The 79th Annual Tony Awards were a fitting coda to the 2025–26 Broadway season, offering all the requisite nostalgia, vocal prowess, ensemble energy, and a generous amount of pelvic thrusting.
On the blue carpet, the fashion delighted and surprised. Cole Escola wore shocking-pink Christopher John Rogers, while Maya Rudolph—who recently made her Broadway debut, assuming the title role in Escola’s Oh, Mary!—arrived in Chanel. Elsewhere, Alex Newell could be found in the Baccarat Dewars Speakeasy, hidden within Radio City Music Hall, taking a moment to rest her feet. “I’m the barefoot contessa!” she laughed, showing off her perfectly painted pedicure to nearby friends.
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Back on the carpet, two-time Tony winner Kara Young posed dramatically against a wall while her friend Stephanie Hsu offered some directorial encouragement—“No, no, let her do that first!”—before jumping in for a joint photo.
Hsu’s The Rocky Horror Show co-star and fellow Tony nominee Luke Evans and his partner, Fran Tomas, were all smiles on their Tonys date night, doling out air kisses. Nearby, Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka enjoyed a dads’ night out. “You have no idea how many people approach him and talk about ‘Bigger’,” Burtka told me, referring to Harris’s opening number as host of the 2013 Tony Awards. Harris reflected on it fondly: “That night was one of the best examples of true magic.”
After a joyful pre-show ceremony—hosted by Laura Benanti and Tituss Burgess—that set the tone for the evening and included a historic win for costume designer Qween Jean, who became the first openly trans person to take home a Tony Award for her work on Cats: The Jellicle Ball, the main event began.
Pink singing Elphaba’s “Defying Gravity” riff while suspended in midair in a Tinker Bell costume, holding Neil Patrick Harris between her legs, wasn’t on our 2026 Tonys bingo card—but that is more or less how the show began, and how Pink set about thoroughly winning over the Broadway community as host of this year’s telecast.
Her opener, “Leading Lady Marmalade,” featured cameos from Lea Michele, Megan Thee Stallion, June Squibb, and Dylan Mulvaney—and had the audience on its feet before the number was even over. Dare we say it was the best opening number since Harris’s “Bigger”?
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