Facts & Trivia

Tom Stoppard's epic trilogy The Coast of Utopia (2007) earned seven Tony Awards, more than any other play in Tony history. It received 10 nominations.

Jeremy O. Harris’s Slave Play (2020) holds the record for the most nominations earned by a play, with 12.

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific has won more Tony Awards over all of its Broadway productions to date than any other musical. That’s 17 Tonys: 10 for the original 1949 production, plus seven for the 2008 revival.

Stephen Sondheim received eight Tony Awards, more than any other composer. He won seven times: Best Music and Best Lyrics for Company (1971); and Best Score for Follies (1972), A Little Night Music (1973), Sweeney Todd (1979), Into the Woods (1988) and Passion (1994). His eighth honor was a 2008 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.

Bob Fosse is the choreographer with the most Tony Awards, with an unprecedented eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction. Choreography: The Pajama Game (1955), Damn Yankees (1956), Redhead (1959), Little Me (1963), Sweet Charity (1966), Pippin (1973), Dancin' (1978), and Big Deal (1986). Direction: Pippin (1973).

Jason Robards Jr. received more Tony Award nominations than any other male actor. His eight nominations were for Long Day's Journey Into Night (1957), The Disenchanted (1959), Toys in the Attic (1960), After the Fall (1964), Hughie (1965), The Country Girl (1972), A Moon for the Misbegotten (1974), and A Touch of the Poet (1978). Out of all of those nominations, he only won one Tony Award, for The Disenchanted.

Boyd Gaines and Raúl Esparza are the only men to have been nominated in all four performance categories in which an actor may be eligible: Best Actor in a Play, Best Actor in a Musical, Best Featured Actor in a Play, and Best Featured Actor in a Musical. Three women have been nominated in all four corresponding performance categories: Angela Lansbury, Jan Maxwell, and Audra McDonald.

The revival that won the most Tony Awards was South Pacific (2008), with seven. Kiss Me, Kate (2000) received 12 nominations, the most for any revival, but it only won five Tonys.

The productions that fared most poorly on Tony night were The Scottsboro Boys in 2011 and Mean Girls in 2018. The musicals each received 12 nominations but won no awards. Same with Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris in 2020—12 nominations including Best Play, but no awards.

The play that fared the worst on Tony night was Indiscretions (1995), which won no awards despite having received nine nominations.

The Best Musical with the longest Broadway run to date is the 1988 winner, The Phantom of the Opera, which opened on January 26, 1988 and is still going strong.

Michael Blakemore is the only director to win Tony Awards as Best Director of a Play and Best Director of a Musical in the same year. He won for Copenhagen (play) and Kiss Me, Kate (musical) in 2000.

Bob Fosse was the only director to win a Tony, an Oscar, and an Emmy in the same year (1973). He won two Tonys (direction and choreography) for Pippin, an Oscar for Cabaret and an Emmy for “Liza with a Z.”

Three pairs of performers have shared a single nomination for playing separate roles:

• Donal Donnelly and Patrick Bedford were jointly nominated as Best Actor for Philadelphia, Here I Come! (1966).
• John Kani and Winston Ntshona won jointly as Best Actor in a Play for the double bill Sizwe Banzi is Dead and The Island (1975).
• Emily Skinner and Alice Ripley (playing a set of conjoined twins) were nominated as Best Actress in a Musical for Side Show (1998).

Lauri Peters shared a single 1960 nomination as Best Featured Actress in a Musical with Kathy Dunn, Evanna Lien, Mary Susan Locke, and Marilyn Rogers—and two boys, William Snowden, and Joseph Stewart. They played various younger Von Trapp children in the original production of The Sound of Music.

Amanda Plummer is the only Tony Award winner whose parents have both won Tonys. She won as Best Featured Actress in a Play for Agnes of God (1982). Her father, Christopher Plummer, won as Best Actor in a Musical for Cyrano (1974) and Best Actor in a Play for Barrymore (1997). Her mother, Tammy Grimes, won as Featured Actress in a Musical for The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1961) and Best Actress in a Play for Private Lives (1970).

Five actresses have won a Tony and an Oscar in the same year. Shirley Booth won a Tony for The Time of the Cuckoo and an Oscar for Come Back, Little Sheba (1953). Audrey Hepburn won a Tony for Ondine and an Oscar for Roman Holiday (1954). Ellen Burstyn won a Tony for Same Time, Next Year and an Oscar for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1975). Mercedes Ruehl won a Tony for Lost in Yonkers and an Oscar for The Fisher King (1991). Judi Dench won a Tony for Amy's View and an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love (1999).

Boyd Gaines and Frank Langella are the male performers with the most Tony Awards in acting categories. Both have won four to date. Gaines won for performances in The Heidi Chronicles (1989); She Loves Me (1994); Contact (2000) and Gypsy (2008). Langella was honored for Seascape (1975); Fortune’s Fool (2002); Frost/Nixon (2007) and The Father (2016).

Angela Lansbury and Gwen Verdon have each won four Tony Awards in the musical categories, more than any other actress. Ms. Lansbury won for Mame (1966), Dear World (1969), Gypsy (1975), and Sweeney Todd (1979). She earned a fifth Tony for her work in the Noël Coward play Blithe Spirit in 2009. Ms. Verdon won for Can-Can (1954), Damn Yankees (1956), New Girl in Town (1958) and Redhead (1959).

At the 1950 Tony Awards, the original production of South Pacific became the first — and so far only — show to win Tony Awards in all four musical acting categories. The four honored performers were Ezio Pinza (Lead Actor in a Musical), Mary Martin (Lead Actress in a Musical), Myron McCormick (Featured Actor in a Musical), and Juanita Hall (Featured Actress in a Musical). No play has yet to achieve a similar acting award sweep.

The Tony Award-winning play with the longest title was The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade by Peter Weiss (1966). That’s 151 letters, 26 words, 44 syllables — and four Tonys. It was known as Marat/Sade for short.

The Tony Award-winning play with the shortest title was Da (1978).

Ben Vereen and Patina Miller are the only pair of individuals who identify with different genders to win a Tony Award for portraying the same character. They were honored for their performances as “Leading Player” in Pippin, he in 1973 for the original Broadway production (Best Actor in a Musical); she for the 2013 revival (Best Actress in a Musical).

Three sets of family members have been nominated for Tonys in the same category in the same year:

• Richard Rodgers and daughter Mary Rodgers were both nominated as the composer of the Best Musical in 1960; he for The Sound of Music and she for Once Upon a Mattress. He won.
• Lynn Redgrave and niece Natasha Richardson were both nominated for Best Actress in a Play in 1993; Ms. Redgrave for Shakespeare for My Father and Ms. Richardson for Anna Christie.
• Jennifer Ehle and her mother, Rosemary Harris, were both nominated for Best Actress in a Play in 2000. Ms. Ehle won for her performance in The Real Thing. Harris had appeared in Waiting in the Wings.

Adam Guettel is the only Tony winner who is both the grandson of another winner and the son of a Tony nominee. Guettel earned two Tonys in 2005: Best Score and Best Orchestrations for The Light in the Piazza. His grandfather, Richard Rodgers, won six Tonys as a composer and producer of such shows as South Pacific, The King and I, No Strings, and The Sound of Music. He also received three Special Tony Awards. Guettel’s mother, Mary Rodgers (Richard’s daughter) was a 1960 Tony nominee as the composer of Once Upon a Mattress.

Only one cast replacement has ever been nominated for a Tony Award in a competitive category. Larry Kert was nominated for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance in Company (1971). Dean Jones originated the role (and can be heard on the cast album), but left the production soon after the opening.

Tommy Tune, Harvey Fierstein and Trey Parker have each received Tony Awards in four different categories.

• Tune won as Best Actor in a Musical for My One and Only; Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Seesaw; Best Choreography for A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, My One and Only, Grand Hotel: The Musical, and The Will Rogers Follies; and Best Director of a Musical for Nine, Grand Hotel: The Musical, and The Will Rogers Follies.
• Fierstein received Tonys as Best Actor and as the author of the Best Play for Torch Song Trilogy; he also won Best Book of a Musical for La Cage aux Folles and Best Actor in a Musical for Hairspray.
• Parker won his four on a single night, for The Book of Mormon: Best Book, Best Score, Best Direction, and (as a producer) Best Musical.

The Tony Awards ceremony has been presented at the Shubert Theatre eight times, more than at any other Broadway house.

The Richard Rodgers Theatre (formerly the 46th Street Theatre) has housed the most Tony Award-winning Best Plays and Best Musicals: 11, including Guys and Dolls (1951), Damn Yankees (1956), Redhead (1959), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1962), 1776 (1969), Raisin (1974), Nine (1982), Fences (1987), Lost in Yonkers (1991), In The Heights (2008), and Hamilton (2016).

Oliver Smith is the scenic designer with the most Tony Awards. He collected eight Tonys, all within a nine-year period: My Fair Lady (1957), West Side Story (1958), The Sound of Music (1960), Becket (1961), Camelot (1961), Hello, Dolly! (1964) and Baker Street (1965), as well as a special Tony Award (1965).

Catherine Zuber is the individual with the most Tony Awards for costume design, with eight. Her Tony wins include The Light in the Piazza (2005), Awake and Sing! (2006), The Coast of Utopia (2007), South Pacific (2008), The Royal Family (2010), The King and I (2015), My Fair Lady (2018), and Moulin Rouge! The Musical (2020).

Jules Fisher has won nine Tony Awards, more than any other lighting designer. He won for Pippin (1973), Ulysses in Nighttown (1974), Dancin’ (1978), Grand Hotel: the Musical (1990), The Will Rogers Follies (1991), Jelly’s Last Jam (1992), and, with Peggy Eisenhauer, Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da Funk (1996), Assassins (2004), and Lucky Guy (2013). He has received more than 20 nominations as a lighting designer and one as a producer, of Dancin’.

There have been a number of ties in Tony Awards history, including:

• Actress in a Musical (1958): Gwen Verdon, New Girl in Town and Thelma Ritter, New Girl in Town
• Featured Actor in a Musical (1959): Russell Nype, Goldilocks, and Leonard Stone, Redhead
• Musical (1960): The Sound of Music and Fiorello!
• Actress in a Musical (1962): Anna Maria Alberghetti, Carnival! and Diahann Carroll, No Strings
• Actress in a Musical (1968): Patricia Routledge, Darling of the Day and Leslie Uggams, Hallelujah, Baby!
• Costume Design (1977): Theoni V. Aldredge, Annie and Santo Loquasto, The Cherry Orchard
• Actress in a Play (1979): Constance Cummings, Wings and Carole Shelley, The Elephant Man
• Scenic Design (1980): John Lee Beatty, Talley's Folly and David Mitchell, Barnum
• Score (1993): John Kander/Fred Ebb, Kiss of the Spider Woman and Pete Townshend, The Who's Tommy
• Orchestrations (2009): Martin Koch, Billy Elliot, The Musical and Michael Starobin and Tom Kitt, Next to Normal

Dolores Gray performed the shortest-lived Tony Award-winning role. She won a Tony Award for her performance in Carnival in Flanders (1953), a musical that ran only six performances.

Some of the many couples who have both won Tony Awards:

• Hume Cronyn won for featured actor in a play for Hamlet (1964). His wife, Jessica Tandy, won three Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play: for A Streetcar Named Desire (1948), The Gin Game (1978), and Foxfire 1983.
• Phyllis Newman won for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Subways Are for Sleeping (1962). She also received the first Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award, in 2009. Her husband, Adolph Green, won Tony Awards for the book and/or lyrics for Wonderful Town (1953), Hallelujah, Baby! (1968), Applause (1970), On The Twentieth Century (1978), and The Will Rogers Follies (1991).
• Actress Anne Bancroft won Tony Awards for Two for the Seesaw (1958) and The Miracle Worker (1960). Her husband, Mel Brooks, won three Tonys in 2001 for The Producers, the new Mel Brooks musical. He took home medallions for Best Book of a Musical, Best Score, and Best Musical (as a producer).
• In 1996, Zoe Caldwell won the Tony (her fourth) as Best Actress in a Play for her work in Master Class. The production was honored as that year’s Best Play, which earned her husband, Robert Whitehead, his third Tony Award, as one of its producers.
• Director, choreographer, and nine-time Tony-winner Bob Fosse was married to four-time Tony-winning performer Gwen Verdon.
• Multiple Tony-winning director/choreographer Kathleen Marshall (Wonderful Town, The Pajama Game, Anything Goes) is married to Scott Landis, a Tony-winner for producing The Pajama Game (2006).
• Terrance McNally was honored with multiple Tony Awards (five to be exact, including his 2019 Special Lifetime Achievement Award). His husband, producer Tom Kirdahy, has won Tony Awards for Hadestown (2019) and The Inheritance (2020).

Twin brothers Peter Shaffer and Anthony Shaffer both won Tony Awards in the Best Play category. Anthony was honored for Sleuth (1971). Peter earned Tony Awards for Equus (1975) and Amadeus (1981).

The youngest performer to win a Tony Award was Frankie Michaels, who was honored in 1966 for his work in Mame, shortly after he turned 11. The youngest actress is Daisy Eagan, who was 11 when she won for The Secret Garden in 1991. The youngest nominee was an 8-year-old Evanna Lien, as the original Gretl in The Sound of Music (1960). The four girls who created the title character of Matilda The Musical on Broadway—Sophia Gennusa (9), Oona Laurence (10), Bailey Ryon (11) and Milly Shapiro (10)—are the youngest individuals to receive Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre.

Past Tony-winners Michael Cerveris and Donna Murphy were both Tony-nominated in 2007 for playing a pair of past Tony-winners. They starred in the musical LoveMusik, in which Cerveris played composer Kurt Weill (Best Score for Street Scene in 1947) and Murphy portrayed his wife, performer Lotte Lenya (Featured Actress in a Musical for Threepenny Opera, 1956).

The only play to have won a Best Revival Tony in three different productions is Death of a Salesman, in 1984, 1999, and 2012. In addition, the original production of Arthur Miller’s drama won the Best Play award in 1949.

The first Tony ceremony began with supper at 9:00 p.m. at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Entertainment and dancing continued until midnight, at which time the awards were announced live over the radio.

The Tony Award itself is a disk-shaped silver medallion with the masks of comedy and tragedy on one side and the name of the winner, the category, and year on the other. Since 1967 the medallion has been mounted on a curved armature atop a black pedestal.