Tony Award Nominations 2026: The Stage Is Set for Broadway's Biggest Night (Updating Live)

Pink will host the show, which will air live from the legendary Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Sunday, June 7

NEED TO KNOW

• Uzo Aduba and Darren Criss will announce the 2026 Tony Award nominations live on Tuesday, May 5
• This 2025-2026 Broadway season is highly competitive with no clear front-runners in the Best Musical and Best Play categories
• Pink will host the 2026 Tony Awards live from Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Sunday, June 7

The stage is being set for Broadway's biggest night.

Nominations for the 2026 Tony Awards will be revealed on Tuesday, May 5, honoring the best of the 2025–2026 Broadway season.

Tony nominee Uzo Aduba and Tony winner Darren Criss will announce the hopefuls for the 79th annual ceremony, beginning at 8:30 a.m. ET on CBS Mornings. Categories expected to be revealed first include the evening's highest honors — Best Musical and Best Play — as well as the lead actors and actress candidates.

Following the segment, Aduba and Criss will name the complete list of nominees in a video on the Tony Awards official YouTube page filmed live from Sofitel New York.

PEOPLE will be updating live as each category is revealed. Winners will be divulged on Sunday, June 7, in a telecast hosted by Pink from the legendary Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

It's sure to be a competitive race. This season has been one of the most unpredictable in years, with no real front-runner in the top two categories.

For Best Musical, six shows are vying for four spots. Those include:

• Beaches: The beloved tearjerker about lifelong friendship arrives on Broadway as a new musical adaptation of Iris Rainer Dart's 1985 book and its 1988 film, centering on two women whose bond is tested by fame, love and loss.
• The Lost Boys: The cult 1987 vampire film gets a high-octane stage treatment, following two brothers who move to a mysterious California town and uncover a dangerous underworld of blood-seeking vampires.
• Schmigadoon!: Like the Emmy-winning TV series of the same name, this meta musical comedy drops a modern couple into a technicolor Golden Age-style town where everyone sings — and they can only escape after they've found true love.
• The Queen of Versailles: Based on the 2012 documentary, the musical adaptation charts the rise and fall of billionaire Florida couple David and Jackie Siegel building America's largest home as the 2008 financial crisis threatens their empire.
• Titaníque: The irreverent hit parody reimagines Titanic through Céline Dion's music, blending camp humor and powerhouse vocals in a send-up that has built a devoted following.
• Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York): An intimate, two-hander that follows a chance meeting between a Brit and a New Yorker over one whirlwind day.

Like the musicals, six plays are eligible for four Best Play nominations:

• Call Me Izzy: A solo play centered on a fiercely resilient woman navigating poverty, identity and survival.
• Dog Day Afternoon: The classic 1975 crime drama is reimagined for the stage, following a desperate bank heist that spirals into a media spectacle and a tense standoff with police.
• The Fear of 13: Based on a true story of Nick Yarris, this gripping drama follows a death row inmate who fights to prove his innocence, unpacking the psychological toll of incarceration and the pursuit of justice.
• Giant: An expansive adaptation of Edna Ferber's novel traces decades of ambition, wealth and family tension in Texas, exploring themes of power, identity and the American dream.
• Liberation: A contemporary drama examining personal freedom and reinvention, as its characters wrestle with the expectations placed on them and the lives they long to claim.
• Little Bear Ridge Road: Set in rural America, this intimate two-hander follows a reclusive woman whose quiet life is upended by an unexpected visitor, revealing buried grief and fragile connection.
• Punch: Jacob Dunne — whose single, impulsive punch led to a fatal outcome — sees his incredible real-life story come to the stage, tracing the devastating ripple effects on both the victim's family and his own as questions of justice, remorse and accountability unfold.
• The Balusters: A sharp ensemble comedy set within an insular community, where long-simmering tensions and secrets rise to the surface with biting humor and theatrical flair.

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Those are the new offerings. The Best Revival categories, for both plays and musicals, offer a slew of new interpretations of celebrated works.

Five revival plays will be nominated from this year's productions of Art, Becky Shaw, Bug, Death of a Salesman, Every Brilliant Thing, Fallen Angels, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Marjorie Prime, Oedipus, Proof and Waiting for Godot. Three musical revivals will be picked, among the acclaimed new stagings of CATS: The Jellicle Ball, Chess, Mamma Mia!, Ragtime and The Rocky Horror Show.

That's just the shows. The stars who hope to hear their names mentioned are some of the biggest across stage and screen, including Jon Bernthal (Dog Day Afternoon), Adrien Brody (Fear of 13), Rose Byrne (Fallen Angels), Carrie Coon (Bug), Kristin Chenoweth (The Queen of Versailles), Nicholas Christopher (Chess), Daniel Radcliffe (Every Brilliant Thing), Ayo Edebiri (Proof), Luke Evans (Rocky Horror), Stephanie Hsu (Rocky Horror), Nathan Lane (Death of a Salesman), Caissie Levy (Ragtime), John Lithgow (Giant), Laurie Metcalf (Little Bear Ridge Road, Death of a Salesman), Lea Michele (Chess), Marla Mindelle (Titanique), Anika Noni Rose (The Balusters), Mark Strong (Oedipus) and Aaron Tveit (Chess), among others.

And those are just in the lead categories. Supporting stars include Christopher Abbott (Death of a Salesman), F. Murray Abraham (The Queen of Versailles), Ben Ahlers (Death of a Salesman), Patrick Ball (Becky Shaw), Melissa Barrera (Titaníque), Shoshana Bean (The Lost Boys), Madeline Brewer (Becky Shaw), Cedric “The Entertainer” (Joe Turner's Come and Gone), Don Cheadle (Proof), Mark Consuelos (Fallen Angels), Margaret Colin (The Balusters), Deborah Cox (Titaníque), Andre De Shields (CATS: The Jellicle Ball), Colin Donnell (Ragtime), Rachel Dratch (Rocky Horror), Alden Ehrenreich (Becky Shaw), Frankie Grande (Titaníque), Ana Gasteyer (Schmigadoon!), Harvey Guillen (Rocky Horror), Taraji P. Henson (Joe Turner's Come and Gone), Juliette Lewis (Rocky Horror), Leiomy Maldonado (CATS: The Jellicle Ball), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Dog Day Afternoon), Cynthia Nixon (Marjorie Prime), Jim Parsons (Titaníque), Josh Rivera (Rocky Horror), Michaela Jae Rodriguez (Rocky Horror), Constantine Rousouli (Titaníque), June Squibb (Marjorie Prime) and Kara Young (Proof), among others.

While those stars (and more) will hope to hear their names on Tuesday morning, some are already guaranteed to win come June.

Multiple honorees have been announced within the past few weeks for this year's ceremony.

Famed musical director, supervisor, and arranger Mary-Mitchell Campbell will receive the 2026 Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award for her unwavering dedication to advocacy work through the arts. The honor is presented annually to a member of the theatre community who has made a substantial contribution of volunteered time and effort on behalf of one or more humanitarian, social service or charitable organizations. Previous recipients include Celia Keenan-Bolger, Billy Porter, Jerry Mitchell, Julie Halston, Judith Light, Nick Scandalios, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Stephen Schwartz, Larry Kramer, Rosie O'Donnell, Bernadette Peters, Eve Ensler, and David Hyde Pierce.

Three pillars of the theatre community — André Bishop, Jules Fisher, and James Lapine — will each receive the 2026 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.

“How lucky are we to have such a wealth of deserving talent, whose lifetimes of contributions left us unable to select just one recipient of this prestigious honor,” Jason Laks, President of the Broadway League, and Heather Hitchens, President & CEO of the American Theatre Wing, previously said in a statement. “The work that André, Jules, and James have done, and continue to do, will leave an indelible mark for generations to come. They are each a constant source of inspiration and we look forward to celebrating them at Broadway's biggest night.”

Finally, the 2026 Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre will go to: 1/52 Project, Jake Bell, Kenn Lubin and Loren Plotkin.

The 2025 Tony Awards will broadcast live to both coasts on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+* (8:00 – 11:00 p.m. ET/5:00 – 8:00 p.m. PT).

Check back for a full list of nominations.

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