We don’t care how big you are.
That’s the statement the Tony Awards sent to Hollywood’s elite on Thursday when it snubbed movie royalty like Denzel Washington, Jake Gyllenhaal, Kieran Culkin, and Robert Downey Jr. in the Broadway awards nominations.
Instead, the 54 members of the Tony nomination committee mostly stuck with stage veterans, like Audra McDonald (who set a new record as the most-nominated performer in the awards’ history), Jonathan Groff, and Kara Young.
The major outlier in this theme was perhaps the biggest star of them all, George Clooney, who did earn a nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for his part in Good Night, and Good Luck. The normally silver fox dyed his hair a greasy, artificial brown to play journalist Edward R. Murrow in the stage adaptation of the 2005 film, which he also co-wrote, directed and starred in.
The play, running at the Winter Garden Theatre, has been duking it out with Washington and Gyllenhaal’s Othello (Ethel Barrymore Theatre) each week for box office dominance. First, Othello broke the record for highest weekly gross (earning $2.8 million), then Good Night smashed it with $3.3 million. The mind-boggling figures start to add up when one considers the average ticket price of $302.07.
Just minutes after the Tony Award nominations were announced, Othello announced it had recouped its entire investment after just nine weeks on Broadway — an unheard-of achievement. Capitalized for up to $9 million, the show is now the highest-grossing play revival in history. However, commercial success has not translated into critical acclaim. Both Good Night and Othello earned mixed reviews from critics, and the latter was entirely shut out of the Tonys.
Of course, some A-list stars turning in top-notch performances were, rightfully, recognized. Sadie Sink, Mia Farrow, and Sarah Snook will go head-to-head-to-head in the Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play category, but they’ll square off against stage vets LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Laura Donnelly for the trophy, which will be handed out June 8 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City in a ceremony hosted by Tony, Grammy, and Emmy winner Cynthia Erivo.
In an industry that has struggled to regain its footing after the Covid pandemic, celebrities have provided a welcome boost, drawing tourists and their wallets to Broadway. In recent years, big names — like Rachel McAdams, Sean Hayes, and Billy Crystal — have often been recognized at the Tonys. Whereas this year, the vast majority of TV and film celebrities who took their talents to Broadway during the 2024-2025 season were snubbed; among them, Nick Jonas starring in The Last Five Years, Julianna Margulies and Peter Gallagher in Left on Tenth, Jim Parsons and Katie Holmes in Thornton Wilder's Our Town, Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler in the Romeo + Juliet revival.
Celebrities in theater is a contentious topic for actors who have spent their lives pounding the pavement, only to have their careers upended by a pandemic and jobs taken away by big names in its aftermath. This year, the Tonys appears to be sending those actors a message: We’re with you.
Take McDonald, for example, who has won six trophies in her illustrious career and could easily take home a seventh for her gut-wrenching take on Rose in Gypsy.
Young also made history with her fourth consecutive nomination in the Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play category. She was recognized for playing a single mother in Clyde’s and a caregiver in Cost of Living before finally taking home the trophy last year for her work as the scheming Lutiebelle in Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch. This year, she is back in the running for her performance as the lively dinner guest Aziza in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ satire of the Black political elite, Purpose.
Young’s consistent excellence across such a varied selection of plays marks her out as exactly the sort of home-grown star the Tonys love to reward. This year’s nominations underline that message: on Broadway, it’s about the best, not the biggest.
