2025 Tony Awards: Steppenwolf Theatre's ‘Purpose' wins best play
NEW YORK — 'Purpose,' a drama by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins that was commissioned and first produced by Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company, has won the Tony Award for best play at the awards ceremony at Radio City Musical Hall.
The play, with a stort loosely based on the family of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, was nominated alongside 'The Hills of California,' 'John Proctor Is the Villain' and 'Oh, Mary!'
The win is a major victory for the famed Chicago company that last wowed New York theater with Tracy Letts' 'August: Osage County' in 2008. Actress Kara Young, who was added to the Chicago cast of 'Purpose' for the Broadway production, also won a Tony for best featured actress in a play.
In accepting the award, Glenn Davis, Steppenwolf's co-artistic director and a cast member and Tony nominee himself, had the chance to remind New York and the television audience of Steppenwolf's accomplishments over the years. Playwright Jacobs-Jenkins thanked 'the city of Chicago for making this show what it was.' He also said Chicago had 'the best actors in America.'
The 2025 Tony Awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and Broadway League in a ceremony Sunday at Radio City Music Hall in New York, hosted by 'Wicked' star Cynthia Erivo and broadcast on CBS and streamed on Paramount+.PHOTOS: Tony Awards 2025: Red Carpet Arrivals
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Cynthia Erivo, Ben Stiller, Danielle Brooks Celebrate the Tony Awards at Starry Afterparty
More from The Hollywood Reporter 'Hamilton' Original Cast Reunites for Tony Awards Medley - Watch Tony Awards Snubs and Surprises: 'Death Becomes Her' Goes One for 10 as 'Purpose' Scores Upset Best Play Win Darren Criss Wins First Tony Award for 'Maybe Happy Ending' Best of The Hollywood Reporter Seeing Double? 25 Pairs of Celebrities Who Look Nearly Identical From 'Lady in the Lake' to 'It Ends With Us': 29 New and Upcoming Book Adaptations in 2024 Meet the Superstars Who Glam Up Hollywood's A-List
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Inside Cynthia Erivo's Tonys Afterparty: 'I Think We Should All Dance Now'
After hosting the Tony Awards, Cynthia Erivo and crew headed to the Russian Tea Room in New York, where award winners and celebrities decided to shed the formalities of the evening and skip to the celebration. 'I'm sick of talking. I think we should all dance now,' Erivo announced to the starry crowd, after being handed a mic while sitting on top of a banquette in a short black taffeta dress. More from The Hollywood Reporter 'Hamilton' Original Cast Reunites for Tony Awards Medley - Watch Tony Awards Snubs and Surprises: 'Death Becomes Her' Goes One for 10 as 'Purpose' Scores Upset Best Play Win Darren Criss Wins First Tony Award for 'Maybe Happy Ending' At the party, aptly named Cyn City, the Wicked star led a crowd up to the second floor of the famed New York venue, where a dance circle formed around her as ABBA's 'Gimme Gimme' played. Dancers included Julianne Hough; Danielle Brooks, who starred in The Color Purple on Broadway with Erivo; Adrienne Warren, currently starring in The Last Five Years on Broadway; Dylan Mulvaney; and Lena Waithe, as the music transitioned to Beyoncé tunes and other pop hits. (See photos from inside the event.) Nearby, playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins clutched his Tony Award, won earlier that night for his play Purpose, as he was congratulated by guests, including Sarah Paulson, who starred in his play Appropriate last season. Both Paulson and Jacobs-Jenkins also won Tonys that year. Erivo, who arrived to the party around 12:30 a.m., was coming off of several hours leading the Tonys telecast, where she had sung an opening number with a gospel choir, poked fun at nominees including George Clooney and joked with Oprah Winfrey, as well as the release of her second album Friday. She was still dancing at 3 a.m. and at one point led the dance circle to Drake's song 'Rich Baby Daddy,' where she was twerking and dropping to the floor. She spent much of the party dancing underneath the Russian Tea Room's tree, which has branches filled with Fabergé-inspired glass eggs. Earlier that evening, between passed small bites, which included small burgers, tuna tartare and shrimp, and specialty drinks that included Cyn City (a mocktail including mint, lemon and raspberry zinger), attendees weighed in on the big winners of the evening. 'I'm so happy for Cole and Sam,' one attendee was overheard saying, referring to Oh, Mary! star Cole Escola and director Sam Pinkleton, who both won for their roles in the campy play about a reimagined Mary Todd Lincoln. Phylicia Rashad, who directed Purpose on Broadway, sat in a circular booth chatting with Victoria Clark, a 2023 Tony winner for Kimberly Akimbo, and press agent Irene Gandy. Fresh off the Hamilton performance at the Tonys telecast, which saw the reunion of the original Broadway cast, cast members Emmy Raver-Lampman and Daveed Diggs entered the party after midnight, walking into the first-floor bar, with Raver-Lampman noting, 'Oh, much more our speed.' The downstairs area included a roped-off section, for those with reserved tables (aka celebrities) and a piano in the middle where Sara Bareilles and Broadway stars Alex Newell and Kecia Lewis, who has recently been at the center of industry chatter after Patti LuPone's interview, talked and took a photo. Other attendees throughout the night included Matthew Broderick; Adam Lambert; Elsbeth's Carrie Preston; Conrad Ricamora, a Tony nominee for Oh, Mary!; Ben Stiller, who was a presenter at the Tony Awards; and Harry Potter alum Tom Felton, who recently announced he'll be reprising his role as Draco Malfoy on Broadway. The party was hosted by Entertainment 360 and UTA, with Listerine as a sponsor. The Hollywood Reporter was the exclusive media partner. Lexi Carson contributed to this report. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Seeing Double? 25 Pairs of Celebrities Who Look Nearly Identical From 'Lady in the Lake' to 'It Ends With Us': 29 New and Upcoming Book Adaptations in 2024 Meet the Superstars Who Glam Up Hollywood's A-List
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Scooter Braun talks Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber on podcast
(NewsNation) — Scooter Braun revealed his thoughts on Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber on a podcast episode released on Monday. 43-year-old Braun appeared on 'The Diary of a CEO' podcast on June 9 and spoke about Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift. Swift and Braun had a falling out in 2019 after he purchased Big Machine Records. When she released her first six albums under the label, she gave the label ownership of the recordings. When Braun purchased Big Machine Records, Swift was reportedly not given an opportunity to purchase those recordings. At the time, the singer had released a statement, saying: 'Scooter has stripped me of my life's work, that I wasn't given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.' Justin Baldoni countersuit against Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds dismissed This led to her re-releasing several of her albums, labeling them 'Taylor's Version.' Just recently, Swift ended up buying her catalog of songs back so that she solely owns the rights. When it came to 'this whole Taylor Swift incident' as it was called on the podcast, Braun replied with, 'What happened?' Braun went on to say, 'I thought I was going to work with all the artists on Big Machine. I thought it was gonna be an exciting thing. I knew that Taylor — she and I had only met three times, I think in my life, three or four times — one of the times, it was years earlier, it was really a great engagement.' Diddy's legal team again asks for a mistrial He also said, 'In between that time since I'd seen her last, I started managing Kanye West. I managed Justin Bieber. I knew she didn't get along with them. I had a feeling, this is where my arrogance came in. I had a feeling she probably didn't like me because I managed them. But I thought that once this announcement happened, she would talk to me, see who I am, and we would work together.' Braun also claimed that he asked for Swift's number after the Big Machine deal, but as he was calling artists with the label, Swift allegedly put out her open letter on Tumblr. 'I was just shocked. I don't need to go back into it, but what I can tell you is, everything in life is a gift. Having that experience allows me to have empathy for the people I worked with, who I would always say, 'Yeah, I understand.' But I never knew what it was like to be on the global stage like that.' Tony Awards laud android rom-com 'Maybe Happy Ending' and history-making 'Purpose' However, he did say that he doesn't have 'any hatred' over the situation. 'Everyone moves on. I choose to see it as a gift,' he said. Braun said on the podcast that he had a 'clear vision' of Bieber's success after watching his covers on YouTube. 'We were able to achieve some amazing things, and I'm very proud of what we achieved and always rooting for him,' Braun said of Bieber. Braun did say that his relationship with the singer is 'not the same that it was' when they were working together. Us Weekly reported in August of 2023 that Bieber officially ended his relationship with Braun. 'I think there comes a point where, I understand, he probably wants to go on and show that he can do it. We worked together for so long and we had such extreme success,' Braun said during the podcast episode. Braun said that not being 'happy' with who he was at the time did affect his marriage. During his public fallout with Swift, he was also in the middle of a divorce from Yael Cohen, with whom he has three kids. Us Weekly reported that the couple separated in 2021 and finalized the divorce in 2022. More alleged victims found, new charges filed against popular rock band drummer 'I think I was happy because everyone in the world told me I was doing great, and I thought that that was enough,' he said. 'I feel like I was asleep at the wheel. I feel like I didn't know myself at the time, but I had so much success at such a young age.' Braun said he and Cohen were 'made to be amazing coparents.' He said, 'Through the heartbreak of our relationship ending, we were brought together to make three incredible souls. Now, whoever gets me next is in for a treat.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
