Theater News

Close, Fiennes, Peters, Roberts, Winfrey, and 55 Other Stars Will Present Tony Awards

Julia Roberts
(Photo © Joseph Marzullo)
Julia Roberts
(Photo © Joseph Marzullo)

In honor of the Tony Awards’ 60th Anniversary, 60 major stars including Glenn Close, Ralph Fiennes, Bernadette Peters, Julia Roberts, and Oprah Winfrey will present awards at this year’s ceremony, which will take place on Sunday, June 11 at Radio City Music Hall. They will be broadcast live on CBS-TV.

“The 60th anniversary show is bigger than just one host,” said Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss, the show’s executive producers, “so we’ve put together a line-up of 60 stars from the stage to lead our presentation.” Other confirmed presenters are 2006 Tony nominees Cynthia Nixon (Rabbit Hole) and Mark Ruffalo (Awake and Sing!), former Tony winners Liev Schreiber and Martin Short (whose new show Fame Becomes Me will open on Broadway in August), and such other stars as Hank Azaria, Eric McCormack, Alfre Woodard, Kyra Sedgwick, and Anna Paquin.

The musical The Drowsy Chaperone leads the Tony pack with 13 nominations. Among the other musicals that received multiple nominations are The Color Purple (11), The Pajama Game (9), Jersey Boys (8), and Sweeney Todd (7), while the plays with multiple nominations include Awake and Sing!(8), The History Boys (7), Rabbit Hole (5), and The Lieutenant of Inishmore (5).