# 78th Tony Awards
The 78th [Tony Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/tony-awards) honored the best of Broadway's 2024–2025 season at a ceremony held on Sunday, June 8, 2025, at [Radio City Music Hall](https://www.edgepedia.org/radio-city-music-hall) in New York City. Hosted by Tony, Emmy, and GRAMMY Award winner [Cynthia Erivo](https://www.edgepedia.org/cynthia-erivo), the show aired live on CBS from 8:00 to 11:00 PM ET and streamed on Paramount+ in the United States.[1](https://www.tonyawards.com/news/cynthia-erivo-to-host-the-78th-annual-tony-awards/) The robot romance musical *Maybe Happy Ending* led the night with six awards, including Best Musical.[2](https://www.npr.org/2025/06/09/nx-s1-5420804/tony-awards-2025-broadway-analysis-takeaways)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Date and venue | Sunday, June 8, 2025, Radio City Music Hall, New York City[1](https://www.tonyawards.com/news/cynthia-erivo-to-host-the-78th-annual-tony-awards/) |
| Host | Cynthia Erivo, Tony, Emmy, and GRAMMY winner and three-time Oscar nominee[1](https://www.tonyawards.com/news/cynthia-erivo-to-host-the-78th-annual-tony-awards/) |
| Broadcast | Live 8:00–11:00 PM ET / 5:00–8:00 PM PT on CBS, streaming on Paramount+; Act One pre-show on Pluto TV from 6:40 PM ET[1](https://www.tonyawards.com/news/cynthia-erivo-to-host-the-78th-annual-tony-awards/) • [3](https://dctheaterarts.org/2025/06/08/winners-of-the-78th-annual-tony-awards-for-the-2024-25-broadway-season/) |
| Top winner | *Maybe Happy Ending*, six Tonys including Best Musical[2](https://www.npr.org/2025/06/09/nx-s1-5420804/tony-awards-2025-broadway-analysis-takeaways) |
| Most nominated shows | *Buena Vista Social Club*, *Death Becomes Her*, and *Maybe Happy Ending*, 10 nominations each[4](https://playbill.com/article/oprah-winfrey-ariana-debose-lea-michele-lea-salonga-samuel-l-jackson-more-are-2025-tony-award-presenters) |
| Viewership | 4.85 million average viewers on CBS, up 38% year over year, the telecast's largest audience since 2019[5](https://www.tvline.com/ratings/tony-awards-audience-six-year-high-hamilton-reunion-1235457845/) |
| Announcer | Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell[6](https://www.tonyawards.com/news/legendary-lineup-of-stars-set-to-present-at-the-78th-annual-tony-awards/) |
## Organization and broadcast
The awards are presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing and were produced in collaboration with Tony Award Productions, a joint venture of the two organizations, and White Cherry Entertainment, with Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss as executive producers and showrunners and Weiss as director.[6](https://www.tonyawards.com/news/legendary-lineup-of-stars-set-to-present-at-the-78th-annual-tony-awards/) Nominations in 26 competitive categories were announced on May 1, 2025, by Tony winners [Sarah Paulson](https://www.edgepedia.org/sarah-paulson) and [Wendell Pierce](https://www.edgepedia.org/wendell-pierce).[7](https://m.tonyawards.com/press/2025-tony-award-nominations/)
2025 marked the ceremony's return to Radio City Music Hall for the first time since 2022; the hall has hosted the Tonys more than any other venue, with 2025 marking the 21st ceremony there.[8](https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Everything-We-Know-About-the-78th-Annual-Tony-Awards-20241020) As it has been since 1978, the ceremony was broadcast live on CBS.[3](https://dctheaterarts.org/2025/06/08/winners-of-the-78th-annual-tony-awards-for-the-2024-25-broadway-season/) A pre-show, *The Tony Awards: Act One*, hosted by 2025 nominee [Darren Criss](https://www.edgepedia.org/darren-criss) and Tony winner [Renée Elise Goldsberry](https://www.edgepedia.org/renee-elise-goldsberry), streamed free on [Pluto TV](https://www.edgepedia.org/pluto-tv) from 6:40 to 8:00 PM ET and presented a selection of the awards.[3](https://dctheaterarts.org/2025/06/08/winners-of-the-78th-annual-tony-awards-for-the-2024-25-broadway-season/)
## Nominations and field
Three productions tied as the most nominated of the season with 10 nods each: *Buena Vista Social Club*, *Death Becomes Her*, and *Maybe Happy Ending*.[4](https://playbill.com/article/oprah-winfrey-ariana-debose-lea-michele-lea-salonga-samuel-l-jackson-more-are-2025-tony-award-presenters) Two of the five Best Play nominees had already won the [Pulitzer Prize for Drama](https://www.edgepedia.org/pulitzer-prize-for-drama): *Purpose* by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and *English* by Sanaz Toossi.[9](https://time.com/7291396/tonys-2025-recap/) The season's range was broad, from *Stranger Things: The First Shadow*, based on the Netflix series, to *Operation Mincemeat*, a musical about World War II that originated in England, to *Dead Outlaw*, which used country rock to tell a story about a corpse.[2](https://www.npr.org/2025/06/09/nx-s1-5420804/tony-awards-2025-broadway-analysis-takeaways)
## Winners
*Maybe Happy Ending*, Will Aronson and Hue Park's musical about two lonely robots who find each other, won six Tonys: Best Musical, Best Book, Best Original Score, Best Direction of a Musical for Michael Arden, Best Scenic Design, and Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for Darren Criss.[10](https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/tony-winners-2025-78832/) *Buena Vista Social Club* won four competitive awards, plus a special award for its musicians, while *Sunset Boulevard* won three, including Best Revival of a Musical and Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for Nicole Scherzinger.[2](https://www.npr.org/2025/06/09/nx-s1-5420804/tony-awards-2025-broadway-analysis-takeaways) *Stranger Things: The First Shadow* was the most recognized play with three Tonys.[11](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/news/tony-awards-2025-winners-nicole-scherzinger-sarah-snook-b2766197.html)
**Leading honors** went to [Sarah Snook](https://www.edgepedia.org/sarah-snook) for her one-woman *The Picture of Dorian Gray*, Cole Escola for *Oh, Mary!*, Nicole Scherzinger for *Sunset Blvd.*, and Darren Criss for *Maybe Happy Ending*.[10](https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/tony-winners-2025-78832/) Best Play went to *Purpose*, with [Kara Young](https://www.edgepedia.org/kara-young) winning Best Featured Actress in a Play for the same show.[10](https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/tony-winners-2025-78832/) Special awards included a Lifetime Achievement Tony for Harvey Fierstein, the four-time Tony winner behind *Torch Song Trilogy* and *Kinky Boots*, who became emotional during his acceptance speech.[12](https://www.arabtimesonline.com/arabtimes/uploads/images/2025/06/09/72579.pdf)
## Records and milestones
Several firsts marked the evening. [Cole Escola](https://www.edgepedia.org/cole-escola) became the first non-binary performer to win the Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play trophy, winning for their Broadway debut as [Mary Todd Lincoln](https://www.edgepedia.org/mary-todd-lincoln) in *Oh, Mary!*, in which they beat out [George Clooney](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-clooney).[11](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/news/tony-awards-2025-winners-nicole-scherzinger-sarah-snook-b2766197.html) Kara Young became the first Black performer to win two consecutive Tonys.[3](https://dctheaterarts.org/2025/06/08/winners-of-the-78th-annual-tony-awards-for-the-2024-25-broadway-season/) Darren Criss made history as the earliest known actor of Asian American or Pacific Islander (AAPI) descent to take the award for leading actor in a musical, and as the first recipient to win it for a production he had also produced.[11](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/news/tony-awards-2025-winners-nicole-scherzinger-sarah-snook-b2766197.html) Paul Tazewell won Best Costume Design of a Musical for *Death Becomes Her*, the first time in 73 years that a costume designer won an Oscar and a Tony in the same year, after winning an Oscar earlier in 2025 for *Wicked: Part I*.[11](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/news/tony-awards-2025-winners-nicole-scherzinger-sarah-snook-b2766197.html)
## Ceremony highlights
Unlike seasons in which one production sweeps, the awards were spread widely across shows; NPR attributed this to the season's diversity of productions and described many categories as tight races.[2](https://www.npr.org/2025/06/09/nx-s1-5420804/tony-awards-2025-broadway-analysis-takeaways) Host Cynthia Erivo opened the evening with an original song by [Pasek and Paul](https://www.edgepedia.org/pasek-and-paul) with Mark Shaiman celebrating the year's shows, drawing an ovation at Radio City Music Hall.[13](https://www.grammy.com/news/2025-tony-awards-recap-musical-theater-wins-performances/) The main event featured a tenth-anniversary reunion of the original Broadway cast of *Hamilton*, which won 11 Tonys in 2015, with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr., Phillipa Soo, Daveed Diggs, and other original company members performing a medley of the musical's songs.[3](https://dctheaterarts.org/2025/06/08/winners-of-the-78th-annual-tony-awards-for-the-2024-25-broadway-season/) Oprah Winfrey and Erivo recreated the "Wicked" tour's "holding space" finger-hold moment, and Jak Malone, a winner for *Operation Mincemeat*, and Francis Jue, a winner for *Yellow Face*, delivered acceptance speeches that drew wide attention.[10](https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/tony-winners-2025-78832/)
The CBS telecast averaged 4.85 million total viewers, an increase of 38% over the previous year and the ceremony's largest audience since 2019, a rise attributed in part to the *Hamilton* reunion.[5](https://www.tvline.com/ratings/tony-awards-audience-six-year-high-hamilton-reunion-1235457845/)
## References
1. [Cynthia Erivo to Host the 78th Annual Tony Awards, Tony Awards official site](https://www.tonyawards.com/news/cynthia-erivo-to-host-the-78th-annual-tony-awards/)
2. [Cynthia Erivo is funny, and other takeaways from the 2025 Tony Awards, NPR](https://www.npr.org/2025/06/09/nx-s1-5420804/tony-awards-2025-broadway-analysis-takeaways)
3. [Winners of the 78th annual Tony Awards for the 2024-25 Broadway season, DC Theater Arts](https://dctheaterarts.org/2025/06/08/winners-of-the-78th-annual-tony-awards-for-the-2024-25-broadway-season/)
4. [Oprah Winfrey, Ariana DeBose, Lea Michele, Lea Salonga, Samuel L. Jackson, More Are 2025 Tony Award Presenters, Playbill](https://playbill.com/article/oprah-winfrey-ariana-debose-lea-michele-lea-salonga-samuel-l-jackson-more-are-2025-tony-award-presenters)
5. [Tony Awards Audience Hits 6-Year High With 'Hamilton' Reunion, TVLine](https://www.tvline.com/ratings/tony-awards-audience-six-year-high-hamilton-reunion-1235457845/)
6. [Legendary Lineup of Stars Set to Present at the 78th Annual Tony Awards, Tony Awards official site](https://www.tonyawards.com/news/legendary-lineup-of-stars-set-to-present-at-the-78th-annual-tony-awards/)
7. [2025 Tony Award Nominations, Tony Awards official site](https://m.tonyawards.com/press/2025-tony-award-nominations/)
8. [2025 Tony Awards FAQ: Everything You Need to Know, BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Everything-We-Know-About-the-78th-Annual-Tony-Awards-20241020)
9. [The Most Memorable Moments of the 2025 Tony Awards, TIME](https://time.com/7291396/tonys-2025-recap/)
10. [The 78th Tony Awards: Full List of Winners, Backstage](https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/tony-winners-2025-78832/)
11. [Tony Awards 2025: Full list of winners, The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/news/tony-awards-2025-winners-nicole-scherzinger-sarah-snook-b2766197.html)
12. [Arab Times, AP wire coverage of the 2025 Tony Awards](https://www.arabtimesonline.com/arabtimes/uploads/images/2025/06/09/72579.pdf)
13. [2025 Tony Awards Recap: Musical Theater Wins & Exciting Performances, Grammy.com](https://www.grammy.com/news/2025-tony-awards-recap-musical-theater-wins-performances/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Theater and dance › Companies, venues, and stage institutions › Festivals, awards, and stage institutions › Major anglophone theater awards*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license