Luke Evans’ Butt, Pink Slays, a Self-Aware Lea Michele; Memorable Moments From the 2026 Tony Awards
Playbill isn’t afraid to say it: last night’s Tony Awards was arguably one of the most entertaining ceremonies we’ve had in many seasons. We had an excellent, if unexpected, host in Grammy winner Pink, a main awards broadcast that was truly packed to the gills with show-stopping performances, and tons of surprises over the four-and-a-half hours of Tony Awards we got on PlutoTV and CBS last night. Death of a Salesman ended the evening the most Tony-winning production of the season, with the evening’s most coveted titles of Best Musical and Play going respectively to Schmigadoon! and Liberation (get caught up with the full list of winners here).
But in a very memorable evening, which moments truly stood out to team Playbill, as we followed along on Broadway’s Biggest Night? Well, we’re glad you asked!
WATCH: Acceptance Speeches From the 2026 Tony Awards
Pink performs onstage with the cast of Chicago during The 79th Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 07, 2026 in New York City.
(Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
Pink on Broadway when?
Look—we read our comment sections. When Grammy winner Pink was announced as this year’s Tony host, a lot of you were confused. Pink has never been on Broadway, and hasn’t even acted in the professional theatre at all, which made her an outside-the-box choice for sure. After last night, it’s a pick that’s pretty hard to fight with. From the get-go, Pink’s hosting was always explained with what a big theatre fan she (and her daughter Willow) is. Watching the ceremony unfold—particularly that incredible opening number, the best the Tonys have seen in several years—it became clear that an uber talented theatre superfan might just be the best possible qualification to host the Tony Awards. But it wasn’t just the opening. Pink was truly one of the best Tony hosts in recent memory, coming with solid jokes, unbelievable singing, and lots of literal wig snatching. Sure, if we could get her on Broadway, she’d only be a more appropriate Tony Awards host. And after last night’s performance, we’re all too ready to see that happen. Can her performance of Chicago‘s “All That Jazz” act as her audition for becoming a Broadway star, please? They usually put the famouses in as Roxie, but team Playbill all agrees—Pink has the chops to give us a show-stopping Velma Kelly, and we are ready for it!
Tituss Burgess and Laura Benanti speak onstage during The 79th Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 07, 2026 in New York City.
(Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
Throwing shade at Tony winners
It’s no secret that Kelli O’Hara is one of Broadway’s biggest darlings. The treasured actress, nominated this season for her role in Fallen Angels, is notable for her soaring soprano and bonafide acting chops. But as Laura Benanti reminded us while introducing the Best Choreography category, O’Hara is a “mover” (a euphemism for actors who are not especially skilled dancers). Benanti first remarked that many of this year’s Tony-nominated choreographers had told her, “You don’t need to worry about learning this part” while working on shows. And then? “Kelli knows.” The soprano-on-soprano shade! The two leading ladies may not be pirouetting and leaping into the spotlight, but they’re beloved all the same!
Nathan Lane accepts the Best Revival of a Play award for Death of a Salesman alongside cast and crew onstage during The 79th Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 07, 2026 in New York City.
(Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
Death of a Salesman won Best Revival of a Play. Usually when that category is called, the producer is the one who makes the speech—they’re the one technically winning the award, after all. Except this year, it was star Nathan Lane who accepted the award (even after losing his own category, Leading Actor in a Play) and not lead producer Scott Rudin. In fact, neither Lane, nor director Joe Mantello or star Laurie Metcalf (who won in their respective categories) mentioned Rudin—who was the lead financier in the revival.
That’s unusual, but not unexpected considering that Rudin’s return to Broadway this season (following his hiatus due to reports of abusive workplace behavior) came with mixed reactions. Audiences have been giving Salesman healthy grosses, and the Tony voters gave Salesman six Tony Awards—the most of any show this season. But when Lane thanked Rudin at the Drama Desk Awards in May, boos could be heard from the audience.
The Tony wins for Salesman, with the accompanying lack of acknowledgement, indicate these mixed feelings will continue for the foreseeable future, even if his shows are being otherwise well received.
Lea Michele not getting a much-anticipated Tony nomination for her performance in Chess made headlines last month. But the Glee star put any rumors of bad blood between her and the Tonys to bed on Sunday, when she showed up to the ceremony to sing in the jam-packed opening number. The line that she beautifully belted? “We don’t do it for the awards!” Michele has commanded high box offices grosses at both Chess and Funny Girl, so truly, her audiences do not need shiny statues to see their favorite performer.
Kai Harada
(Heather Gershonowitz)
Too many Tony noms!
Being nominated for a Tony Award at all is an incredible honor. So imagine what it must feel like being someone like Qween Jean, Linda Cho, or Kai Harada, all of whom had multiple Tony nominations this season alone! Both Cho and Harada were even double nominated in the same exact category, Cho for her costume designs of Ragtime and Schmigadoon!, and Harada for his sound designs for Cats: The Jellicle Ball and Ragtime. Announcing last night’s winner for Best Sound Design of a Musical, Harada’s name was called—but when he got to the stage, he hilariously had to be reminded onstage by The Tony Awards: Act One co-host Laura Benanti which of his two nominated shows he’d actually won for. Spoiler alert: it was Ragtime. Champagne problems!
Ali Louis Bourzgui
(Heather Gershonowitz)
Politics was not a dirty word—it was liberating
It’s not every day you get to stand in front of a microphone and speak to a national audience. And Tony winners did not throw away their shot to send a stirring message with their acceptance speeches. In Ali Louis Bourzgui’s stirring speech, he dedicated his win to “immigrant families,” “Arab theatre makers and artists,” and “the people of Palestine.”
Then there was Cats: Jellicle Ball costume designer Qween Jean, who made history as the first trans artist to win a Tony. In her acceptance speech, Jean shouted out the “legacy of queer people, trans people” and the need to for society to “come together” to “make real, permanent change.”
The deeply political Liberation won Best Play, with Bess Wohl being only the fourth female playwright to win a Tony in that category. In her speech, Wohl named the female playwrights who came before her and closed with: “To all the girls out there, may you speak your truth, and may the world be wise enough to listen.”
Tonys host Pink also set the tone for the evening, which was a mix of celebration and sobering reality. In her opening monologue, she said audiences “go to a Broadway show to look at what the state of the world is. This year, the worst parts of history began repeating itself, and we were given Ragtime. Our country is more divided than ever, and we were given Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) this year. Our trans siblings started to lose even more rights, and we were given Cats: The Jellicle Ball. Theatre is brave, and that bravery is in its very bones.”
Pink even went into the audience at one point and spoke about the importance of free speech, giving the A-list attendees in the audience a chance at the mic. The responses were obviously in jest (such as Rose Byrne saying that texting during the “really slow, boring parts” of shows is fine). But Bobby Cannavale came through with something profound: “I’m scared of how free speech is slowly eroding before our eyes. But I’m encouraged, because I think Broadway is actually succeeding at the task of speaking truth to power, and I’m proud to be a part of this community.”
Same Mr. Cannavale, same (and we also think Bigfoot is real).
When it comes to Sophocles’ 2,500-year old tragedy classic Oedipus, people got crass jokes. The dark tale follows a man fated to murder his father and bed his mother, a concept so horrifically sickening that any number of you monsters have been making snide little quips about it for literal generations; the latest Broadway revival even ran with it and used the cheeky tagline “Truth is a motherfucker” in all its marketing. But leave it to comedy icon and Tony winner Cole Escola to, after all these years, have perhaps the first new spin on that Oedipus joke in decades.
Onstage alongside current Oh, Mary! star Maya Rudolph to present Best Leading Actor in a Play—and wearing a fabulous Agnes Moorehead, Lucille Ball-style look—Escola described Oedipus as “a play that asks the question, ‘Can women really have it all?'” Truly we thought we’d heard it all with Oedipus incest jokes, but that one got a pretty solid guffaw in the Playbill Tonys war room. Thank god Cole Escola came to Broadway. Never leave, girl.
Megan Thee Stallion performs onstage during The 79th Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 07, 2026 in New York City.
(Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
Seeing Megan Thee Stallion onstage during the opening number alongside Pink was a welcome surprise, especially for fans who missed out on her performance in Moulin Rouge! The Musical after her early departure last month (which the rapper cheekily referenced sharing that Broadway taught her that “the weekend is really just Monday.” We love a self-aware queen). The artist stepped down from the production a few weeks earlier than planned, and for those of us who did not witness her iconic curtain call “WAP” performances, we certainly felt the FOMO…until tonight!
Megan Thee Stallion was first introduced in a delightfully silly segment by the kids from Ragtime, who—in the style of their opening lines in the musical—stated, “The lyrics to ‘Lady Marmalade’ were rewritten for the occasion, for Pink was hosting. And it was determined the rhythm and poetry portion of the song would be performed by Megan, a stallion from Thee…” Making her grand entrance, Megan Thee Stallion was carried on the shoulders of two hunky dancers, and she quipped: “I don’t even know those guys. They were just two strangers…carrying some cake,” emphasized by a legendary not-so-little booty shake. Truly, one of the greatest puns ever made at the Tonys. She ate.
Billy Crystal speaks onstage during The 79th Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 07, 2026 in New York City.
(Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
Broadway bribes
Billy Crystal is set to return to the Broadway stage this fall. If you weren’t already aware of that, no worries—neither was Pink! The cameras happened to catch a sly bribe Crystal slipped to our lovely Tonys hostess to make sure she mentioned his upcoming one-man show, 860, the name paying homage to the address of his Palisades home lost in the 2025 fires. Shamelessly plug your show on national television, sure—but we appreciated Crystal’s humorous methodology.
The Tony For Best Merch Goes to… the Cats Fans
If you’ve been to Cats: The Jellicle Ball, you may have been tried to buy a yellow Cats fan so you can clack away during the show. And you may have been disappointed to see that those fans are regularly sold out. Where are the fans? Well apparently, they were at the Tony Awards because most of the attendees in the orchestra were given one and told to clack it during the Cats performance. And they did, wonderfully, during that number as well as whenever Cats won an award (we dare you to watch Leiomy execute her iconic 360 dip on the Radio City stage and not cheer).
It was a genius piece of marketing, telling viewers watching at home, as they saw a sea of yellow at Radio City, that Cats is bold, colorful, fun, and you should bring your own fan (or buy one online before you go).
Shoshana Bean accepts the Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical award for The Lost Boys onstage during The 79th Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on June 07, 2026 in New York City.
(Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
A Tony-winning switcheroo
Shoshana Bean took home the title for Best Featured Actress in a Musical this evening for her performance as Lucy Emerson in The Lost Boys. But five months prior to the show’s opening on Broadway, Caissie Levy had been slated to play the role, but ultimately backed out, citing that she needed to prioritize time with family. Lo and behold, Levy ended up continuing on with the company of Ragtime, which extended its Broadway run until this summer and was ostensibly less of a time commitment than originating a lead role in a new musical. Her decision paid off; Levy also won for her performance as Mother in Ragtime, winning Best Leading Actress in a Musical. Clearly, everything fell into place the way it was meant to—Bean finally got her flowers, earning her first Tony win after performing in 10 shows on Broadway, and Levy got to have her family time and her Tony. Who doesn’t love a literal win-win?
It’s hard to figure out what the current standards are for network television, but it’s clear that The Rocky Horror Show is a challenge. And that’s not surprising—we’re talking about a musical that was made for late night and adults-only viewing. But why do we have to bleep audience hecklers calling Brad “asshole,” but it’s fine when those same hecklers call Janet “slut?” (Could it be that we’ve discovered sexism within federal government standards? Alert the media! Oh, whoops, The New York Times does the exact same thing.)
But apparently there’s standards around costumes, too. When Luke Evans performed “Sweet Transvestite” on The Tonight Show last month, a pair of black briefs was added to his costume underneath the fishnets—no tukhus. For the Tonys, the show performed a mash-up of “Transvestite” and “Time Warp” with Evans in the same costume, but no briefs—full tukhus (underneath fishnets, but still). We don’t understand the decision making-making process, but we’re also not mad about it, at least in terms of the Tonys. It’s a powerful butt that no doubt singlehandedly (double-cheekedly?) sold more than a few tickets last night.
Between Evans and Megan Thee Stallion, cake aficionados were well fed at the 79th Annual Tony Awards!
For more on everything Tony Awards, visit Playbill.com/Tonys.
