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The Lost Boys and Schmigadoon! each earned a leading 12 Tony Award nominations on Tuesday, while 96-year-old June Squibb became the oldest Tony-nominated actor and Danny Burstein became the most-nominated male actor in Tony history.
The Lost Boys, an adaptation of the 1987 teen vampire movie, and Schmigadoon!, an adaptation of an Apple TV series that gently mocks Broadway musicals, were followed by a revival of Ragtime, the big, soaring musical celebrating early 20th-century America, with 11 nominations; and Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller’s masterpiece about the unravelling of the American Dream, starring Nathan Lane, which nabbed nine nods.
Twenty-four shows got at least one nomination across the 26 Tony categories, including Cats: The Jellicle Ball, which reimagines the classic 1980s feline musical as a celebration of queer ballroom culture, and a revival of Chess, the Cold War love triangle between two chess grand masters and the woman who loved them both.
The best new musical crown will be contested by The Lost Boys, Schmigadoon!, Titanique, a camp musical comedy that reimagines the 1997 megahit movie Titanic, and Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York), an opposites-attract rom-com set during a New York City weekend.
The best new play nominees are the John Lithgow-led Giant, which explores accusations of antisemitism against children’s author Roald Dahl; Liberation, about a consciousness-raising women’s group in 1970s Ohio that on Monday won the Pulitzer Prize for drama; The Balusters, a wry comedy about a small-town neighborhood association that descends into chaos over whether to install a stop sign; and Little Bear Ridge Road, about a struggling writer who returns to his rural hometown to settle his dead father’s estate.
Squibb, nominated for Marjorie Prime, is now the oldest Tony-nominated actor in history, besting the record set by Lois Smith, who was 89 when she was nominated in 2020 for The Inheritance. Squibb’s Broadway résumé reaches back to a stint in the original production of Gypsy in 1960 with Ethel Merman.
Burstein becomes the most-nominated male actor in Tony history with nine nods after his work in Marjorie Prime, beating the record set by Jason Robards. Kelli O’Hara got her ninth career nomination for a revival of the comedy Fallen Angels, tying her with Rosemary Harris for third on the all-time acting nominations list.
Daniel Radcliffe secured a nomination for Every Brilliant Thing, a one-person show that explores the antidotes to depression.
Lithgow, Byrne get acting noms
The best play revival category is stacked with well-received work: Every Brilliant Thing; Death of a Salesman; Oedipus, a modern retelling of Sophocles’s classic tragedy set on election night in a modern campaign office; Becky Shaw, Gina Gionfriddo’s dark comedy about a newlywed couple who decide to play matchmakers; and Fallen Angels, Noël Coward’s alcohol-fuelled competition between two upper-crust ladies over the attention of a former lover.
Lithgow, who already has two Tonys, will get his third if he beats leading actor in a play nominees Lane, Radcliffe, Mark Strong in Oedipus and Will Harrison from Punch, which looks at restorative justice following the death of a man from a physical punch.
Rose Byrne, the star of the 2025 film If I Had Legs I’d Kick You and the play Fallen Angels, becomes only the 22nd actor in history to be Oscar- and Tony-nominated in the same year. Byrne’s co-star in Fallen Angels, Kelli O’Hara, also secured a nod, as did Lesley Manville for Oedipus, Susannah Flood for Liberation and Carrie Coon for her work in her husband Tracy Letts’ play Bug.
Best actor in a musical nominees include Joshua Henry and Brandon Uranowitz, both from Ragtime, Sam Tutty in Two Strangers, Nicholas Christopher in Chess and Luke Evans from The Rocky Horror Show.
On the women’s side, the nominees are Caissie Levy from Ragtime, Marla Mindelle for Titanique, Christiani Pitts from Two Strangers, Sara Chase from Schmigadoon! and Stephanie Hsu in The Rocky Horror Show.
The Tony Awards will be handed out June 7 at Radio City Music Hall during a telecast hosted by Pink. The awards will air live on CBS and stream on Paramount+.
Last year’s show, hosted by Wicked star Cynthia Erivo, drew 4.85 million viewers to CBS, its largest broadcast audience in six years, according to Nielsen.
