
Australia's Sarah Snook frontrunner to win Tony Award
Australian actress Sarah Snook is considered the frontrunner to win the best leading actress in a play at the 78th Tony Awards for her performance in The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Hours before the main even began Australian Marg Hornwell was announced as the winner of best costumes in a play for A Picture of Dorian Gray.
The event at New York's Radio City Music Hall is being held on Sunday night (10am AEST).
Snook plays all 26 roles in The Picture of Dorian Gray, which was originally produced by Sydney Theatre Company and has already earned the actress a prestigious Olivier Award in London.
The production has six nominations, including best direction for Kip Williams with his fellow Australians Clemence Williams, Nick Schlieper, David Berman nominated for best sound, lighting, and set design - as well Hornwell's win for costumes.
Buena Vista Social Club and Maybe Happy Ending won early Tony Awards - hours before the main event started.
The best book award went to Maybe Happy Ending, with lyrics written by Hue Park and music composed by Will Aronson. Park from the podium wanted to point out that he and Aronson are not a romantic couple and that he was very much single.
Stranger Things: The First Shadow, an effects-driven prequel to the Netflix hit show Stranger Things, won best sound design of a play.
Marco Paguia won best orchestrations for Buena Vista Social Club and thanked Broadway for welcoming Cuban music.
Broadway had a stuffed season with seemingly something for everyone and Sunday is time to recognise the best.
Broadway buzz is usually reserved for musicals but this year the plays - powered by A-list talent - have driven the conversation.
There's George Clooney in Good Night, and Good Luck, Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal in Othello, Snook and her Succession co-star Kieran Culkin and Bob Odenkirk in Glengarry Glen Ross.
There were two Pulitzer winners - 2024 awardee English and Purpose from 2025 - but perhaps one of the season's biggest surprises was Oh, Mary!, Cole Escola's irreverent, raunchy, gleefully deranged revisionist history centred on Mary Todd Lincoln. All three are nominated for best play, along with John Proctor is the Villain and The Hills of California.
On the musical side, three options seem to be in the mix for the top prize: Maybe Happy Ending, a rom-com about a pair of androids; Dead Outlaw, about an alcoholic drifter whose embalmed body becomes a prized possession for half a century; and Death Becomes Her, the musical satire about longtime frenemies who drink a magic potion for eternal youth and beauty.
Maybe Happy Ending, Death Becomes Her and another musical nominee, Buena Vista Social Club, lead nominations with 10 apiece.
The 2024-2025 season took in $US1.9 billion ($A2.9 billion), making it the highest-grossing season ever and signalling that Broadway has finally emerged from the COVID-19 blues, having overtaken the previous high of $US1.8 billion ($A2.8 billion) during the 2018-2019 season.
with AAP
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