The 2025 Tony Awards rightfully honored some of Broadway’s most artistically and culturally significant productions. But in a season overflowing with excellence, the awards clustered around a few dominant titles, and many equally impressive productions were left entirely shut out.
“Maybe Happy Ending” charmed with its futuristic fragility. “Sunset Boulevard” triumphed thanks to Jamie Lloyd’s stark, cinematic staging, its bold use of live video, and the magnetic presence of Nicole Scherzinger. “Oh, Mary!,” a surreal and wickedly funny farce, became the year’s breakout downtown-to-Broadway success, with Cole Escola making history as the first nonbinary actor to win Best Actor in a Play.
The winners, for the most part, deserved their recognition. As for the shows that didn’t fare as well, it wasn’t about quality but rather about timing, visibility, and a crowded field.
One notable exception was “Purpose,” a new ensemble drama by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins that explores a politically prominent Black family grappling with legacy, ambition, and internal fractures. “Purpose” could easily have been overlooked, especially against the flashier or more comedic fare of the season, but instead pulled off a surprise Best Play win over “Oh, Mary!,” which many had expected to take the honor.
Among the shows that walked away empty-handed was “Dead Outlaw,” a wild, alt-country musical about the bizarre postmortem legacy of outlaw Elmer McCurdy. Opening late in the season, it faced the disadvantage of not having much time to build momentum with voters.
With a witty book and a gritty, genre-blending score, it was one of the most original musicals of the year. However, voters gravitated toward “Maybe Happy Ending,” a tender robot romance that offered unexpected emotional resonance and thematic relevance in a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence.
Other shows didn’t so much stumble as simply fade.
“English,” Sanaz Toossi’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play about Iranian students navigating identity and assimilation, was a quietly powerful work produced as a limited run by the nonprofit Roundabout Theatre Company. It ended its run early in the season, and though its nominations were well-earned, it had largely disappeared from the conversation by the time ballots were cast.
“The Hills of California,” Jez Butterworth’s introspective family drama, arrived with high expectations but never gained commercial momentum.
Even productions still running found themselves edged out. “John Proctor is the Villain,” Kimberly Belflower’s contemporary high school drama starring Sadie Sink, tackled gender politics and historical legacy with clarity and heart. But its appeal to young audiences did not translate into appeal to Tony voters. Still, its relevance, accessibility, and emotional intelligence make it a natural fit for high schools and colleges for years to come.
Although “Sunset Boulevard” won Best Musical Revival, all four productions in the category are terrific.
“Gypsy,” starring Audra McDonald, delivers a performance of immense control and nuance. But the musical’s familiarity, paired with McDonald’s already record-breaking six Tonys, may have worked against it.
“Floyd Collins,” with Jeremy Jordan in the title role, marked the long-overdue Broadway debut of Adam Guettel’s 1996 chamber musical. Revered by aficionados, it remained too musically and emotionally dense to break through in a flashy revival season.
The producers of “Pirates! The Penzance Musical,” a riotously fun and sharply conceived reimagining of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta, were likely satisfied to have earned a nomination and a coveted performance slot on the broadcast.
“Good Night, and Good Luck,” George Clooney’s Broadway debut as Edward R. Murrow, landed with pedigree and polish, but voters instead rewarded plays with bold creative identities rather than marquee names. Even so, “Good Night” reached a kind of audience no other nominee could match: its penultimate performance aired live on CNN, a level of national visibility beyond the scope of the Tonys themselves
The results are a testament to just how full the 2024–25 season really was. The Tonys, by necessity, produce winners and losers, but the richness of this year’s theater can’t be neatly divided. Some shows won trophies. Others won hearts, headlines, television viewers, classrooms, box office records, and promising afterlives.
