With several shows winning one or two trophies, “Broadway’s Biggest Night” didn’t have a biggest winner this year.
Last season, Moulin Rouge! ended the 74th Annual Tony Awards with 10 awards to its name. In recent years, Hamilton has claimed 11 top honors, The Band’s Visit went home with 10 Tonys, and Hadestown eight. The 2021–2022 season played out a little differently at the 75th Annual Tony Awards, held June 12 at Radio City Music Hall. While there were a quite a few shut-outs at Broadway’s Biggest Night, there wasn’t a singular big winner sweeping the awards. For that matter, there weren’t even any mini-sweeps that are often seen in the design, creative, or performance categories.
A Strange Loop entered the race Sunday night with the most nominations at 11, followed by Paradise Square and MJ each boasting 10, Company with nine, and The Lehman Trilogy and SIX each with eight. Twenty-three other shows received 1–7 nominations, but the bulk of winners came from that first group, with the West End transfers Company and The Lehman Trilogy
leading the trophy tally with five awards each.
The Tonys often see a hot new musical taking Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score in a single evening. This year, only A Strange Loop, Paradise Square, and Mr. Saturday Night
were nominated in all three categories. A Strange Loop took Best Musical, and Best Book went to its writer Michael R. Jackson. Best Score ended up in the hands of SIX writers Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss, who were also nominated for Best Musical, but not for book. Best Musical, Best Play, and both Revival categories often also see nods for direction and choreography. That was true this year, with the Best Musical Revival winner Company also garnering a win for its director Marianne Elliott, but Best Choreography went to Christopher Wheeldon for MJ.
It’s also not uncommon to see a single play or musical take home all four design awards: Best Costume, Sound, Lighting, and Scenic Design. That was not at all true this year, with awards in those eight categories going all over the place. For musicals, MJ took two (sound and lighting), with SIX winning for costume and Company for scenic design. In the play categories, The Skin of Our Teeth won its sole award of the night for costume design, Dana H. won for sound design, and The Lehman Trilogy took Best Lighting and Scenic Design.
It is far more rare to sweep all four performance categories (Best Lead and Best Featured Actor and Actress). In fact, it’s actually only happened once, with South Pacific in 1950. However, there certainly have been shows where three performers from a single show went home Tony winners (Hamilton, Hairspray, and The Producers for example), but this year didn’t see any show dominating. To the contrary, only Company even won more than one performance award, with Best Featured Actor and Actress going to Matt Doyle and Patti LuPone, respectively.
For a full list of Tony winners, click here.
