Bay Area artists make Tony Awards history
Two San Francisco natives — and Saint Ignatius College Preparatory School alumni — won acting awards during the ceremony Sunday, June 8, at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Francis Jue, who's performed locally with San Francisco Playhouse and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, nabbed best performance by a featured actor in a play for ' Yellow Face,' David Henry Hwang's semiautobiographical comedy about racial representation in theater. Darren Criss, an alumnus of American Conservatory Theater's Young Conservatory program, won best performance by a leading actor in a play for 'Maybe Happy Ending,' Hue Park and Will Aronson's sci-fi show about two robots who've been abandoned by their humans.
Meanwhile, Oakland playwright Jonathan Spector won best revival of a play for 'Eureka Day,' his comedy about a mumps outbreak at a progressive Berkeley private school with anti-vaxx parents. Berkeley's own Aurora Theatre Company commissioned and premiered the play in 2018.
It was each artist's first Tony Award, and Spector's marks the first such honor in recent memory for a current Bay Area resident. Spector in his acceptance speech thanked 'my theater community, who gave me space to find my voice as a writer.'
Aurora Theatre Company Artistic Director Josh Costello, who helmed the world premiere, revisits 'Eureka Day' at Marin Theatre in September.
In his acceptance speech, Criss thanked Craig Slaight, the former director of ACT's Young Conservatory program, 'for shepherding me and so many people here.' Fellow nominee Julia Mattison, co-composer of 'Death Becomes Her,' is also a Young Conservatory alum, and the two helped Slaight, who retired in 2017, travel to New York and attend the ceremony.
'I was honored and humbled to be invited and to have the gift of the arrangements to make it possible,' Slaight told the Chronicle the morning after the ceremony. 'For (Criss) to mention me in his remarks was just so moving.'
'Maybe Happy Ending' is slated to tour to San Francisco as part of BroadwaySF's 2026-27 season, the operator of the Golden Gate, Orpheum and Curran theaters announced Monday, June 9. It joins previously announced titles 'Death Becomes Her' and 'The Outsiders.' Casting has not yet been announced.
The Tony Awards ceremony, hosted by ' Wicked ' star Cynthia Erivo, also made history for Asian American representation. Jue's and Criss' wins, alongside Nicole Scherzinger's for best actress in a musical for her role in 'Sunset Blvd.,' doubled the number of actors with Asian heritage who have won Tonys throughout history. Criss' mother is Filipina, Jue is Chinese American, and Scherzinger has Filipino and Native Hawaiian ancestry. The only other winners of Asian descent are Chinese American actor BD Wong (1988), Filipina actor and singer Lea Salonga (1991) and Ruthie Ann Miles (2015), whose mother is Korean.
In accepting his award, Jue told the audience he was wearing a tuxedo that the actor Alvin Ing had made for himself for the opening of ' Pacific Overtures ' on Broadway in 1976. Ing gave it to Jue 20 years ago, Jue said, telling Jue to wear it 'when I accepted my Tony Award.'
In a statement to the press after walking offstage, Jue said, 'Isn't it interesting that it is still unusual, historic, groundbreaking to tell an Asian American story on Broadway? And to tell it at a time when this country is wrestling with its identity, with who gets to be American, who gets to say who gets to be American?'
His character in 'Yellow Face,' an avatar for the real-life father of Hwang, who emigrated from China, begins the show as a fervent champion of what Jue called traditional American values such as 'freedom and inclusion and justice.' He continued, 'We're living in challenging times where we're being asked whether we still value those things that we always assumed make us American.'
The Antoinette Perry Awards have honored Broadway plays and musicals annually since 1947. They're named for the actor, producer and director who co-founded the American Theatre Wing, which co-presents the awards with the Broadway League. Nominees are chosen by a committee of a few dozen theater professionals who serve three-year terms, and winners are voted on by a group of more than 800.
Tony Awards can boost box office receipts or extend runs for shows still performing on Broadway as well as further career opportunities for winning artists. For Bay Area audiences, they also boost chances that a particular title might tour nationally.
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