Nonbinary Actors Make History In Unscripted Show Amid Writers Strike

Topline

Alex Newell and J. Harrison Ghee made history Sunday night as the first openly nonbinary actors to win Tony Awards for acting, as the annual celebration of Broadway shows went forward without a script amid the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike.

Alex Newell accepts the award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for “Shucked” onstage during The … [+] 76th Annual Tony Awards at United Palace Theater on June 11 in New York City.

Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions

Key Facts

The musical Kimberly Akimbo, about a teenage girl with a rare medical condition causing her to age rapidly, took home the top award for Best Musical, and Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt, which follows a Jewish family in Austria over the span of 50 years, was awarded Best Play.

Alex Newell and J. Harrison Ghee took home the awards for Best Featured Actor in a Musical and Best Leading Actor in A Musical for their performances in the musicals Shucked and Some Like It Hot, respectively, becoming the first openly nonbinary performers to do so.

Newell and Ghee chose to compete in the best actor categories (rather than best actress), and were nominated after actor Justin David Sullivan, who stars in the Broadway musical & Juliet, removed themselves from consideration for the awards in protest of its gendered acting categories.

The other acting winners included Will and Grace star Sean Hayes, who won Best Leading Actor in a Play for Good Night, Oscar and Killing Eve star Jodie Comer for Best Leading Actress in a Play for Prima Facie, along with Victoria Clark (Best Leading Actress in A Musical for Kimberly Akimbo), Bonnie Milligan (Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Kimberly Akimbo), Brandon Uranowitz (Best Featured Actor in a Play for Leopoldstadt) and Miriam Silverman (Best Featured Actress in a Play for The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window).

The Tony Awards telecast, which was aired in two parts on Pluto TV and CBS, was held without a script following negotiations with the WGA, which did not grant the awards ceremony a waiver that would have allowed it to take place with writers, but said the union wouldn’t picket the event.

While the WGA asked members who were nominated not to attend the awards, they did ultimately attend at the urging of the Dramatists Guild (which represents playwrights), and many expressed their support for the ongoing strike during the awards ceremony.

Crucial Quote

“For every trans, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming human who ever was told you couldn’t be, you couldn’t be seen, this is for you,” Ghee said during their acceptance speech for Best Leading Actor in a Musical.

Surprising Fact

The script for the Tony Awards ceremony was completed even before the WGA strike began on May 2, according to sources cited by the Hollywood Reporter, but was still unable to be used amid the union’s strike. The awards ceremony was also supposed to have an opening number penned by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, but Miranda stopped writing in solidarity with the striking writers, according to the Reporter. The awards ceremony did still have an opening number performed by host Ariana DeBose, along with performances from the nominated shows and other Broadway performers, including Funny Girl star Lea Michele.

Tangent

While Ghee and Newell were the first openly nonbinary performers to win in acting categories, Toby Marlow, the composer-lyricist for the musical Six, was the first openly nonbinary person to win a Tony in general last year, winning for Best Original Score. In addition to Ghee and Newell’s wins, Kimberly Akimbo composer Jeanine Tesori also became the first woman to win the award for Best Original Score twice.

Big Number

$1.58 billion. That’s how much Broadway shows grossed during the 2022-2023 season, which ran from May 23, 2022, to May 21, 2023, according to the Broadway League. Approximately 12.3 million people attended Broadway shows during that time, with 88.4% of Broadway seats filled. Broadway shows are continuing to recover following the Covid-19 pandemic, which shuttered theaters for a year and a half, and the 2022-23 season marks the first full Broadway season since the pandemic began. While the Broadway League noted that the share of seats is comparable with pre-pandemic levels, the amount grossed this season is still slightly behind the $1.8 billion taken in during the 2018-2019 season.