Tony Awards 2023: ‘Kimberly Akimbo’ Wins Big as Winners Praise Writers

The 2023 Tony Awards swiftly moved through this year’s ceremony unscripted amid the ongoing writers strike.

The two unscripted telecasts (which included a preshow on Pluto and the main telecast on CBS) appeared to go smoothly, thanks to quick speeches and introductions, historic wins for Alex Newell and J. Harrison Ghee, live musical performances and an undercurrent of dance that propelled the action forward. Among the top honors, Kimberly Akimbo won best musical, Leopoldstadt won best play, Parade won best revival of a musical, and Hollywood names such as Jodie Comer and Sean Hayes took home trophies. And it even ended on time.

Host Ariana DeBose acknowledged the unusual task of running an unscripted show in her opening number, which began by zooming in on a binder that read “script,” but was filled with blank pages. She then danced her way through the hallways of the United Palace theater in Washington Heights, where the awards show took place, in a fast-paced, acrobatic number that saw her jumping down flights of stairs.

DeBose then informed the audience about the WGA strike and thanked all parties for coming to a compromise that allowed the show to move forward. She also poked fun at the issue, saying, “I’m live and unscripted, you’re welcome.”

“To anyone who thought last year was a bit unhinged, to them I say, “Darlings, buckle up,” DeBose said.

Before introducing a category, DeBose later looked down at writing on her forearm, saying, “Also I don’t know what these notes stand for, so please welcome whoever walks out on stage next.”

The Tony Awards is one of the first major awards shows to be affected by the strike. The MTV Movie & TV Awards pivoted from a live ceremony to a pretaped show on May 7 after the WGA had threatened to picket the live show. The WGA did not grant the Tony Awards a waiver for the televised ceremony, but agreed not to picket the event. In turn, the Tony Awards agreed to proceed without a script.

Tom Stoppard, who won a Tony Award for Leopoldstadt (his fifth best play win) and co-wrote the screenplay for Shakespeare in Love, was one of many nominees who expounded on the importance of writers, calling them “the short end of the inverted pyramid” and riffing on the use of artificial intelligence.

“I’m teeming with emotions which a chatbot wouldn’t be able to understand,” Stoppard said.

The hosts of the Tonys preshow, Act One, Skylar Astin and Julianne Hough, also began that portion of the ceremony by acknowledging the atypical circumstances of the 76th annual Tony Awards.

“Tonight we’re going to do things a little bit differently in solidarity with WGA,” Astin said. “We’re going to focus on this incredible community and spirited works from the past season.”

They then presented the first award, best score, to Kimberly Akimbo, where lyricist David Lindsay-Abaire, who is a member of the WGA, urged support for the writers. (With the win, Kimberly Akimbo‘s Jeanine Tesori, who wrote the music for the musical, becomes the first female composer to win the Tony for best score twice.) Lindsay-Abaire later won for best book of a musical and urged members of the theater community to join the picket lines.

“What an honor to be in a category with all of these amazing writers and also how special it is that we’re all here supporting the theater community … tomorrow we’ll be on the picket lines,” he said in his acceptance speech.

Patrick Marber, who won for best director of a play for Leopoldstadt during the main telecast, wore a WGA pin to the Tony Awards. He told press after his win that he’s been a member of the WGA for 20 years and has recently attended rallies and stopped writing.

“I hope we win this battle, it’s important,” Marber said. He added that he wasn’t surprised at the quality of the Tony Awards broadcast, since “actors are great improvisers.”

Miriam Silverman, who won a Tony Award for best performance by an actress in a featured role in a play, for her role in The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, also acknowledged the WGA in her speech, saying “we are a staunchly, pro-union household” and one that believes in power of labor and workers being compensated. Speaking to press after the win, Silverman, who said she’s also a SAG-AFTRA member, added that she was “thrilled with the compromise” that allowed the Tony Awards to move forward, noting its importance to bringing the theater community to a national level.

While the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike since May 2, agreed not to picket the ceremony, it asked members who are Tony Awards nominees not to attend the ceremony and to instead send in pre-recorded acceptance speeches or have a non-WGA member accept on their behalf.

After the WGA sent out the memo, the Dramatists Guild, which represents playwrights, composers and lyricists, met with the impacted nominees and counseled them to still attend the show and to voice support for the writers.

Though some nominees mentioned the union, many also spoke to other causes close to their hearts.

Alex Newell became the first openly nonbinary actor to win a Tony Award for their performance in Shucked and addressed the historic nature of the win. Newell’s win was followed shortly after by J. Harrison Ghee, who also identifies as nonbinary and won for their role in Some Like It Hot.

“Thank you for seeing me, Broadway. I should not be up here as a queer, nonbinary, fat Black little baby from Massachusetts, and to anyone that thinks that they can’t do it, I’m going to look you dead in your face [and say] that you can do anything that you put your mind to,” Newell said.

“For every trans, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming human who ever was told you couldn’t be, you couldn’t be seen, this is for you,” Ghee said.

Jodie Comer, who won for her playing sexual assault survivor Tessa in Prima Facie, also acknowledged the responsibility she feels in taking on the role.

“To every person who feels represented by Tessa, this is has been greatest honor and it continues to be,” Comer said, adding “There’s three weeks left!”

Michael Arden, who won for best director of a musical for Parade, voiced support for the trans and non-binary communities. Bonnie Milligan, who won for best featured actress in a musical for Kimberly Akimbo, spoke to “everybody that doesn’t maybe look like how the world is telling you to look,” saying “you belong somewhere.”

Sean Hayes, who won his first Tony Award for his role portraying Oscar Levant in Good Night, Oscar, said this part was the perfect role for him, drawing on drama, comedy and his classical music background. But, given the serious subject matter, it’s also one that he waited to take on, as it called on him to address issues such as addiction and mental health problems.

“I’ve been working on this on and off for about 23 years, and I think I needed to be the right age. I don’t think I could have done this sooner. So I think it happened when it was supposed to happen,” Hayes said.

Annaleigh Ashford, another WGA member, presented the Isabelle Stevenson Award to Jerry Mitchell during the preshow, honoring him for his contributions to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and additional volunteer work, particularly through his annual “Broadway Bares” show, which he said onstage Sunday has raised more than $25 million over 30 years.

“There’s nothing wrong with taking your clothes off, especially when you’re doing it in service of your friends and your community,” Mitchell said in his speech. “I am proud to be a gay man and proud to be in this community.”

The ceremony was also impacted by the writers strike in other ways. Lin-Manuel Miranda, who was meant to write the opening number, stopped writing out of solidarity with the WGA strike. And the presenters proceeded without a teleprompter, instead reading from cue cards. 

During the preshow, Miranda presented the lifetime achievement award to John Kander, the legendary composer of Cabaret and Chicago and composer of the new musical New York, New York, for which Miranda wrote additional lyrics.

“Thank you all for coming uptown. Never in my wildest dreams,” Miranda joked, remarking on the fact that the ceremony is taking place in Washington Heights for the first time. He went on to call Kander not only “one of greatest composers,” but also the “kindest man in show business.”

In his acceptance speech, Kander said in part, “When your own community honors you, it’s very humbling and a little scary.” He went on to thank his parents, longtime partner Albert Stephenson and music.

Jennifer Grey presented a lifetime achievement award to her father, Joel Grey, greeting the audience with one of many seemingly off-the-cuff remarks, saying “Hi, friends of my dad!” Grey began his speech by singing his famous line, “Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome!” from his role as the Emcee in Cabaret.

“I love the work. I love the applause. Oh my God, I love the applause,” Grey said, while getting emotional. “But it’s ultimately people who have made this whole ride even more magnificent than i could have imagined.”

The two were also honored during the main telecast, with Hough returning to join DeBose in a dance number from Chicago.

This is not the first time the Tony Awards has gone unscripted. The 1988 ceremony, the year of The Phantom of the Opera, also took place during a WGA strike with Angela Lansbury as the host.

This year’s ceremony took place at the United Palace theater in Washington Heights, a first for the show, which typically takes place at Radio City Music Hall in Midtown.

Hilary Lewis contributed to this report.