OK, Broadway fans: It’s showtime.
The Tony Awards — the annual celebration of Broadway’s best — are on Sunday evening, with performances and prizes and who-knows-what-they’ll-say acceptance speeches.
Here’s what you might want to know:
When is the ceremony, and how can I watch it?
The main event, featuring songs from most of the nominated musicals and the announcement of most of the big winners, is scheduled to start Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern and to end at 11.
The ceremony will be broadcast live on CBS, and can be streamed live by Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers. (Paramount+ Essential subscribers can watch the next day.)
A preshow ceremony, at which a number of awards for design and other crafts will be handed out, will take place from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Eastern and will be streamed on Pluto TV, a free service. (Go to Pluto TV on whatever device you’re using, and then click on the ET channel.)
If you’re in New York, you can also watch from Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center. That’s a seated area, outdoors, where a simulcast will play. Skylar Astin will host, and there will be some performances and guest appearances. The free event begins at 6:30 p.m. Eastern; the simulcast begins at 8. Capacity is limited, and American Express cardholders are given priority seating.
There are also a variety of ticketed watch parties taking place at bars and other venues. Here’s a list from BroadwayWorld.
Who is hosting?
The broadcast ceremony will be hosted, for the third year in a row, by Ariana DeBose. Her successful shepherding of last year’s ceremony, which took place with a variety of complications caused by an ongoing Hollywood strike, endeared her to theater lovers. She evinces endless enthusiasm for Broadway — she has appeared in six Broadway shows, and was nominated for a Tony Award for “Summer” — and she is an Oscar winner for her role in “West Side Story.”
The preshow ceremony will be hosted by Julianne Hough and Utkarsh Ambudkar, two Broadway alums — she was in “POTUS” and he was in “Freestyle Love Supreme” — who work primarily onscreen.
Wait, what are the Tonys, and why do they matter?
The Tony Awards honor plays and musicals staged in the 41 New York theaters that constitute Broadway. They are named for the actress Antoinette Perry, and are presented by the Broadway League and the American Theater Wing at an annual ceremony; this is the 77th edition.
The awards are a huge marketing opportunity for Broadway — the ceremony is an important way for the industry to introduce new shows to potential ticket buyers.
The awards, selected by a pool of about 800 theater-involved voters, can make a big difference in the financial life of a show, but also in the careers of artists, who often have more opportunities and can command higher salaries if they win. For plays, in particular, Tony Awards can also mean a longer life — the winners are more likely to be staged at regional theaters and to be studied or performed at schools.
Where are the Tony Awards taking place?
This year’s ceremony is at the David H. Koch Theater. This is the first time the Tony Awards have been staged at Lincoln Center; the ceremony’s longtime venue, Radio City Music Hall, has become too expensive, so the Tonys presenters had been exploring alternatives. The venue is smaller than Radio City, and this year there has been some consternation among co-producers. They raise a lot of money to finance Broadway shows, but will be asked not to come to the stage if their shows win because many of them won’t be seated in the orchestra. Also, no tickets are being sold to the public this year.
Who is performing at the ceremony?
All five of the contenders for best new musical will present numbers during the show: “Hell’s Kitchen,” which features the hits of Alicia Keys and is loosely based on her adolescence; “Illinoise,” a narrative dance show featuring the songs of Sufjan Stevens; “Suffs,” which explores tensions within the women’s suffrage movement; “The Outsiders,” adapted from the classic young adult novel about teenagers in Tulsa, Okla.; and “Water for Elephants,” adapted from the novel about a traveling circus.
Also, the casts from three of the nominees for best musical revival — “Cabaret,” “Merrily We Roll Along” and “The Who’s Tommy” — will perform. Those shows will bring a bit more star power, as the “Cabaret” cast is led by Eddie Redmayne and the “Merrily” cast features Daniel Radcliffe.
And the cast of “Stereophonic,” the leading contender for best play, will also perform — the show features original songs and is nominated for best score.
How is Broadway doing?
Not as well as it was before the pandemic. There are lots of shows — 35 are now running — and there’s quite a bit of variety. But production costs have soared since the pandemic, while attendance remains about 17 percent lower than it was, so it has become harder for shows to break even, much less make a profit.