Tony nominations were announced this morning — and the theater-obsessed are abuzz. The 2025-26 season was thinly populated, with far fewer eligible shows in the mix than in the previous one: 30 productions in comparison with last year’s 42. Yet even in a reduced field, there was room for shocks and surprises, so-called “locks” that weren’t, surefire bets that blew up. The two most-nominated shows seem like left-field entrants: “Schmigadoon!” — Cinco Paul’s needling tribute to the entire musical canon — and “The Lost Boys,” a vampire musical, which has usually been a cursed category on Broadway. So what did our team notice about this year’s crop of nominees?
Sorry to These Stars
In past years, the Tony Awards have been rather welcoming to celebrities who grace Broadway stages, but this year was much different. The absence of notable boldface names from the nominees list was glaring: James Corden, Neil Patrick Harris and Bobby Cannavale of “Art”; the legends Cynthia Nixon and Jean Smart (an all-but-Oscar EGT winner and the “Hacks” super-presence, respectively); both marquee figures in “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” Taraji P. Henson and Cedric the Entertainer; and Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter (the dudes were judged not most excellent) of “Waiting for Godot.” Perhaps most startling was the dearth of the late-in-season arrivals — the entire “The Bear” cohort of Jon Bernthal, Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach failed to make the chef’s table. And Adrien Brody, only a year away from his second Oscar win for best actor, didn’t make the list in an uncrowded season that nonetheless had several strong roles for leading men. HELEN SHAW
The Diva Is Out
Let’s face it, there weren’t a lot of great parts for women in leading musical roles this season. So it’s not surprising that the nominations were in some cases underwhelming. But “underwhelming” is not a word you could ever apply to Lea Michele, whose performance in “Chess,” as in everything, is big big big. With one of her male co-stars (Nicholas Christopher) nominated, and even, unexpectedly, some of the supporting cast (Hannah Cruz and Bryce Pinkham), it’s hard not to see the omission as a deliberate rebuke. Why? She’s paid her dues, having appeared on Broadway six times since 1995. In 2020 she even came to the rescue of “Funny Girl,” turning a stinker into a hot ticket. With Kristin Chenoweth also ignored this year, for “The Queen of Versailles,” are we seeing the start of a diva backlash? JESSE GREEN
Broadway Babies of Every Age
June Squibb made her Broadway debut in 1960, as a replacement Electra in “Gypsy.” Now, 66 years later, Squibb, 96, is a first-time Tony nominee for her dual roles — as woman and A.I.-enhanced hologram — in “Marjorie Prime.” She is not the only acting elder to be nominated. Marylouise Burke, 85, a Broadway darling now appearing as an indifferent homeowners association secretary in “The Balusters,” joins her in the featured actress in a play category. (For three decades, Burke has been a muse for the play’s author, David Lindsay-Abaire.) And André De Shields, a comparative youngster at 80, earned his fourth Tony nomination for his role as Old Deuteronomy in “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” a mostly non-singing part that De Shields treats as a master class in absolute charisma. ALEXIS SOLOSKI
‘S.N.L.’ Alums Get the Last Laugh
Two former “Saturday Night Live” cast members, Rachel Dratch and Ana Gasteyer, are jostling for best performance by a featured actress in a musical. Dratch (already a nominee in 2022 for “POTUS”) makes great use of her improv skills as the narrator in “The Rocky Horror Show” — half of her job consists of wrangling overenthusiastic audience members shouting call-outs. As for Gasteyer, she actually made her Broadway debut as a replacement cast member in an earlier revival of “Rocky Horror,” in 2001; now she has earned her first Tony nomination for her portrayal of the town bigot, Mildred Layton, in “Schmigadoon!” If you want to dig deeper in “S.N.L.” lore, just look at the featured actress in a play category, whose nominees include Laurie Metcalf — a featured player on the TV show for a single episode, in 1981. ELISABETH VINCENTELLI
An Absolutely Fabulous Decision
You can’t make a superb champagne cocktail without Veuve Clicquot and a cube of sugar, and happily the Tony pooh-bahs realized the same, nominating both Rose Byrne and Kelli O’Hara as lead actresses in the revival of Noël Coward’s “Fallen Angels,” the season’s most delicious serving of pure fizz. It might have been one or the other in a crowded category where comedic acting is too often taken for granted. Better to let these two versatile performers, having a grand old time onstage as increasingly soused frenemies, take their hilarious rivalry to Tony night. Drink up! SCOTT HELLER
Bright Spot (Mostly) in Design
Of Soutra Gilmour’s Broadway set designs this season, one was an undeniable showpiece, the other a sly puzzle box: a revolving mountain of luggage evoking the Manhattan skyline, with small scenic treasures hidden away inside. That set, for the rom-com musical “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York),” received a Tony nomination. But Gilmour’s starkly magnificent design for “Waiting for Godot” — Jamie Lloyd’s revival, starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter — went unrecognized. Beckett famously specifies a tree; it had no tree. Instead it was a vast, tunnellike, tapering void, which was thrilling to behold. Shocking to ignore. The category of lighting design for a play, though, brought a pleasant surprise, especially in a male-dominated season. Women landed five of the six nominations: Isabella Byrd for “Dog Day Afternoon,” Natasha Chivers for “Oedipus,” Stacey Derosier for “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” and Heather Gilbert for “Bug” and “The Fear of 13.” LAURA COLLINS-HUGHES
Bleak Shows Get Blanked
The Tony nominators were clearly not in the mood to reward the grim-dark and super-serious this season. Several gloomy state-of-the-discourse pieces were completely shut out of consideration, even in technical categories: the quick-to-close musical about Florida greed “The Queen of Versailles”; the domestic abuse tragedy “Call Me Izzy”; the biting, your-friends-hate-you comedy “Art.” There were also only a pair of design nominations for “The Fear of 13,” which gazes into the U.S. carceral system and finds, mostly, horror. Other low-scoring shows, with single nods, include the existentially depressing “Waiting for Godot,” the bleak “Little Bear Ridge Road” and the tale of a real-life tragedy, “Punch.” The total blanking of “Beaches,” a grief-focused musical, and “Proof,” a play about mental fragility, follow the wan critical reception of both productions — though, again, it may be that downbeat this season simply wasn’t the rhythm nominators wanted. SHAW
The Iceberg Cometh. And How!
Even with a premise that involves Celine Dion herself being onboard the doomed Titanic ocean liner, “Titaníque” must make a meal out of the iceberg’s long-awaited appearance. Luckily the show’s Broadway iteration has brought over from London the actor Layton Williams to portray the world’s most famous chunk of ice. Having won the 2025 Olivier Award for this performance, Williams returns to the role decked out in a feast of glittery sequins and topped with a frosted-tip wig, kicking, splitting and generally barnstorming his way through a delirious rendition of “River Deep, Mountain High.” Tina Turner would’ve been proud. VINCENTELLI
Where the New Scores Came From
Though it was a very thin year for new musicals, with just four nominations, the Tonys somehow managed to find five best score options. They did it by dipping into plays: “Death of a Salesman” and “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.” For “Salesman,” Caroline Shaw wrote 40 minutes of moody music that was so pervasive and extensive you might almost call it a soundtrack. Her background is classical — she won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Partita for 8 Voices. At the other end of the style spectrum, Steve Bargonetti, who composed the score for “Joe Turner,” is a longtime Broadway guitarist, delivering bluesy tunes for a play so lyrical it’s almost a musical already. (Its title is taken from a classic blues song.) They’re both deserving of notice, but it’s not a healthy sign for American musicals that they got it. Maybe it’s time for a separate category? GREEN
Helen Shaw is the chief theater critic for The Times.
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