Tonys 2025 Live Updates: Sarah Snook Wins for Playing 26 Characters in ‘Dorian Gray'
June 8, 2025, 8:13 p.m. ET
Image
Sarah Snook plays all 26 characters in 'The Picture of Dorian Gray,' scheduled to run through June 29.
Credit...
Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
For her madcap, one-woman take on a stage adaptation of Oscar Wilde's 1891 novel 'The Picture of Dorian Gray,' Sarah Snook is this year's best actress in a play winner. Though she plays 26 roles, she'll get just one Tony statuette.
Over the course of the show's two frenetic hours, the actress, 37, best known for her Emmy-winning turn as Logan Roy's girlboss daughter, Shiv, on HBO's dark comedy-drama 'Succession,' plays all the characters, among them a handsome rake, a martini-sipping libertine and a hapless artist.
The audience gets a close-up view of Snook on a large, rectangular screen that hangs from the top of the stage as cameras follow her rushing around the stage, de-wigging and re-wigging, and interacting with prerecorded versions of herself.
'It's about concealing and revealing, putting on masks, taking off masks,' Snook, who made her Broadway debut in the show, told The New York Times this spring. 'It's about having your soul be seen.'
Snook originally performed the show last year in London's West End, where she won the Olivier Award and where critics praised the production's clever camerawork and Snook's chameleonic, playful embodiment of the various characters.
Critics in the United States were more measured: Writing in The Times, Jesse Green praised her 'convincing and compelling' characterizations, yet noted that the copious use of technology left the production feeling 'brittle,' 'often denying the human contact, and contract, that are at the heart of theater's effectiveness.' (Though the production, he noted, was 'technologically spectacular.')
Show more
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News24
26 minutes ago
- News24
‘That twin effect?' SA's amapiano DJ duo TxC stun at BET Awards in hip-linked gowns
TxC taking a selfie before being interviewed by BET International on the red carpet. Bethany Grenald Be among those who shape the future with knowledge. Uncover exclusive stories that captivate your mind and heart with our FREE 14-day subscription trial. Dive into a world of inspiration, learning, and empowerment. You can only trial once. Start your FREE trial now Show Comments ()
New York Post
38 minutes ago
- New York Post
Brooklyn teacher nabs Tony for theatre education excellence
All the classroom's a stage. A Bed-Stuy theater teacher won a special Tony award last Sunday for helping bring the joy of Broadway to generations of students — becoming the first in New York to nab the prestigious title. Gary Edwin Robinson took home the 2025 Excellence in Theatre Education Award at last weekend's Tony ceremony for expanding theater access to thousands of students at Boys and Girls High School. Advertisement 5 Gary Edwin Robinson became the first teacher from New York State to nab the Tony for Excellence in Theatre Education Award. REUTERS 'What a lift. What joy it is. Oh, it's like riding on a carpet — the magic carpet!' Robinson, of Fort Greene, told The Post about receiving the honor and rubbing elbows with the theater's elite. Robinson was nothing short of 'shocked' when he heard the news that he would be this year's recipient — and even three days after the ceremony, the excitement was still settling in. Advertisement 'I always said as a kid, 'One day I'm going to go to the Tony Awards. I'm going to get a Tony Award.' And to receive this recognition award is just the tops.' The head of the school's theater program was cast as this year's winner because of his unwavering dedication to his high school students — he developed programming that allows teens to shadow Broadway professionals. He has also leaned on the Arthur Miller Foundation Fellows Program and Broadway Bridges Program to pack the academic year with on- and off-Braodway shows — this year, they've seen 'Hell's Kitchen,' 'Gypsy,' 'A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical' and 'John Proctor Is the Villain.' 5 Robinson has been leading the theater program at the Boys and Girls High School for a decade. Gabriella Bass Advertisement 5 Robinson teaches five drama classes a day and leads a three-year program that explores acting, playwriting, producing, directing and more. Gabriella Bass Robinson lives and breathes theater: he teaches five drama classes a day and leads a three-year program that explores acting, playwriting, producing, directing and more. Many of his students have gone on to illustrious careers in the arts — one is on tour in 'Moulin Rouge,' another is a manager at the famed Apollo Theater and another just finished a TV show. His major emphasis, however, is how theater can enhance his students' lives even if they choose to explore career paths beyond the stage. Advertisement 'I tell [athletes], 'You're going to be selected for a team and with sports figures, you have to do endorsements. That's theater right there; you've got to sell the product and that's where the theater comes in and that's why you're taking this class,' Robinson explained. 5 'Dreams do come true,' Robinson said of the honor. Gabriella Bass 'I have a student who wants to be a nurse . . . You have patients. You might have to sing for the patients and might have to do a little performance with the kids to make people feel better and to heal them. That's where theater comes in,' he continued. 'Theater really can help you in any walk of life. And I say, 'I am that bridge to help you get to where you want to be in your career path.'' Robinson, who has taught at Boys and Girls High School for a decade, was bestowed the award at the 78th annual Tonys on Sunday by Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian. It marked the first time an educator from the Empire State was chosen for the honor — despite the Big Apple being considered the 'theater capital.' 5 The award was presented at the Tonys by Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian. REUTERS 'I get up and I go to work, and I go in to do theater with my students. To receive an award for what you truly love and enjoy doing — okay, I accept!' Robinson said. Advertisement The prize also comes with a $10,000 grant for the school's theater arts program, which Robinson is still mulling over what exactly to put it towards. His students will also receive a visiting master class taught by Carnegie Mellon drama professors. Robinson hopes his success can be another learning moment for his students, telling them to 'find your dream and stick with it.' 'Do all that you can, put your energy into it, and make that a living reality,' he said. 'Dreams do come true. Just stick with it and follow through.'
Forbes
43 minutes ago
- Forbes
3 Questions To Ask Yourself To Boost Your Personal Brand
Who made Superman's personal brand what it is today? And what can you as an experienced leader learn ... More from that? Photo: Actor Brandon Routh launches the New Wax Figure of Superman from "Superman Returns" - June 27, 2006 at Madame Tussauds in New York, United States. (Photo by Michael Loccisano) As an experienced leader, your personal brand may not be as visible as Superman's. But just because you don't wear an S on your chest or a cape on your back, don't think your personal brand doesn't matter. In fact, if you suddenly find yourself job hunting, it's likely your personal brand that will determine whether or not you succeed. So what is your personal brand? And how do you boost it if it's not a matter of buying a shinier – and tighter – suit? In the movie, Batman Begins, Batman's alter ego Bruce Wayne argues that people need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy – and that he can't do that as a man: 'As a man, I'm flesh and blood, I can be ignored, I can be destroyed. But as a symbol… As a symbol, I can be incorruptible. I can be everlasting.' Is that the answer to what your personal brand is? A symbol that makes you incorruptible and everlasting? As opposed to a man – or woman – of flesh and blood? With the promises of AGI flooding the news, it's tempting to say yes. After all, the job market is insatiable when it comes to people and machines that can out-think, out-pace, and out-perform other people and machines. And doesn't that call for super-human leaders who can shake everyone out of apathy? Before you rush to decide on a symbol that can neither be ignored nor destroyed, let's ask who made Superman and Batman's personal brands what they are today. Was it their alter egos, Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne? The comic book writers who invented the superheroes? The actors who embodied them on screen? Or the millions of readers and viewers who have followed them through generations? Of course, there is no single answer to who created Superman and Batman's personal brands. And the same goes for you and your personal brand. No matter how much time you spend defining who you are and what you want others to think and say about you, you cannot control how you are perceived. What you can – and should – do is ask yourself three questions that have guided flesh and blood humans for millennia. In the early 1700s, the German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz came up with what is often described as the greatest philosophical question of all, namely: why is there something rather than nothing? This may seem like a peculiar question – not least in the context of personal branding. But reminding yourself of how Leibniz took the age-old question of why our universe is the way it is to the next level by asking why there is a universe at all can actually be a really good way to boost your personal brand. In addition to asking yourself questions about your personal values and career goals, asking questions that put you and your contribution as a leader in the greatest possible context will help you focus your efforts where they matter most. After all, if there is no industry, company, product, or customer demand for you to lead, your values and career goals will be as redundant as Batman without Gotham. So to boost you personal brand, don't focus on your personal brand. Instead, focus on why there is something rather than nothing for you to lead. And how you can help take industries, companies, products and customers to the next level. Great philosophical questions can be divided into three categories. Epistemological questions about how we know what (we think) we know – e.g. 'why is there something rather than nothing?' Ethical questions about what is the right thing to do. And existential questions about who we are as humans. Common to these three categories of questions is that no one – least of all a machine – can answer them for you. Also, they cannot be answered once and for all. And with ethical questions, like 'what is the right thing to do?', you must not only ask them again and again, you must ask them again and again – each day! While the advantage of being a symbol is that you can, in the words of Bruce Wayne, be incorruptible and everlasting, the advantage of being human is that you cannot. You can become corrupt, and you will eventually die. 'How is this an advantage?', you might ask. And you should. It only takes one bad decision to destroy your personal brand. And there are no guarantees. Even when you think you're making all the right decisions based on all the right answers, others may see it differently. And that's the advantage of being human: that your personal brand is negotiable. Changeable. Evolving. Just as it only takes one bad decision to destroy your personal brand, it only takes one question to start fixing it. It's not your answer to 'What is the right thing to do?' that make or break your personal brand. It's your willingness to keep asking it. Being corruptible, negotiable, and changeable is not only essential to your personal brand. It's essential to being you. Unlike Clark Kent and Superman, and Bruce Wayne and Batman, you and your personal brand are not two distinctive entities. Your flesh and blood is indistinguishable from your personal brand and vice versa. That's why you act differently in different situations. While Batman, who, in the words of the Joker, is destined to do the same thing forever, you are neither 'an unstoppable force' (like the Joker describes himself) nor 'an immovable object' (like Batman). You, like the people on the boats in The Dark Knight Rises, act according to who you are right here and right now. Sometimes you do as expected, sometimes you don't. Being a flesh and blood human as opposed to a symbol means asking the existential questions that help you assess and adapt to the situations you find yourself in. While the promise of AGI and superheroes is to out-think, out-pace, and out-perform everything and everyone, your job as a human leader is to see and hear the world from within. Like the industries, companies, products, and people you lead, you are a temporal being. You occupy a specific place at a specific time in history that enables you to see, hear, and act on some things and prevents you from seeing, hearing, and acting on others. It is because you are situated that you are able to take a position, make your perspective count, and build a personal brand. Not in spite of it. Because you cannot be everywhere at once, it matters where you choose to spend your time now. And now. Every moment, you prioritize and focus on something instead of something else. Someone instead of someone else. This prioritization and focus is what determines whether or not you succeed. In your job hunt and everything else.
