Broadway’s Biggest Night was held on Sunday, June 11th! Host Ariana DeBose presided over the WGA strike-induced unscripted ceremony, which was held uptown at the United Palace for the first time in the Tonys’ 76-year history.
Major winning productions included Kimberly Akimbo (Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score, Best Lead Actress for Victoria Clark, Best Featured Actress for Bonnie Milligan) and Leopoldstadt (Best Play, Best Direction of a Play, Best Lead Actor for Brandon Uranowitz, and more). Other notable winners included Alex Newell and J. Harrison Ghee, the first two openly non-binary performers to win Tony Awards, and this season’s productions of the Jason Robert Brown-Alfred Uhry musical Parade and Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog, which nabbed the Best Revival of a Musical and Best Revival of a Play awards, respectively. See a complete list of the night’s winners here.
While the ceremony itself is but a memory now, the performances of all nine nominated musicals (and then some!) live on in the pantheon of Tony telecast performances past, an iconic treasure trove of Broadway history residing mostly on YouTube these days. Here are Broadway’s Best Shows’ picks for the season’s top numbers on the 2023 telecast.
Ariana DeBose leads a lyricless dance medley (no writing, remember?) to kick things off!
Brian D’Arcy James and Sara Bareilles duet ‘It Takes Two’ from Into the Woods, with a little help from Milky White
Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond perform Parade’s act two showstopper ‘This Is Not Over Yet’
Will Swenson whips the crowd up into a singalong of ‘Sweet Caroline’ with the cast of A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical
New York, New York’s Colton Ryan, Anna Uzele, and company croon their show’s opening and title numbers
Some Like It Hot shows off its now-Tony-winning choreography with its title song
Joaquina Kalukango tributes the end of Phantom’s Broadway run and those who the Broadway community has lost this year with an In Memoriam to be remembered
Lea Michele belts out ‘Don’t Rain on My Parade’ with the cast of Funny Girl to close out the ceremony