Cynthia Erivo Casts a Spell, Conjures Standing Ovation as She Opens 2025 Tony Awards with Catchy Original Song
Cynthia Erivo is the host of the 78th Tony Awards, held at Radio City Music Hall on June 8
Her number kicking off the ceremony involved a catchy original song with the lyrics, "Sometimes all you need is a song"
The Wicked movie star previously won a Tony Award for The Color PurpleCynthia Erivo kicked off the 2025 Tony Awards with a spectacular musical number that brought those in the audience to their feet.
Opening the Sunday, June 8 ceremony honoring the best of Broadway, the Wicked star, 38, commanded the stage at New York City's Radio City Music Hall.
The sequence opened with a camera following Erivo out of her dressing room as she made her way to the stage and encountered Oprah Winfrey, who advised her, "Be yourself."
Wearing a glittery red dress with a white collar, Erivo then sang an original number with lyrics including, "It's our stories and our songs that let us soar." The actress was joined by an ensemble of robed choir members.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by CBS (@cbstv)
The musical moment honored many of this year's Tony contenders with shoutouts, including Gypsy's Audra McDonald, Good Night, and Good Luck's George Clooney, The Picture of Dorian Gray's Sarah Snook and Cole Escola's play Oh, Mary!
Kristin Chenoweth, Aaron Tveit, Adam Lambert and more even joined in the fun when Erivo brought the microphone into the audience.
Erivo is no stranger to the Tonys, having won a statuette in 2016 for her lead performance in a revival of The Color Purple, her Broadway debut. The London-born actress previously starred on the West End in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, I Can't Sing and Sister Act.
"I am so proud and excited to take on this glorious honor," Erivo said in a statement when her hosting gig was announced. "I am looking forward to ushering the theater community at large through a night that celebrates the wonderful performances we have witnessed throughout the year. I hope I can rise to the occasion."
Past Tony Award ceremony hosts include Neil Patrick Harris, Rosie O'Donnell, Hugh Jackman, and, for the last three years in a row, Ariana DeBose.
This year's Tony nominations, announced May 1, made first-time nominees out of George Clooney, Nicole Scherzinger, Daniel Dae Kim, Sarah Snook, Cole Escola and more.
Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
The Oscar-nominated Erivo will next return as Elphaba, Oz's Wicked Witch of the West, in Wicked: For Good, the second installment in director Jon M. Chu's two-part screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical costarring Ariana Grande. The sequel is in theaters Nov. 21. She can also be seen playing the title role in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hollywood Bowl this summer.
See PEOPLE's full coverage of the 78th annual Tony Awards, hosted by Erivo at New York City's Radio City Music Hall and airing on CBS and Paramount+.
Read the original article on People
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Wordle hints today for #1,451: Clues and answer for Monday, June 9
Hey, there! Welcome to the start of a new week. We hope it's a wonderful one for you. Whenever you need a little downtime today, you'll have a new round of Wordle to keep you company, at least for a few moments. In case you need some help to solve it, here's our daily Wordle guide with some hints and the answer for Monday's puzzle (#1,451). It may be that you're a Wordle newcomer and you're not completely sure how to play the game. We're here to help with that too. Wordle is a deceptively simple daily word game that first emerged in 2021. The gist is that there is one five-letter word to deduce every day by process of elimination. The daily word is the same for everyone. Wordle blew up in popularity in late 2021 after creator Josh Wardle made it easy for players to share an emoji-based grid with their friends and followers that detailed how they fared each day. The game's success spurred dozens of clones across a swathe of categories and formats. The New York Times purchased Wordle in early 2022 for an undisclosed sum. The publication said that players collectively played Wordle 5.3 billion times in 2024. So, it's little surprise that Wordle is one of the best online games and puzzles you can play daily. To start playing Wordle, you simply need to enter one five-letter word. The game will tell you how close you are to that day's secret word by highlighting letters that are in the correct position in green. Letters that appear in the word but aren't in the right spot will be highlighted in yellow. If you guess any letters that are not in the secret word, the game will gray those out on the virtual keyboard. However, you can still use those letters in subsequent guesses. You'll only have six guesses to find each day's word, though you still can use grayed-out letters to help narrow things down. It's also worth remembering that letters can appear in the secret word more than once. Wordle is free to play on the NYT's website and apps, as well as on Meta Quest headsets and Discord. The game refreshes at midnight local time. If you log into a New York Times account, you can track your stats, including the all-important win streak. If you have a NYT subscription that includes full access to the publication's games, you don't have to stop after a single round of Wordle. You'll have access to an archive of more than 1,400 previous Wordle games. So if you're a relative newcomer, you'll be able to go back and catch up on previous editions. In addition, paid NYT Games members have access to a tool called the Wordle Bot. This can tell you how well you performed at each day's game. Before today's Wordle hints, here are the answers to recent puzzles that you may have missed: Yesterday's Wordle answer for Sunday, June 8 — LEASE Saturday, June 7 — REUSE Friday, June 6 — EDIFY Thursday, June 5 — DATUM Wednesday, June 4 — CEASE Every day, we'll try to make Wordle a little easier for you. First, we'll offer a hint that describes the meaning of the word or how it might be used in a phrase or sentence. We'll also tell you if there are any double (or even triple) letters in the word. In case you still haven't quite figured it out by that point, we'll then provide the first letter of the word. Those who are still stumped after that can continue on to find out the answer for today's Wordle. This should go without saying, but make sure to scroll slowly. Spoilers are ahead. Here is a hint for today's Wordle answer: Something you might skate on while wearing shorts or sit on while wearing a suit. There are no repeated letters in today's Wordle answer. The first letter of today's Wordle answer is B. This is your final warning before we reveal today's Wordle answer. No take-backs. Don't blame us if you happen to scroll too far and accidentally spoil the game for yourself. What is today's Wordle? Today's Wordle answer is... BOARD Not to worry if you didn't figure out today's Wordle word. If you made it this far down the page, hopefully you at least kept your streak going. And, hey: there's always another game tomorrow.
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Nara and Lucky Blue Smith announce 'surprise' baby number four
Nara Smith and Lucky Blue Smith are going to be parents again. Taking to social media on Sunday, the TikTok stars announced that they are expecting a fourth child together. Alongside a video of Lucky cradling Nara's baby bump, she wrote, "Baby 4 " While in the caption, the model added: "Our little surprise." Nara, 23, didn't share any further details such as the baby's sex or due date. The couple share daughters Rumble, four, and Whimsy, 14 months, as well as son, Slim, three. Lucky, 27, is also the father of a seven-year-old daughter named Gravity from his relationship with model Stormi Bree. The pregnancy news comes after Nara admitted in an interview for GQ published last August that she wasn't planning on having more children. "After Whimsy, we are absolutely done now. Having toddlers is the best sort of birth control, because they're wild," she insisted, while Lucky stated: "We feel like we couldn't be as good of parents if we added in any more." Nara and Lucky wed in 2020.
Bloomberg
42 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
‘Maybe Happy Ending' Makes History for South Korea With Tony Win
Maybe Happy Ending won Best Musical at the 78th Tony Awards, becoming the first original South Korean production to win Broadway's top honor. The genre-bending show, co-created by Hue Park and composer Will Aronson, was the night's standout, collecting six awards from ten nominations. Among its trophies: Best Direction, Best Book, Best Original Score, Best Leading Actor, and Best Scenic Design. The ceremony was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York on Sunday.
