Broadway, darling — your moment has arrived. On the morning of Tuesday, May 5, 2026, the theatre world gathered around screens, phones, and old-fashioned radios as Tony nominees Uzo Aduba and Darren Criss — fresh off Criss’s own Tony win last year for Maybe Happy Ending — stepped up at New York’s Sofitel to read out the nominations for the 79th Annual Tony Awards. The biggest categories broke first on CBS Mornings, with the full list rolling out live on the Tony Awards YouTube channel at 9 a.m. ET.

The 2025–2026 Broadway season delivered roughly 30 eligible productions — a season heavy on revivals and only 11 original new musicals — yet remarkably rich in performances and theatrical ambition. When the dust settled on nominations morning, two shows had bolted to the front of the pack: the supernatural spectacle The Lost Boys (yes, the one with Kiefer Sutherland as a producer) and the Apple TV+ fan-favourite-turned-Broadway-sensation Schmigadoon!, each landing 12 nominations. Hot on their heels came the sweeping revival of Ragtime (11 nominations), followed by Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Cats: The Jellicle Ball, and Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show, all earning nine apiece.

Below you will find every single nominee across every category — plus analysis of the season’s biggest stories, notable snubs, and what to watch as June 7 approaches.

Nomination Leaders at a Glance

The Four Best Play Nominees

The Best Play race this year is a tight four-way contest. Liberation, Bess Wohl’s new work produced by Daryl Roth and Eva Price, rides serious awards momentum — it claimed the Pulitzer Prize for Drama on the very day before nominations were announced. Its nomination alongside Giant (Mark Rosenblatt’s play starring John Lithgow), The Balusters (David Lindsay-Abaire, produced by Manhattan Theatre Club), and Little Bear Ridge Road (Samuel D. Hunter, produced by Scott Rudin and Barry Diller) sets up a genuinely unpredictable four-way contest.

The Best Musical Race

With only 11 new musicals eligible this season, the Best Musical category has four contenders: The Lost Boys, the movie-to-stage adaptation backed by a roster of celebrity producers including Neil Patrick Harris, Slash, and Kiefer Sutherland; Schmigadoon!, Lorne Michaels’s beloved TV musical finally arriving on Broadway; Titaníque, the Céline Dion–themed comedy that snowballed from an off-off-Broadway basement production into a Broadway smash; and Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York), the sweet British import from the Kiln Theatre that charmed critics and audiences alike.

The Acting Races — Star Power on Every Shortlist

The acting categories this season are a who’s who of stage and screen royalty. In Best Actor (Play), Nathan Lane returns to Broadway with his nominated turn in Death of a Salesman, while Daniel Radcliffe earns a solo-performer nomination for the one-man show Every Brilliant Thing. John Lithgow is nominated for Giant, and Mark Strong brings the intensity for the British import Oedipus. Completing the five is Will Harrison in Punch.

The Best Actress (Play) category delivers arguably the most glamorous field: Rose Byrne and Kelli O’Hara compete against each other from the same show — Noël Coward’s Fallen Angels — joining Carrie Coon (Bug), Susannah Flood (Liberation), and British screen icon Lesley Manville (Oedipus). Notably, Ayo Edebiri (Proof) and Jean Smart (Call Me Izzy) — two names that were heavily discussed before nominations — did not make the cut.

In the musical categories, Joshua Henry and Brandon Uranowitz both received nominations from Ragtime in the Leading Actor (Musical) category, joined by Nicholas Christopher (Chess), Luke Evans (Rocky Horror Show), and Sam Tutty (Two Strangers).

Book, Score, and Direction

The Best Book of a Musical category features all four Best Musical nominees, making it a clean preview of the evening’s major battle. Two Strangers‘ Jim Barne and Kit Buchan wrote the show from scratch, while Titaníque‘s book is credited to co-creators Marla Mindelle, Constantine Rousouli, and Tye Blue. Meanwhile, the Best Original Score field broadens the competition to include incidental scores — Caroline Shaw’s music for Death of a Salesman and Steve Bargonetti’s work for Joe Turner’s Come and Gone earn unexpected spots alongside the four musical scores.

In the Best Direction of a Play category, Nicholas Hytner (Giant), Robert Icke (Oedipus), Kenny Leon (The Balusters), Joe Mantello (Death of a Salesman), and Whitney White (Liberation) form a stellar five-way contest of directors spanning both sides of the Atlantic.

Design Categories

Special Awards & Honours

Several non-competitive awards were announced ahead of nominations day and will be celebrated at the June 7 ceremony. The Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award — given to a theatre community member whose off-stage advocacy matches the artistry onstage — will go to Mary-Mitchell Campbell. Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre will be shared by three titans: André Bishop, Jules Fisher, and James Lapine. The 2026 Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre are bestowed upon the 1/52 Project, Jake Bell, Kenn Lubin, and Loren Plotkin.

Snubs, Surprises, and What to Watch

The nomination morning did not come without controversy. Lea Michele, widely speculated to be a contender for Best Actress in a Musical for Chess, did not receive a nomination. Adrien Brody — fresh off his Oscar win — was also shut out for The Fear of 13, which received only two technical nominations (lighting and sound design). The absence of Ayo Edebiri (Proof) and Jean Smart (Call Me Izzy) from the Best Actress in a Play category was another eyebrow-raiser, given both were considered frontrunners by early season prognosticators.

On the other side of the ledger, Schmigadoon!‘s dominant 12-nomination showing proves that the TV-to-Broadway pipeline can work — and that Lorne Michaels’s faith in the property was well placed. Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York), the intimate two-hander from London’s Kiln Theatre, punches well above its weight with strong acting, book, score, and design nominations. And Ragtime‘s 11-nomination haul cements the revival as the sentimental favourite, a production that moved audiences to tears with its renewed contemporary resonance.

For the first time in recent memory, the hosting duties fall to a pop superstar — P!NK — whose Broadway-adjacent credits include having her songs featured in & Juliet and Moulin Rouge!. Whether her arrival signals a new era of prime-time crossover appeal for the Tonys remains to be seen. The show returns to Radio City Music Hall under a new production team: Raj Kapoor, Sarah Levine Hall, and Jack Sussman take over producing duties after White Cherry Entertainment’s two-decade run at the helm.

With five weeks to go until voting closes and the June 7 ceremony broadcasts live on CBS and Paramount+, Broadway has rarely felt more electric. From the blockbuster spectacle of The Lost Boys to the intimate craft of Liberation and Two Strangers, the 2025–2026 season has delivered depth, diversity, and theatrical ambition in equal measure. The Tony voters have a difficult and delightful task ahead.