‘A Strange Loop’ Takes Best Musical At Tony Awards: Full Winners List

A Strange Loop was named Best Musical of the 2021-22 Broadway season, and in two of the bigger surprises of the night, Joaquina Kalukango of Paradise Square and newcomer Myles Frost of MJ took best acting honors.

In the first big surprise of the night, Kalukango won the Best Actress in a Musical Tony Award for her performance in Paradise Square, edging out frontrunner Caroline, Or Change star Sharon D Clarke. Frost, who portrays the adult Michael Jackson in MJ, was less of a surprise, though A Strange Loop‘s Jaquel Spivey was generally favored to take the prize.

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Joaquina Kalukango AP Photos

Deirdre O’Connell was named Best Actress is a Play for her riveting performance in Dana H., which used actual recordings of a kidnapping victim and featured O’Connell lip-syncing to the tapes.

“Let me be a little sign to you from the universe,” O’Connell told aspiring theater artists in her acceptance speech. “Make the weird art.”

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The Lehman Trilogy took tonight’s Tony Award for Best Play, with co-author Ben Power thanking director Sam Mendes and everyone else who stuck with the play for the 577 days between the “fourth preview and fifth preview” — referencing the span of time the show was shut down due to the Covid pandemic.

The play also notched a Best Leading Actor for Simon Russell Beale.

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Company producer Chris Harper accepted the Tony Award for Best Musical Revival, saying that he was honored to pay Patti LuPone’s salary, after she had noted that onstage earlier in the evening.

The award was the latest in a string of wins for Company. Matt Doyle, whose rapid-fire performance of “Getting Married Today” is a highlight of revival, won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

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Doyle thanked, among others, Company composer Stephen Sondheim, specifically pointing out the late Broadway genius for reworking, with director Marianne Elliott, the 1970 musical to encompass gay characters.

Myles Frost AP Photo

The win nicely segued into a tribute to Sondheim, who died in November, which included taped interviews with the composer and a performance of “Children Will Listen” from Into the Woods, performed by the composer’s frequent collaborator and muse, Bernadette Peters.

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Take Me Out, the revival of the Richard Greenberg play that won widespread critical acclaim — and some unwanted headlines when an audience member recorded and posted on social media some nude scenes — was named the Best Revival of a Play by Tony voters tonight.

Company’s Marianne Elliott and The Lehman Trilogy‘s Sam Mendes won for direction of a musical and play, respectively, while Patti LuPone won the Best Featured Actress/Musical for her performance in Company, and Phylicia Rashad won Best Featured Actress in a Play for Skeleton Crew.

Patti LuPone at the Tonys AP Photos

LuPone thanked producer “Chris Harper who pays my salary” and “all of the Covid safety people” in a speech that made reference to the Broadway great’s recent viral moment in which she took to task a non-masked audience member at Company talkback.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in Take Me Out.

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Hosted by West Side Story Oscar winner and Hamilton original Ariana DeBose, the 75th annual Tony Awards, aired live coast-to-coast from New York’s Radio City Music Hall on CBS and Paramount+.

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Here is the full list of winners at the 75th annual Tony Awards, including the “Act One” preshow:

MAIN SHOW

Best Musical
A Strange Loop

Lead Actress/Musical
Joaquina Kalukango, Paradise Square

Lead Actor/Musical
Myles Frost, MJ

Lead Actress/Play
Deirdre O’Connell, Dana H.

Lead Actor/Play
Simon Russell Beale, The Lehman Trilogy

Best play
The Lehman Trilogy

Best Revival of a Musical
Company

Best Book of a Musical
A Strange Loop Michael R. Jackson

Featured Actor/Musical
Matt Doyle, Company