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Discover the first-time 2026 Tony Award winners on Broadway

Discover the actors, directors, designers, musicians, and more who took home their first career statuettes at the June 7 ceremony at Radio City Music Hall.

Gillian Russo
Written byGillian Russo

From total Broadway rookies to stage stalwarts who finally took home a statuette, this year's crop of first-time Tony Award winners is an exciting one. There were 62 first-time nominees across categories, and some of them got the win on their first try, along with multiple prior nominees who secured their long-awaited first wins.

Discover the 18 performers, directors, designers, and more who were honored for the first time at the 2026 Tony Awards, announced on June 7 at Radio City Music Hall, and get tickets to see them live!

Get tickets to Tony Award-winning shows on New York Theatre Guide.

Summary

  • First-time Tony Award winners in 2026 include Ragtime's Joshua Henry and Caissie Levy; The Lost Boys's Ali Louis Bourzgui and Shoshana Bean; Becky Shaw's Alden Ehrenreich; and Oedipus's Lesley Manville

Mikaal Sulaiman

Qween Jean

Jeff Mahshie

Jen Schriever

Chloe Lamford

Mike Morris

Cinco Paul

Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons

Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch

Bess Wohl

Lesley Manville

Shoshana Bean

Ali Louis Bourzgui

Alden Ehrenreich

Caissie Levy

Joshua Henry

Joshua Henry

Best Leading Actor in a Musical

For his heart-wrenching, roof-shaking turn as Coalhouse Walker Jr. in Ragtime, the Tony was Joshua Henry's to lose even when the production was still off Broadway. After three previous nominations, it's finally his year.

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Joshua Henry

Caissie Levy

Best Leading Actress in a Musical

Among a category entirely composed of first-time nominees, longtime Broadway favorite Caissie Levy took home the prize for her poignant performance as Mother, a wealthy housewife finding independence as she finds herself, in Ragtime.

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Caissie Levy

Alden Ehrenreich

Best Featured Actor in a Play

In his Broadway debut, Alden Ehrenreich was the standout surprise of the dark comedy Becky Shaw as the poison-tongued yet utterly captivating Max. Hopefully his Tony is just the start of a long Broadway career.

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Alden Ehrenreich

Ali Louis Bourzgui

Best Featured Actor in a Musical

We're sure this Tony Award win makes Ali Louis Bourzgui feel immortal. For playing the glam-rock vampire David in The Lost Boys, Bourzgui — this year's youngest Tony-nominated performer — is now a winner. Rock on.

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Ali Louis Bourzgui

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Shoshana Bean

Best Featured Actress in a Musical

It's Shoshana's turn. After nine Broadway shows and two previous nominations, longtime Broadway favorite Shoshana Bean finally got her flowers for playing single mom Lucy Emerson in The Lost Boys.

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Shoshana Bean

Lesley Manville

Best Leading Actress in a Play

She's already a two-time Olivier Award winner for her London stage work, and now, Lesley Manville can add a Tony to her trophy case for playing Jocasta, a mother of all tragic roles, in Robert Icke's modernized Oedipus. Not bad for a Broadway debut.

Lesley Manville

Bess Wohl

Best Play

Only three other women — Wendy Wasserstein, Yasmina Reza, and Frances Goodrich — have ever won the Tony Award for Best Play, and the last time it happened was in 2009. With her first win for her Pulitzer Prize-winning Liberation, Bess Wohl cemented her place in that historic lineup.

Bess Wohl

Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch

Best Direction of a Musical

It's 10s across the board for Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch, the directors who shepherded Cats: The Jellicle Ball from the Perelman Performing Arts Center downtown to Broadway without losing any of its feline fierceness.

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Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch

Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons

Best Choreography

Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons not only honored Cats's status as an iconic dance musical, but reinvented it with vogue and ballroom choreography. In bringing together these two storied histories, they created some of the freshest moves on Broadway right now.

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Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons

Cinco Paul

Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score

First, Cinco Paul won an Emmy for writing the song "Corn Puddin'" for his TV show Schmigadoon!, a spoof on classic musicals. Now, he has Tony Awards for writing the Broadway adaptation's entire script and score. In his Broadway debut, it's a schweep for Paul.

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Cinco Paul

Mike Morris

Best Orchestrations

Together with previous Tony winner Doug Besterman, Mike Morris captured the lush sounds of Broadway's Golden Age and reinvented them for a new generation in Schmigadoon!

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Mike Morris

Chloe Lamford

Best Scenic Design of a Play

Having designed sets for the Met Opera, Cirque du Soleil, Broadway, and more, Chloe Lamford has shown she can do it all. Her Tony for her spare, yet evocative, industrial set for Death of a Salesman further proves that.

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Chloe Lamford

Jeff Mahshie

Best Costume Design of a Play

Raise a glass to Jeff Mahshie, a first-time Tony winner for his Fallen Angels period costumes, including sumptuous evening gowns for nominees Rose Byrne and Kelli O’Hara.

Jeff Mahshie

Qween Jean

Best Costume Design of a Musical

For creating 500 meow-velous, glamorous, and utterly distinct looks for Cats: The Jellicle Ball, this Tony was Qween Jean's to lose. It's only her Broadway-debut season, and we're sure she's got plenty more looks — and awards — ahead of her.

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Qween Jean

Mikaal Sulaiman

Best Sound Design of a Play

In tandem with Caroline Shaw's Tony-nominated score, Mikaal Sulaiman's sound design was essential to making this Salesman feel unique from any production of the play before it.

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Mikaal Sulaiman