All The Snubs And Surprises From 2025’s Tony Nominations

Nominations for the 2025 Tony Awards were announced on the morning of Thursday, May 1. Sarah Paulson and Wendell Pierce announced the nominees for the awards as part of a livve stream.

Select nominations were announced on CBS at 8:30 am EDT, while others were streamed on the official Tony Awards YouTube page.

The announcements came with few big surprises, but there were some notable omissions from the full list of nominations. With 42 plays, musicals and revivals, this year’s pool was large (six more productions than last year’s). Some snubs were enviable, but some still loom large.

Some of the most notable stubs were against Hollywood favorites. Surprisingly, Jake Gyllenhaal was not nominated for playing Iago in Othello. His co-star Denzel Washington was also not nominated; however, Gyllenhaal has been receiving more buzz in the lead-up to the nominations. This year’s nominations also overlooked the stars of another Shakespeare adaptation; Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler were also not nominated for Romeo and Juliet. However, Romeo and Juliet has never been a favorite of the Tonys. Since the awards were established in 1947, there have been six other productions of the classic romance, and none have taken home a Tony for best revival. While the 2025 version was nominated and may break the curse, it will have to beat shows like Eureka Day and Yellowface to win.

Kieran Culkin was another Hollywood star to be overlooked. While he won big recently at other award shows, earning an Emmy for Succession and an Oscar for A Real Pain, he failed to receive a Tony nomination for his role in Glengarry Glen Ross. The revival wasn’t extremely well-received by critics and did not secure a best revival nod; however, Bob Odenkirk was nominated in the featured actor category for the play.

Outside of Hollywood, one of the biggest surprises was Helen J. Shen not being nominated for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for Maybe Happy Ending. Her co-star Darren Criss was nominated for Leading Actor. While Shen’s lack of nomination was slightly surprising, the category feels exceptionally competitive this year. Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, with Broadway icons Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga, was also passed over. However, given Old Friends’ tribute/revue nature, it feels a bit of an outlier anyway.

The Best Musical-race iced out Real Women Have Curves, Smash and Boop! The Musical. While none felt like a huge omission, it is a testament to how many new musicals were in the running this season.

The least surprising news came in the form of a nomination for Audra McDonald for leading actress in Gypsy. It was her 11th nomination, making her the most-nominated performer, breaking a past tie with Chita Rivera and Julie Harris.

The 78th Tony Awards are set to take place on June 8 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City with host Cynthia Erivo.