entertainment
Twenty-four Broadway shows are hoping for at least one win on Sunday across the 26 Tony categories. Grammy Award-winner Pink is the host.
Luke Evans, left, and Josh Rivera are seen during “Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show” in New York on March 25, 2026. (Joan Marcus via AP) AP
New York (AFP) – Flying vampires. A parody of the blockbuster movie “Titanic”. Another parody, this time of Golden Age Broadway musicals. and the new Death of a Salesman, one of the saddest and most embellished American plays. It’s Tony Awards time.
Twenty-four Broadway shows He’ll be hoping for at least one win on Sunday across the 26 Tony categories, which could mean the difference between keeping the doors open and bringing down the curtain.
-
They May Be Giants bring humor, horns and a lot of heart to the House of Blues
-
Review and Track List: 5 Seconds of Summer keeps audiences in the middle of an unforgettable show
Grammy Award Winner Pink He is the host of the show, which will air live on CBS and stream to Paramount+ subscribers in the US to both coasts on Sundays from 8-11pm ET/5-8pm PT.
Three generations of the Pink family
Pink promises a big opening number — composed by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Mark Sonnenblick and ending with about 170 people on stage — with plenty of costume changes and some wire work, which she’s familiar with from her acrobatic gigs. She turned to Amber Ruffin, writer and performer on “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” for help with the jokes.
In the audience will be Pink’s mother — who took her to shows while growing up in Philadelphia, and instilled in her a love of musicals — and Pink’s two children, after passing the musical theater baton. Pink’s daughter, Willow, 15, is an aspiring stage actress and urged her to host the Tonys.
“The biggest reason she asked me to say ‘yes’ was so she could have a seat on the show because she loves the show so much,” Pink says. “I thought, ‘Maybe I can get you a seat anyway.’”
Lots of offers
There will be performances from seven Best New Musical and Best Musical Revival nominees: “The Lost Boys” and “Schmigoon!” “Titanique”, “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)”, “Cats: The Jellicle Ball”, “Ragtime” and “The Rocky Horror Show”.
Other performances include the original cast members of “The Book of Mormon” — Josh Gad, Andrew Rannells, Rory O’Malley and Nikki M. James — this year. Celebrating its fifteenth anniversary. Leslie Odom Jr. will sing “Without You” from “Rent” during the In Memoriam segment, in honor of the show’s 30th anniversary.
Another show celebrating a milestone, the now 30-year-old “Chicago,” will feature a performance slot featuring Pink, as well as Queen Latifah, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Alex Newell, Adrienne Warren, Julianne Hough, Whitney Levitt and Dylan Mulvaney. In addition, “A Chorus Line,” which last year celebrated its 50th anniversary, will receive a special tribute from Rachel Ziegler.
Musical and theatrical races
The competition for best new musical is between four very different shows: “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York),” a romantic comedy where opposites attract; “The Lost Boys,” a theatrical adaptation of the 1987 teen vampire film; “Shmegadon!”, which gently parodies Golden Age Broadway shows; and “Titanic,” a campy musical comedy that reimagines the 1997 film “Titanic.”
The top two nominated plays are “Giant,” which explores accusations of anti-Semitism against children’s author Roald Dahl, and “Liberation,” about a women’s consciousness-raising group in the 1970s that explores inequality, gender roles and racism.
There are interesting races in the two revival categories: Nathan Lane’s “Death of a Salesman” competes for best theatrical revival with the Mark Strong-led modern “Oedipus” and the beautiful “Every Brilliant Thing” starring Daniel Radcliffe.
The best musical revival is the new “Cats” reimagined as a “Pose”-like competition show, American History “Ragtime” Show And the fun and hilarious “The Rocky Horror Show.”
Bill Rauch, who received his first Tony Award nomination for co-directing the reimagined “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” had been the nominee for three seasons until this one, and he was impressed with the ensemble now on Broadway.
“I look at it all as an artist during the season, but also as someone who has experienced the fortune of working on Broadway for three years in a row,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of diversity on Broadway and a lot of artistic risks that people take. I left my three years as a nominee really impressed with the landscape, I have to say. And I feel that way this year, too.”
June Squibb She became the oldest Tony-nominated actress in history at 96 and could become the oldest Tony Award winner if you hear her name, surpassing Lois Smith, who was 90 when she won in 2021. Lean is hoping for his fourth Tony for “Death of a Salesman,” which would put him tied as the best male actor in Tony history, along with Boyd Gaines and Frank Langella.
___
For more coverage of the 2026 Tony Awards, visit https://apnews.com/hub/tony-awards.