Review: The 2026 Tony Awards, a Good Telecast for a So-So Year

Schmigadoon! emerged triumphant in the Best Musical category at last night’s Tony Awards. “Sometimes singing, dancing, a lot of jokes, and a happy ending is really all you need,” said producer Lorne Michaels as he accepted the award, a sly slight of the dazzling stagecraft of his show’s biggest competition, The Lost Boys, which I incorrectly predicted would win this category. It’s a check on the Broadway design arms race (flying actors and a three-story set will only get you so far) and a surprise happy ending for lovers of golden age musical theater.

But it probably didn’t come as much of a surprise if you caught “Act One,” the first part of the ceremony, into which all the creative categories have been corralled. Schmigadoon! won best book, orchestrations, and score (somewhat controversially as most of the songs were written for Apple TV+ five years ago). A show has never won Best Musical without getting at least one of those, and with Schmigadoon! sweeping all three, its overall victory seemed assured.

As in previous years, “Act One” was presented on Pluto TV, with 12 competitive categories and two special awards doled out in a little over an hour. A model of efficiency, yes, but the comedy left much to be desired as hosts Laura Benanti and Tituss Burgess fumbled through dad jokes that were mostly received with crickets (in fairness, it appeared as though many in the audience were still taking their seats as “Act One” began).

The CBS telecast got off to a strong start with host P!NK leading a cavalcade of Broadway performers in a revised version of “Lady Marmalade” that name-checked a bunch of the nominees, “Gitchie, gitchie, Lesley Manville / Gitchie, gitchie, Carrie Coon,” they sang, “It’s giving leading Lady Marmalade” (you can read the full lyrics here). It was funny, irreverent, and marvelously collaborative—everything an awards show should be.

“For some reason, I’m your host— P!NK,” she introduced herself, letting everyone know she’s aware how strange it is that someone who has yet to make her Broadway debut is hosting these awards. But after leading the cast of Chicago in a sizzling 30^th anniversary performance of “All That Jazz,” she showed everyone that she’s more than ready for the job.

John Lithgow bested Nathan Lane in the Leading Actor in a Play category, accepting his trophy with a bit of false humility: “The other gentlemen in my category, you’re all marvelous actors; you all deserve this … I got it.” Lane later took the stage to accept the Best Revival of a Play Tony for Death of a Salesman, stepping in for lead producer Scott Rudin, a phantom-like presence on Broadway these days.

The biggest surprise of the evening came in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical category, which was won by Ali Louis Bourzgui of The Lost Boys (none of TheaterMania’s editors predicted that). The immensely talented 26-year-old actor used the opportunity to highlight the plight of immigrants, trans people, and Palestinians in what was the most unabashedly progressive acceptance speech of the night.

But the truth about the Tonys is that the awards themselves (and the speeches) are kind of boring. People really tune in to see the musical numbers and get a feel for what is currently playing in New York.

The best of the evening came from the two musical revivals that didn’t win. The pretty kitties of Cats: The Jellicle Ball wowed the audience with sickening death drops. Later, the cast of The Rocky Horror Show had Bowen Yang and Darren Criss doing the Time Warp. Both shows were able to covey the carnival atmosphere of their respective houses, with yellow Jellicle Ball fans snapping in throughout Radio City Music Hall (give a raise to whoever thought of handing those out).

The worst of the evening was, unfortunately, the brief medley from Titaníque. While recent Broadway musicals have suffered from poor sound balance, with the band drowning out the lyrics, this performance exhibited the opposite affliction, with Marla Mindelle’s vocals bumped far above the music in a way that mercilessly exposed her pitchiness—a tiny disaster on a live telecast. I suspect something went wrong with her monitor, because she never sounds like that in the St. James.

For the In Memoriam, Leslie Odom Jr., accompanied by a string quartet and acoustic guitar, delivered a heartfelt performance of “Without You” from Rent. It was only slightly marred by a final slide with the words “No Day But Today” in PowerPoint shadow block lettering. In this case, less would have been more.

The telecast also featured the first act finale from The Book of Mormon performed by the original cast in honor of that show’s 15^th anniversary. Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells showed that they’ve still got it. And Rachel Zegler surely sold a few tickets to Evita (she’s starring in Jamie Lloyd’s revival, which is coming to Broadway next spring) by performing a gorgeous rendition of “What I Did for Love” from A Chorus Line, in honor of that show’s 50^th anniversary (like the dimming of lights for the dead on Broadway marquees, the inclusion of significant musical anniversaries on the Tonys telecast is destined to become a subject of controversy).

The plays and play revivals were once again featured through short video promos, a great way to showcase these dramatic works that many home viewers certainly mistook for commercials. But it’s a better solution than the year they made the playwrights talk about their plays for 30 seconds. Liberation won Best Play, as predicted. Expect to see it at a regional theater near you very soon.

While short on surprises and suspense, this year’s Tony Awards telecast was a decent infomercial for Broadway and all it has to offer. As many of the winners explicitly acknowledged in their acceptance speeches, this event is, most importantly, a bat signal to all the theater geeks watching around America: Come and play.