Tony Awards 2023: Alex Newell And J. Harrison Ghee Make History As First Non-Binary Performers To Win Featured And Lead Acting Categories

The 2023 Tony Awards took place last night and there were so many moments that happened backstage that you didn’t get to see on TV.

Kimberly Akimbo, which walked away with five prestigious Tony Awards. The production secured accolades such as Best Musical, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical, and Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre. Close on the heels of Kimberly Akimbo were Some Like It Hot and Leopoldstadt, as both showed earned four wins each.

Alex Newell is the first non-binary actor to win a Tony Award at the event that ran this year for the 76th time. Newell took home the Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical category award for their role as Lulu in Shucked. They made reference to their background while accepting the award: “Thank you for seeing me Broadway.

at the United Palace Theatre in New York City. Alex Newell and J.

It’s a Glee reunion!

Anna Wintour was on hand to watch her daughter Bee Carrozzini win a Tony at the 2023 Tony Awards on Sunday night (June 11).

Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond put on a masterclass when they took the stage at the 2023 Tony Awards on Sunday night (June 11) in New York City.

Gordon Cox Theater Editor In a Broadway awards ceremony without a script, there were bound to be unexpected twists, turns and upsets. Here are the biggest snubs, surprises and standouts from the 2023 Tony Awards. SNUB: The WGA’s request to nominated membersAfter producers of the Tonys vowed not to include material written specifically for the awards show, the Writers Guild of America agreed not to picket the ceremony. But the union made a follow-up request: They asked Tony-nominated guild members not to attend the Tonys in solidarity, and to pre-tape acceptance speeches or have a non-member accept on their behalf. However, many of those union members, after conferring with the Dramatists Guild, made the decision to attend the Tonys anyway – and to use the nationally televised opportunity to get vocal about their support for writers and the WGA. Sure enough, writers spotlit the WGA’s cause starting with the evening’s very first award, when “Kimberly Akimbo” lyricist David Lindsay-Abaire opened his speech with a shout-out to writers. Later, host Ariana DeBose opened the CBS portion of the telecast by voicing her own support of the union.

Lorna Courtney switched up her look in the middle of her performance at the 2023 Tony Awards.

J. Harrison Ghee is continuing to make history at the 2023 Tony Awards!

Sara Bareilles and Brian d’Arcy James were both nominated at the Tonys this year and they reunited with co-star Kennedy Kanagawa for a live performance!

The cast of Some Like It Hot brought the heat during a performance at the 2023 Tony Awards on Sunday night (June 11).

Jodie Comer has picked up her first Tony Award!

2023 Tony Awards, J. Harrison Ghee took home the prize for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, becoming the first nonbinary performer to win the category.Their win also follows Alex Newell's win in the featured acting category earlier in the ceremony, with the two breaking the glass for LGBTQ performers at the annual Broadway celebration.

Alex Newell has made history!

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Actor Alex Newell made history at this year’s Tony Awards, becoming the first openly nonbinary performer to win an acting prize for their performance as Lulu in Jack O’Brien’s “Shucked.” “Thank you for seeing me Broadway,” Newell said. “I should not be up here as a queer, non-binary, fat, Black, little baby from Massachusetts. And to anyone that thinks that they can’t do it, I’m going to look you dead in your face that you can do anything you put your mind to.” Newell isn’t the only nonbinary actor nominated at the Tonys, with J. Harrison Ghee among the shortlisted performers for lead actor (musical) for their performance as Jerry/Daphne in Casey Nicholaw’s “Some Like It Hot.” Ghee and Newell already walked into the ceremony making history as the first nonbinary-identifying actors recognized.

Alex Newell just made history on Sunday, when they became the first nonbinary-identifying person to win an individual acting prize at the 76th annual Tony Awards. Newell won Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical for their show-stopping performance in . «I have wanted this my entire life.

telecast on CBS and Paramount+, history was made as Alex Newell became the first-ever openly non-binary actor to win a Tony award, in the Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical category, for their showstopping role as cornpone character Lulu in the musical comedy “Shucked.”Newell burst onto TV screens as the vivacious Wade “Unique” Adams in the Fox smash “Glee,” a role they won after becoming a runner-up on the casting series “The Glee Project.” The Broadway revival of “Once on This Island” (which won the 2018 Best Musical Revival Tony) won Newell more acclaim, which led to a major featured role on NBC’s “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist,” in which Newell could strut their stuff to the likes of tunes by Andra Day, Kelly Clarkson and Mary J. Blige among many.Newell’s big “Shucked” number “Independently Owned” recently became the first Broadway number ever to be performed live on NBC’s “The Voice.” Newell was the favorite to win this category, and in a fortuitous coincidence, Newell could actually become one of two non-binary actors to win Tony Awards on the very same night, as “Some Like It Hot” leading actor J.

It was a big night for the play The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window!

Jordan Roth is making a splash on the red carpet at the 2023 Tony Awards.