Broadway’s biggest night has come and gone — and despite an iffy year for musicals, the ceremony was an all-singing, all-dancing night to remember.
The 79th annual Tony Awards honoring the 2025-2026 Broadway season saw big wins for new musicals Schmigadoon! and The Lost Boys, as well as for revivals of Ragtime and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Four first-time winners took home trophies for their performances in musicals, adding to the already celebratory atmosphere that permeated Radio City Music Hall in Midtown Manhattan.
Add to that a first-time host in Grammy-winning singer Pink, who rose to the occasion tenfold with her signature acrobatics and soaring vocals, and it truly was an evening to remember.
The Tonys can be hit or miss depending on the year and the slate of nominees. It was certainly lackluster year for Broadway musicals, but the 2026 broadcast didn’t disappoint. It struck a great balance of awards, speeches, and tributes, while prioritizing lengthier performances that gave audiences a solid few minutes of uninterrupted song-and-dance time to grasp concepts and jokes — and a chance to truly consider what to buy a ticket to next.
Here, we round up just some of the standout moments from the 2026 Tony Awards broadcast.
Opening number
Pink wasn’t joking when she said in an interview earlier this week that there would be 170 people onstage with her to kick off the 2026 Tonys. The opening number — “The Leading Lady Marmalade” — was an absolutely epic mashup weaving the shows of the season together, anchored by a rewritten version of “Lady Marmalade” that Pink featured on for the 2001 film Moulin Rouge!
“Gitchie, gitchie, Lesley Manville / Gitchie, gitchie, Carrie Coon,” Pink crooned at one point, weaving in various nominees while flanked by an ensemble of dancers.
The number hit a peak when Megan Thee Stallion — who recently starred in Moulin Rouge! on Broadway — was carried out to do the mid-song freestyle. “We come through with a bold set of nominees / from the new to the Old Deuteronomies,” she rapped while dancing beside the casts of Cats: The Jellicle Ball and Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show.
The cameos didn’t end there, with appearances from nominees and Broadway veterans alike, marked by joyful dancing and a truly celebratory tone, and then hitting a fever pitch when dozens of cast members from the nominated shows danced through the aisles, ending the opener with an exclamation point (or 10, honestly). It was so well-crafted and executed; an out-of-the-box opener that breathed some new life (and loads of excitement) into the Tonys.
Big moments for transfers of London productions
Several of the Tony-nominated shows originated in London, including Giant and Oedipus — both of which would receive trophies during the evening.
In a huge moment for Giant, the production of Mark Rosenblatt’s debut play about author Roald Dahl that originated at the Royal Court, John Lithgow was awarded the Tony for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play.
“I’m such a lucky actor,” Lithgow said in his acceptance speech, noting that his first Tonys win was decades ago in a production that, like Giant, originated at London’s Royal Court. “Two Tony bookends with 53 years between them.”
Later in the evening, Lesley Manville took home the trophy for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for Oedipus, a transfer of Robert Icke’s adaptation of the Greek tragedy originally mounted at London’s Wyndham Theatre in 2024.
On one hand, it’s not entirely surprising that Lithgow and Manville took home the Tonys since they were awarded Oliviers in 2025 for their respective performances. However, it’s never a guarantee that American audiences (and Tony voters) will react similarly — plus there was stiff competition (particularly in Lithgow’s category as he went head-to-head with Nathan Lane, currently starring in a revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman). Still, the wins proved to be two of the biggest moments for London productions.
In another moment early on, Pink seemed to confirm that Paddington the Musical would be coming to Broadway as part of the 2026-2027 season. During the opening number, Neil Patrick Harris skipped out holding a plush Paddington toy to finish a stanza of “Lady Marmalade,” breaking into the “Marmalade” tune from the London musical. But Pink cut him off, saying simply: “Sorry maybe next year.”
First-time wins for veteran performers Shoshana Bean, Caissie Levy, and Joshua Henry
Widely respected within the industry and regarded as one of the kindest actors treading the boards, Bean’s victory in the Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical category for her role in The Lost Boys was a win for all of the theater kids watching at home. It’s obvious that she leads with her heart and means every word of what she says.
“This is for every woman who ever felt like she was too much or not enough,” Bean said. “I beg you not to wait for permission to be all of who you are. Take up space. Make your own path. Make mistakes, make messes, make new things. Be free, be loud, be brave.”
Those words will surely resonate with aspiring theater makers around the world.
Levy is another industry veteran who has been originating roles in musicals and stepping into revivals for two decades. Somehow, a Tony nomination had escaped her until Ragtime. But she cemented her legacy as one of the great Broadway performers of this century with her win in the Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical category.
What is even more astonishing is the fact that Levy was slated to step away from Ragtime to move on to The Lost Boys but opted to stay with the revival for family reasons, allowing Bean the chance to originate the role of Lucy Emerson instead. It is almost unbelievable that they both wound up Tony winners Sunday night — yet also so right in a perfect musical-theater-magic kind of way.
Then there’s Joshua Henry, a four-time Tony nominee who also earned his first victory Sunday night with Ragtime. While it was widely speculated that he would leave Radio City with a trophy in hand, it did not diminish the flood of emotions when he actually did win.
“It is an honor to play this role, Coalhouse Walker Jr, a Black musician whose art led him to his love, and to his dream,” a teary-eyed Henry said in his acceptance speech. “And even in the face of pain and tragedy, he found a way to be heard.
“Every artist in this room, every artist at home: fight, fight, fight to be heard.”
An ode to Broadway
The creatives behind the three-hour CBS broadcast finally struck the right chord this year; the three-hour show felt like an ode to and celebration of Broadway — an especially impressive feat considering the thin slate of new musicals and just three nominated revivals.
The Tonys should always feel like a love letter to Broadway, with show-stopping musical numbers and memorable acceptance speeches. But it’s also the one chance each year that the industry has to reach people across the country, which places a significant amount of pressure on producers to pick exactly the right song to showcase their musicals. Sometimes, they just fall flat.
And while Sunday’s broadcast was not perfect, it was enthusiastic and joyful all the way through without feeling like a slog. The speeches didn’t drag. The tributes to long-running shows were snappy (sometimes to a fault). Each performance by a nominated musical was unique; no two were alike. The whole ceremony felt fresh, fun, and exciting in a genuinely enjoyable way. More of that, please!
At the end of the day, the Tonys should inspire those watching from home (and those lucky enough to be in the room) to want to buy a ticket to a show, or to aspire to a life in the theater. With a fresh host and a well-paced, performance-forward show, this year’s broadcast did that and then some.
