Highlights from the 2025 Tony Awards ceremony

Discover the big wins, moving speeches, memorable moments, and more from Broadway's biggest night, held this year at Radio City Music Hall on June 8.

So many happy endings! Broadway’s biggest celebration unfolded on June 8 at Radio City Music Hall, where the 78th annual Tony Awards celebrated an exceptional season of musicals and plays. The night was filled with heart-on-sleeve acceptance speeches, dazzling performances, first-time Tony triumphs — some on their debut nominations — and several history-making moments. Read on for highlights of the evening’s biggest moments and the must-see shows that took home top honors.

Read the full list of 2025 Tony Award winners.

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Maybe Happy Ending and Purpose took home top honors.

Going into the 78th annual Tonys, it was unclear which show would win Best Musical, the evening’s most coveted prize. In the end, Maybe Happy Ending, an irresistible story of humanoid robots that find love, claimed that honor and five others to win a total of six Tonys, the most of the night.

Purpose, a comedy-drama by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins about legacy and hypocrisy as seen through the eyes of a Black political dynasty that already won a Pulitzer Prize, won the Best Play Tony. Last year, the author won a Best Revival Tony for Appropriate. In another back-to-back triumph, Kara Young won her second featured actress Tony following her 2024 win for Purlie Victorious, becoming the first Black performer to score such a consecutive victory.

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Nicole Scherzinger won a too-tight-to-call category.

In the heated Best Leading Actress in a Musical race, Broadway newcomer Nicole Scherzinger collected the prize for her star turn as faded film star Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. The former Pussycat Doll, who’d won an Olivier Award for the same role, was neck-and-neck with Gypsy star Audra McDonald before the Tonys ceremony.

“Growing up, I always felt like I didn’t belong. But you all have made me feel like I belong, and I have come home, at last," Scherzinger said in a nod to a lyric from one of her songs in the show in her acceptance speech.

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Cole Escola and Francis Jue dressed the part of winners.

One of the closely watched categories of the evening was Leading Actor in a Play. Oh, Mary! star and creator Cole Escola was the victor in a field that included two-time Oscar winner George Clooney. Escola, who plays Mary Todd Lincoln as a boozy cabaret wannabe in the play, wore a gown for the Tonys that paid homage to 1999 Tony winner Bernadette Peters.

Francis Jue, who won a featured actor Tony for Yellow Face, sent a message with his tuxedo. Jue said he was wearing the late actor Alvin Ing’s tuxedo from the opening of Pacific Overtures in 1986: “He wanted me to wear it when I accepted my Tony Award,” Jue said in his acceptance speech at Radio City.

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Seven of the eight acting honorees were first-time winners.

Save for Kara Young, who’s been nominated for that prize four years running and won this year and last, the remaining seven winners in the acting categories were first-timers.

These include Scherzinger (Sunset Boulevard), Darren Criss (Maybe Happy Ending), Sarah Snook (The Picture of Dorian Gray), Cole Escola (Oh, Mary!), Francis Jue (Yellow Face), Natalie Venetia Belcon (Buena Vista Social Club), and Jak Malone (Operation Mincemeat). Moreover, Scherzinger, Snook, Escola, and Malone are making their Broadway debuts.

Cynthia Erivo was the host with the most.

The Color Purple Tony winner and Wicked screen star conjured some fun by recreating a “sharing space” moment with Oprah Winfrey before hitting the stage in her first foray as emcee for the live telecast. Erivo started the evening with the original number “Sometimes All You Need Is a Song,” and about three hours later, she closed with a recap that riffed on “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” from Dreamgirls. In between, she shared a duet of “Tomorrow” from Annie with Sara Bareilles for the In Memoriam segment.

The original cast of Hamilton performed.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the megahit musical Hamilton, the original cast of the show, led by Lin-Manuel Miranda, performed a medley from the hip-hop-flavored history lesson. Dressed in black, save for a pop of red on Jonathan Groff as King George, the mix included songs like “My Shot,” “The Schuyler Sisters,” “History Has Its Eyes on You,” and “The Room Where It Happens.”

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Maybe Happy Ending creators collected early prizes for their Broadway debuts.

In their first time on Broadway, Hue Park and Will Aronson won Tonys for the book and score of Maybe Happy Ending. In a cheeky moment as they collected awards, Park used his acceptance speech to let the world know he’s single. Hey, the musical is about finding love.

Their victories took place during The Tony Awards: Act One, a pre-show that streamed on Pluto TV before the main 8 p.m. broadcast on CBS. Other victors from this portion include Justin Peck and Patricia Delgado, who won for choreographing Buena Vista Social Club. Peck shared that a song from the famous original Cuban album that inspired the show was played at their wedding.

Paul Tazewell sewed up a historic Tony Award.

At the 2025 Tonys, he won for Costume Design of a Musical for Death Becomes Her. In March, he won an Oscar for Wicked. The double honor makes him just the second person in history to win an Oscar and a Tony in the same calendar year. (The first was Irene Sharaff in 1952.)

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Harvey Fierstein earned a lifetime achievement Tony.

The playwright and actor of Torch Song Trilogy, Kinky Boots, and Hairspray fame has been a fixture on Broadway for decades. “I dedicate this award to the people in the dark,” he told the audience.

Photo credit: Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions