The Outsiders, based on the 1967 novel by S.E. Hinton and a 1983 film by Francis Ford Coppola, was a surprise winner for best musical at the 2024 Tony Awards, which were presented on Sunday (June 16). The award was thought to be a close race between Suffs, a musical about American women’s suffrage movement, and Hell’s Kitchen, a musical loosely based on Alicia Keys’ early life and music.
Stereophonic, a David Adjmi play with music, was named best play.
The 77th Annual Tony Awards, which were hosted by Ariana DeBose for the third consecutive year, aired live on both coasts from the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City on Sunday, June 16 on CBS. The show also streamed on Paramount+ in the U.S.
Stereophonic was the year’s most-decorated production, winning five Tonys. It was followed by The Outsiders and a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, with four wins each. The original production of Merrily received just one nod in 1982 – original musical score. Two of the stars of the Merrily revival – Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe – won their first Tonys for their performances. The New Broadway Cast recording of Merrily We Roll Along entered Billboard’s Cast Albums chart at No. 1 in November 2023.
This is the fifth time that a revival of a Sondheim show has won best revival of a musical. Into the Woods won in 2002; followed by Assassins in 2004, and Company in both 2007 and 2022. Sondheim died in 2021 at age 91.
Trailing Stereophonic, Merrily We Roll Along and The Outsiders in terms of most wins were Appropriate, The Outsiders and Suffs, with three wins each; Hell’s Kitchen, with two; and Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club, An Enemy of the People, The Great Gatsby, Illinoise, Jaja’s African Hair Braiding and Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cottom Patch, with one each.
Water for Elephants was shut out despite seven nominations. Also shut out despite large numbers of nominations were Here Lies Love, Mary Jane and Mother Play, with four nods each.
The Outsiders is the second best musical winner in the past four years that was based on a film, following Moulin Rouge!. Other winners since 2000 that were based on films are The Producers (2001), Thoroughly Modern Millie (2002), Hairspray (2003), Spamalot (2005), Billy Elliot the Musical (2009), Once (2012) and The Band’s Visit (2007). The last-named title was based on an Israeli film.
Angelina Jolie was among the producers of The Outsiders and now has a Tony to go along with the Oscar she won 24 years ago for best supporting actress for Girl, Interrupted.
Hillary Rodham Clinton was among the producers of Suffs, and received a thunderous ovation when she introduced a performance from the show. She was vying to become the first first lady to win a Tony, just as she was the first first lady to win a Grammy, in 1997, for the audio book of her best-seller, It Takes a Village.
Alicia Keys’ AK Worldwide Media, Inc. and Jay-Z’s Roc Nation were among the producers of Hell’s Kitchen. They lost the Tony for best musical, but they scored heavily on the telecast with a performance of “Empire State of Mind,” their Grammy-winning 2009 smash which is featured in Hell’s Kitchen.
Keys and Jay-Z weren’t the only music superstars to perform on the show. Pete Townshend also performed alongside the cast of The Who’s Tommy, which was nominated for best revival of a musical.
Shaina Taub won two Tonys – best original score and best book of a musical – for her work on Suffs. Taub is just the third woman in Tony history to win in both of those categories – and she’s the first woman to win in both categories entirely on her own. Betty Comden won both awards in 1978 for On the Twentieth Century, but she had collaborators in both categories. Lisa Kron won both awards in 2015 for Fun Home, but she had a collaborator in the score category.
Jonathan Tunick won best orchestrations for the revival of Merrily. Tunick’s only previous Tony win was for Titanic (1997), which made him the seventh EGOT winner. Three of the awards that make up Tunick’s EGOT were for Sondheim-related work. His only Oscar was for adapting the score for the 1978 film version of A Little Night Music. His only Grammy was for his arrangement of Cleo Laine’s recording of “No One Is Alone,” from Into the Woods.
George C. Wolfe and Jack O’Brien received lifetime achievement awards. Billy Porter received the Isabelle Stevenson Award, honoring humanitarian achievements. The show included a tribute to Broadway legend Chita Rivera, who died in January. Rivera also closed the In Memoriam segment, which also included actors Hinton Battle, Glynis Johns and Glenda Jackson and songwriters Richard Sherman and Sheldon Harnick, among others.
The 2023-24 eligibility season began on April 28, 2023, and ended on Thursday, April 25, 2024. Tony Awards in 26 competitive categories were voted on by 836 designated Tony voters within the theatre community.
The Tony Awards were produced in collaboration with Tony Award Productions, a joint venture of the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, and White Cherry Entertainment. Ricky Kirshner and Glenn Weiss were showrunners and executive producers for White Cherry Entertainment, and Weiss served as director. Jack Sussman was also an executive producer.