Select list of winners at the 2025 Tony Awards
Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck, 'Buena Vista Social Club'
Book of a musical
Will Aronson and Hue Park, 'Maybe Happy Ending'
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San Francisco Chronicle
24-06-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
Bay Area artists make Tony Awards history
Among the big winners at the 78th Tony Awards was the Bay Area, as three theater artists with ties to the region took home the nation's highest honors for commercial theater. Two San Francisco natives — and Saint Ignatius College Preparatory School alumni — won acting awards during the ceremony Sunday, June 8, at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Francis Jue, who's performed locally with San Francisco Playhouse and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, nabbed best performance by a featured actor in a play for ' Yellow Face,' David Henry Hwang's semiautobiographical comedy about racial representation in theater. Darren Criss, an alumnus of American Conservatory Theater's Young Conservatory program, won best performance by a leading actor in a play for 'Maybe Happy Ending,' Hue Park and Will Aronson's sci-fi show about two robots who've been abandoned by their humans. Meanwhile, Oakland playwright Jonathan Spector won best revival of a play for 'Eureka Day,' his comedy about a mumps outbreak at a progressive Berkeley private school with anti-vaxx parents. Berkeley's own Aurora Theatre Company commissioned and premiered the play in 2018. It was each artist's first Tony Award, and Spector's marks the first such honor in recent memory for a current Bay Area resident. Spector in his acceptance speech thanked 'my theater community, who gave me space to find my voice as a writer.' Aurora Theatre Company Artistic Director Josh Costello, who helmed the world premiere, revisits 'Eureka Day' at Marin Theatre in September. In his acceptance speech, Criss thanked Craig Slaight, the former director of ACT's Young Conservatory program, 'for shepherding me and so many people here.' Fellow nominee Julia Mattison, co-composer of 'Death Becomes Her,' is also a Young Conservatory alum, and the two helped Slaight, who retired in 2017, travel to New York and attend the ceremony. 'I was honored and humbled to be invited and to have the gift of the arrangements to make it possible,' Slaight told the Chronicle the morning after the ceremony. 'For (Criss) to mention me in his remarks was just so moving.' 'Maybe Happy Ending' is slated to tour to San Francisco as part of BroadwaySF's 2026-27 season, the operator of the Golden Gate, Orpheum and Curran theaters announced Monday, June 9. It joins previously announced titles 'Death Becomes Her' and 'The Outsiders.' Casting has not yet been announced. The Tony Awards ceremony, hosted by ' Wicked ' star Cynthia Erivo, also made history for Asian American representation. Jue's and Criss' wins, alongside Nicole Scherzinger's for best actress in a musical for her role in 'Sunset Blvd.,' doubled the number of actors with Asian heritage who have won Tonys throughout history. Criss' mother is Filipina, Jue is Chinese American, and Scherzinger has Filipino and Native Hawaiian ancestry. The only other winners of Asian descent are Chinese American actor BD Wong (1988), Filipina actor and singer Lea Salonga (1991) and Ruthie Ann Miles (2015), whose mother is Korean. In accepting his award, Jue told the audience he was wearing a tuxedo that the actor Alvin Ing had made for himself for the opening of ' Pacific Overtures ' on Broadway in 1976. Ing gave it to Jue 20 years ago, Jue said, telling Jue to wear it 'when I accepted my Tony Award.' In a statement to the press after walking offstage, Jue said, 'Isn't it interesting that it is still unusual, historic, groundbreaking to tell an Asian American story on Broadway? And to tell it at a time when this country is wrestling with its identity, with who gets to be American, who gets to say who gets to be American?' His character in 'Yellow Face,' an avatar for the real-life father of Hwang, who emigrated from China, begins the show as a fervent champion of what Jue called traditional American values such as 'freedom and inclusion and justice.' He continued, 'We're living in challenging times where we're being asked whether we still value those things that we always assumed make us American.' The Antoinette Perry Awards have honored Broadway plays and musicals annually since 1947. They're named for the actor, producer and director who co-founded the American Theatre Wing, which co-presents the awards with the Broadway League. Nominees are chosen by a committee of a few dozen theater professionals who serve three-year terms, and winners are voted on by a group of more than 800. Tony Awards can boost box office receipts or extend runs for shows still performing on Broadway as well as further career opportunities for winning artists. For Bay Area audiences, they also boost chances that a particular title might tour nationally.
Chicago Tribune
12-06-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Review: ‘Kimberly Akimbo' arrives in Chicago, a moving musical about a teenager facing mortality
At the Tony Awards this year, a delightfully quirky little musical called 'Maybe Happy Ending' beat out big competitors and walked off with the big prize. Although it's about family dynamics rather than robotic romance, 'Kimberly Akimbo,' a similarly small and unusual show that won best musical in 2023, paved its way. Nearly three years after its Broadway bow, the touring version of director Jessica Stone's original production of that Jeanine Tesori tuner has finally reached downtown Chicago. Carolee Carmello, who has graced this city's stage several times with outstanding success in Stephen Sondheim musicals and elsewhere, is on the road in the title role originally played by Victoria Clark. And the rest of the nine-person cast includes at least two long-standing romantic couples, which might explain why much of the cast seems to be so close up there. 'Kimberly Akimbo,' the musical, is based on a play of the same name by David Lindsay-Abaire, which I first reviewed at A Red Orchid Theatre back in 2005, with Roslyn Alexander playing the lead. As Broadway fans will know, the show is about a teenager with progeria, a rare medical condition that causes the human body to age at over four times its normal rate. When she is 16, as she is in this show, Kimberly's appearance suggests a woman in her 60s. And, as logic would suggest, life also blossoms and expires for Kimberly at a far accelerated rate. Most of us, of course, don't know our likelihood of dying early so the play, and thus the musical, with book and lyrics by its original author, allows us to see life through the eyes of someone who knows more than most of its unavoidable brevity and the importance of living in the present, rather than the past or the future. In the musical, Kimberly's schoolmates (played by Grace Capeless, Skye Alyssa Friedman, Darron Hayes and Pierce Wheeler) become a little Greek chorus of show-choir nerds, trying to reconcile their adolescent angst with the problems faced by the young woman aging before their eyes. Kimberly has yet more to deal with, too. Her family is composed of narcissists: a mostly clueless mom, Pattie (Laura Woyasz), an alcoholic dad, Buddy (Jim Hogan) and a whack-a-doodle aunt, Debra (Emily Koch), who interjects a criminal caper plot into the days around Kimberly's Sweet 16 birthday. I greatly enjoyed 'Kimberly Akimbo' on Broadway and this first national tour is in excellent shape. It's never especially helpful to most people to compare performances, but if you were to twist my arm, I'd say that whereas Clark focused intently on achieving the inner life and spirit of a teenager in her portrayal, Carmello leans more into the character's sense of her own mortality. Both takes strike me as legitimate, although they are quite different. Carmello's Kimberly is a little sadder and more careworn, although she certainly also makes the final carpe diem number work quite beautifully and, as her perhaps boyfriend, Seth, Miguel Gil is a true, thoroughly guileless delight. I'm a big Tesori fan. Lyric Opera audiences heard her extraordinarily potent music quite recently in the opera 'Blue,' with the stirring Tazewell Thompson libretto. Although she clearly remembers what it is like to be young and have fun, Tesori's 'Kimberly Akimbo' score makes no easy choices; it focus intently on the show's complex emotional landscape as Kimberly strives to teach those far older than herself, and wishes for that one great adventure we'd all like to have before we go. Review: 'Kimberly Akimbo' (3.5 stars) When: Through June 22 Where: CIBC Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes Tickets: $35-$125 at
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Yahoo
Cynthia Erivo Puts Adam Lambert on the Spot & Holds Oprah's Finger in 2025 Tonys Opening Number
Sometimes all you need is a song — but a little support from Oprah Winfrey and Adam Lambert doesn't hurt, either. Cynthia Erivo opened the 2025 Tony Awards on Sunday night (June 8) with a show-stopping number featuring epic cameos from both the talk show legend and American Idol alum. Just before taking the stage in a glittering red gown, the Wicked star — who made her hosting debut at this year's ceremony — ran into Winfrey, who gave her some sage advice. 'The only thing you need to do is just be yourself,' the mogul said before offering up her pointer finger to Erivo, who then hilariously grasped it as a tribute to her viral 2024 'holding space' meme with Ariana Grande. More from Billboard 'Maybe Happy Ending,' 'Sunset Blvd.' Win Key 2025 Tony Awards: Full Winners List Kylie Minogue Joins Prestigious '21 Club' at London's O2 Arena Kevin Parker Previews New Tame Impala Music During Barcelona DJ Set Erivo then embarked on a vocally stunning musical performance of an original song to start the show, during which she shouted out many of the night's honorees and repeated the phrase, 'Sometimes all you need is a song.' Toward the end of the number, she stepped out into the audience at New York City's Radio Music Hall and prompted some of the ceremony's all-star guests to sing the same line. Kristin Chenoweth and Aaron Tveit both gave pitch-perfect on-the-spot deliveries as Erivo held out her microphone to them, but the most memorable was definitely Lambert, who blew the crowd away with spontaneous, dexterous riffs. The Pinocchio actress ended the number back on stage with a full gospel choir backing her up, earning a standing ovation from the crowd. Then it was off to the races, with Erivo helming the program as Darren Criss, Nicole Scherzinger, Cole Escola, Sarah Snook and more all took home statuettes for their performances in various Broadway shows. Maybe Happy Ending won best musical, while the Scherzinger-led Sunset Blvd. won best revival of a musical and Purpose won best play. Erivo's hosting debut comes just one week after she appeared on the cover of Billboard, and two days after she dropped her long-awaited studio album, I Forgive You. In August, she'll play the titular role in a three-night production of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hollywood Bowl, appearing alongside Lambert, who will portray Judas. Watch Erivo's opening number at the 2025 Tony Awards below. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
