From onstage power couple to offstage Tony nominees, Mark Strong and Lesley Manville celebrate their big news

Mark Strong and Lesley Manville are thrilled for their Tony nominations for Oedipus as a power couple — and more if you know the ancient Greek tragedy twist.

When the background countdown clock strikes zero in Robert Icke’s Oedipus, Studio 54 quakes. Its eponymous protagonist (Mark Strong) and his wife (Lesley Manville) crumble under the volcanic truth.

Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex is a high school curriculum staple with one of the most famous, icky endings. Now playwright-director Icke transports the Greek tragedy to our modern age, with the titular character reimagined from a king of Thebes as a successful politician. As he preemptively celebrates a prospective election victory with his wife, Jocasta, and three children, he does not realize yet that emerging secrets will unravel their carefully maintenanced family image. But the stars Strong and Manville have reason to rejoice, having snagged respective Tony nominations for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play and Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play. The play is nominated for Best Revival and Best Direction in the Tony’s play category as well.

“The nomination really allows you to understand that in a given moment with a given production, people really valued it, and that it resonated with people,” Strong shared to New York Theatre Guide. He said that Manville telephoned him and they shared their thrill over the production's seven nominations.

This marks Strong’s second Tony nomination, after his Best Actor in a Play nod for his portrayal of Eddie Carbone in the Broadway revival of A View from the Bridge. Known for his film and television roles in Who Do You Think You Are?, The Penguin, the Shazam! film series, and Dune: Prophecy, Strong praised the work ethic of the stage cast and crew.

“I love being able to get into a rehearsal room with people, which is very different from film, because you're able to actually work on something with people and then the reliance on everybody,” he said. “They know their moves, they know their lines, that you're going to create this thing together every night. It's exactly what I wanted from being an actor when I very first started out and saw the first theater productions that made me want to go down this path.” For the previous West End run of Oedipus at the Wyndham's Theatre, Strong was nominated for Best Actor 2025 Laurence Olivier Awards, while Manville took home its Best Actress prize.

In a statement, the Academy Award-nominated actress Manville, famed for The Crown, celebrated her nomination: “This is a bit of a moment for me. To be recognised in this way by such an esteemed body is as good as it gets. I couldn’t be prouder of Oedipus and the remarkable team I got to navigate this highly complex play eight times a week.” She is currently starring in Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the National Theatre on the West End.

During the interview, Strong was driving in his car to London. New York Theatre Guide wished Strong “safe driving,” an irony relevant to Icke’s reimagination of Oedipus.

Photo credit: Mark Strong and Lesley Manville in Oedipus on Broadway. (Photo by Julieta Cervantes)