, Dog Day Afternoon
Natasha Chivers, Oedipus
Stacey Derosier, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
Heather Gilbert, Bug
Heather Gilbert, The Fear of 13
Jack Knowles, Death of a Salesman
My Preference: Heather Gilbert, The Fear of 13
The lighting creates a darkness that’s illuminating, about prison life and about feeling trapped and isolated.
Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Kevin Adams, Chess
Jane Cox, The Rocky Horror Show
Donald Holder, Schmigadoon!
Adam Honoré, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Adam Honoré, Donald Holder and 59 Studio, Ragtime
Jen Schriever and Michael Arden, The Lost Boys
My Preference: Jen Schriever and Michael Arden, The Lost Boys
Their expressive lighting is essential to the effect of Dane Laffrey’s set.
Best Sound Design of a Play
Justin Ellington, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone
Tom Gibbons, Oedipus
Lee Kinney, Fear of 13
Josh Schmidt, Bug
Mikaal Sulaiman, Death of a Salesman
My Preference: Josh Schmidt, Bug
The sound was essential to establish the creepy atmosphere and the characters’ paranoia.
Best Sound Design of a Musical
Adam Fisher, The Lost Boys
Kai Harada, Cats: The Jellicle Ball
Kai Harada, Ragtime
Brian Ronan, The Rocky Horror Show
Walter Trarbach, Schmigadoon
My Preference: Kai Harada, Ragtime
Harada brought out the rich sounds of the orchestra and the ensemble singing without sacrificing the clarity of the quiet solos. And then there are the sound effects: wind, a steam ship, a trolley, a train whistle, baseball, a baby cry, an elevated train, an explosion, a storm.
Walter Trarbach achieves a similar balance, but in a less acoustically challenging theater.
