At the 78th Tony Awards on Sunday night, there was much excitement about the Broadway actors who won their first Tonys — including stage veterans like Natalie Venetia Belcon and newcomers like Cole Escola. Here’s what those seven actors had to say about winning their first Tony Award, in speeches delivered from the ceremony or in the press room.
Best Leading Actress in a Play
Sarah Snook, ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’
Snook, already an Emmy winner for “Succession,” won a Tony for playing all 26 roles in the stage adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Now, she can sit her Tonys statuette next to her Olivier award, which she won in 2024 — just after having her first child — for the same performance in London’s West End.
It’s a thing that I guess all working moms and fathers have is that the hope is by pursuing your dreams and also the ways that you can remain present with your family, you encourage your children and the people who you love most in the world to also remember who they are and who they want to be when they grow up, and that it is OK to pursue that.
Best Leading Actor in a Play
Cole Escola, ‘Oh, Mary!’
Escola, an alt-cabaret performer who wrote and stars in the comedy “Oh, Mary!,” became the first nonbinary performer honored with a Tony in this category. In the show, which they developed for over a decade, they play a drunken, cabaret-aspiring Mary Todd Lincoln. It is their Broadway debut.
Trust that voice that says I think I’m right, actually. I actually think I do have something. I think I can do this. It might take 12 years to put the pen to paper, but that voice is right.
Best Leading Actress in a Musical
Nicole Scherzinger, ‘Sunset Boulevard’
After a powerful performance of “As If We Never Said Goodbye” earlier in the ceremony, Scherzinger, the former lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls, received her first Tony, for playing the washed-up silent film star, Norma Desmond, in a revival of “Sunset Boulevard.” Like Snook, she also won an Olivier in 2024 for her London performance in the role.
Growing up, I always felt like I didn’t belong. But you all have made me feel like I belong. And I have come home at last. So if there’s anyone out there who feels like they don’t belong or your time hasn’t come, don’t give up. Just keep on giving and giving because the world needs your love and your light.
Best Leading Actor in a Musical
Darren Criss, ‘Maybe Happy Ending’
Criss, whose last Broadway outing in 2022 was David Mamet’s “American Buffalo,” changed gears — so to speak — to play his Tony-winning role of an aging robot in “Maybe Happy Ending.” For his character’s expressive facial mechanisms and economy of movement, Criss drew upon his training in physical theater in Italy.
I have such immense pride to get to be part of this notably diverse and exquisite Broadway season this year and to get to be among the industry’s finest. … I’m going to go celebrate with my favorite people to party with — theater people!
Best Featured Actor in a Play
Francis Jue, ‘Yellow Face’
Jue, a veteran stage actor and first-time nominee, won for his portrayal of a Chinese American banker in “Yellow Face,” a role he first played Off Broadway in 2007. His acceptance speech was one of the few to strike a political tone, which continued in his broader remarks in the press room.
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?
Best Featured Actress in a Musical
Natalie Venetia Belcon, ‘Buena Vista Social Club’
Belcon plays the Cuban singer Omara Portuondo in “Buena Vista Social Club.” The Trinidadian-born actress sings the entirety of the show in Spanish, though she speaks her lines in English. After Broadway roles in “Rent,” “Avenue Q” and “Matilda,” this is her first Broadway show in about a decade.
The authenticity that you hear when you’re listening to the words, I mean, it’s undeniable. And therefore, for the people who don’t speak the language it does not matter. It translates regardless. And I hope that is what people take away. It’s for everybody. Music is universal, period.
Best Featured Actor in a Musical
Jak Malone, ‘Operation Mincemeat’
In his Broadway debut, Malone plays multiple characters, including Hester Leggatt, the memorable matron with a surprising past in “Operation Mincemeat.” Like two of the other acting honorees, he won an Olivier for the same role in 2024.
I grew up in a little town in Merseyside, and I was obsessed with Broadway. And you just convince yourself that these things don’t happen to people like you. You just do.
The post First-Time Tony Winners Talk About Their Victories appeared first on New York Times.
