Everything You Need to Know About the 2023 Tony Awards
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The 76th Tony Awards are just around the corner, and Ariana DeBose will return to host for a second year in a row. The nominations were announced on May 2, and the ceremony takes place just over a month later, on June 11.
Here's everything you need to know about the 2023 Tonys:
Ariana DeBose will host again.
"I was honored to serve as host last year and even more so to be asked back! So looking forward to celebrating this incredible season and the people who make the work happen," DeBose said in a statement. "Here’s to adding some uptown flavor to the magic of the Tony Awards!"
DeBose recently went viral for a performance at this year's BAFTAs, where she sang, Angela Bassett did the thing, Viola Davis my Woman King / Blanchett, Cate, you’re a genius, and Jamie Lee, you are all of us! The executive producers for the Tonys are already referencing this, saying, "Ariana will host and dance and sing, we’re so thrilled she’s back to do the thing."
The Tonys will be at a new location.
Instead of Radio City Music Hall, the Tonys will be held at United Palace in Washington Heights. "We are excited to bring the Tony Awards to the historic United Palace for the first time,” Heather Hitchens, President and CEO of the American Theatre Wing, and Charlotte St. Martin, President of The Broadway League, said in a joint statement. "As we celebrate the best of this Broadway season and 76 years of the Tony Awards, we look forward to ushering in a new golden age for the show from this majestic, golden age theatre."
They almost didn't happen because of the writer's strike.
The Writer's Guild of America (W.G.A.) granted the Tonys a waiver allowing the show to take place. "As they have stood by us, we stand with our fellow workers on Broadway who are impacted by our strike," the WGA said in a statement. "Tony Awards Productions (a joint venture of the Broadway League and the American Theater Wing) has communicated with us that they are altering this year’s show to conform with specific requests from the W.G.A., and therefore the W.G.A. will not be picketing the show."
Explaining the decision, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, a vice president of W.G.A. east, told the New York Times, "we recognize the devastating impact the absence of a Tonys would have on our New York theater community. Here in W.G.A. East, we have many, many members who are playwrights, and we are deeply intertwined with our sister unions whose members work in the theater."
The show will no longer use a previously written script, but live performances of the nominated shows will still take place.
The show will take place on Sunday, June 11.
The broadcast will begin at 8 p.m. eastern and air on CBS and Paramount+.
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