'Purpose' Makes History at the Tony Awards with Kara Young's Best Play Win
- NewsBlend360
- Jun 8
- 5 min read
BY NEWS BLEND 360
Updated 11:29 PM EDT, June 8, 2025
NEW YORK (NB360) — The award for best new play at the Tony Awards on Sunday was given to “Purpose,” a drawing-room drama by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins about a prominent Black family confronting hypocrisy and pressures during a snowed-in gathering.
This marks a notable year for Jacobs-Jenkins, who not only won consecutive Tonys — his “Appropriate” won best play revival in 2024 — but also received the Pulitzer Prize for “Purpose.” (This accolade was announced on the day of the Met Gala, where he was on the host committee.)
Jacobs-Jenkins is the first Black playwright to win for best new play since August Wilson's victory in 1987 for “Fences.” He encouraged Tony viewers to support regional theaters; “Purpose” was developed in Chicago.
Kara Young — the first Black female actor to receive a Tony nomination for four consecutive years — became the first Black person to win two consecutive Tonys, taking home the featured actress in a play award for her role in “Purpose.” Young expressed gratitude to her parents, Jacobs-Jenkins, her cast, and director Phylicia Rashad.
“Theater is a sacred space that we must honor and cherish, and it brings us together,” she stated.
“Sunset Blvd.,” with Nicole Scherzinger in the role of a fallen screen idol striving to regain her fame, won best musical revival, giving composer Andrew Lloyd Webber his first competitive Tony since 1995, when the original show won. The current version is a minimalist production.
Notable Tony moments
Sarah Snook won the award for leading actress in a play for her extensive work in “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” where she performs all 26 roles.
“I never feel alone when performing this show,” Snook commented, dismissing the notion of her play as a solo performance. “There are so many people onstage and behind the scenes making it work.”
Downtown cabaret star Cole Escola received the best actor in a play award for portraying a deranged, repressed, and exaggerated ahistorical version of Mary Todd Lincoln in “Oh Mary!,” surpassing Hollywood stars like George Clooney and Daniel Dae Kim.
“I never feel alone when performing this show,” Snook reiterated, countering the idea of her play as a solo performance. “There are so many people onstage and behind the scenes contributing.”
Downtown cabaret star Cole Escola won the best actor in a play award for his portrayal of a deranged, repressed, and exaggerated ahistorical version of Mary Todd Lincoln in “Oh Mary!,” outperforming Hollywood stars like George Clooney and Daniel Dae Kim.
Sam Pinkleton won best director for “Oh, Mary!” and expressed gratitude to Escola, stating he taught him, “Pursue what you love, not what you think others want to see.”
Francis Jue received the award for best actor in a featured role in a play for his performance in a revival of “Yellow Face.” He mentioned that another Asian actor gifted him his tuxedo to wear to the Tonys.
“I am here because of the encouragement and inspiration of generations of talented Asian artists who preceded me,” he remarked. “To those who feel unseen,” he added, “I see you.”
Jak Malone won best actor in a featured role in a musical for the British import “Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical,” where he portrays a woman in every performance. He hoped his victory would serve as a strong advocacy for trans rights.
“Eureka Day,” Jonathan Spector’s social satire about well-intentioned liberals debating a school’s vaccine policy, won the best play revival award. It premiered off-Broadway in 2019.
The original cast of “Hamilton,” including creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, celebrated the show’s 10th anniversary on Broadway with a medley of songs, all dressed in black, featuring “My Shot,” “The Schuyler Sisters,” “History Has Its Eyes on You,” and “The Room Where It Happens.”
First-time host Cynthia Erivo began the show from her dressing room at Radio City Music Hall, unsure of her opening number as the stage manager urged her to get to the stage. As she navigated through the backstage area, she encountered various people offering advice until she reached Oprah Winfrey, who advised, “The only thing you need to do is just be yourself.”
Erivo then appeared on stage in a red, spangly gown with white accents, hip cocked, as she performed the slow-burning original song “Sometimes All You Need Is a Song,” written by Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul. Initially alone with just a pianist, Erivo’s soaring voice was soon joined by dozens of members of the Broadway Inspirational Voices choir, all dressed in white, making her look like a powerful strawberry in a bowl of whipped cream.
In her opening remarks, she highlighted first-time nominees Louis McCartney, Sadie Sink, Cole Escola, and “an up-and-comer that I think you’re going to really be hearing quite a bit about — George Clooney.”
She pointed out that the 2024-2025 season generated $1.9 billion, making it the highest-grossing season ever and indicating that Broadway has finally recovered from the COVID-19 downturn.
“Broadway is officially back,” Erivo declared. “Provided we don’t run out of cast members from ‘Succession,’” a nod to appearances this season by former co-stars Snook and Kieran Culkin and last season by Jeremy Strong.
She and Sara Bareilles performed a moving in memoriam segment, singing “The Sun Will Come Out” from “Annie,” and honoring its composer Charles Strouse as well as George Wendt, Richard Chamberlain, Athol Fugard, Joan Plowright, Quincy Jones, Linda Lavin, James Earl Jones and Gavin Creel.
Erivo was a charming host, at one point appearing in the second mezzanine to comment that everyone enjoys the view from theater balconies — except perhaps Abraham Lincoln. She later had fun with Winfrey, telling her to check under her chair, where she found a gift bag with a toy automobile. “You get a car!” Erivo joked.
Pre-show results
The awards for best book and best score went to “Maybe Happy Ending,” a romantic comedy between androids, with lyrics by Hue Park and music by Will Aronson. Its director, Michael Arden, won — “Happy Pride!” he exclaimed — and it also received the award for best scenic design of a musical.
Justin Peck and Patricia Delgado won for their choreography in “Buena Vista Social Club,” with Peck noting that a song from the original album was played at their wedding. The musical draws inspiration from Wim Wenders’ 1999 Oscar-nominated documentary on the making of the Cuban album.
Best costumes in a play went to Marg Hornwell for “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” while “Death Becomes Her” won the musical counterpart, with Paul Tazewell winning in a year where he also became the first Black man to win an Oscar for costume design, for “Wicked.”
“I have dressed so many of you out there,” he remarked from the podium.
Harvey Fierstein, the four-time Tony winner known for “Torch Song Trilogy” and “Kinky Boots,” was honored with a lifetime achievement Tony and became emotional during his speech: “There is nothing quite like basking in the applause of a curtain call, but when I bow, I bow to the audience, with gratitude, knowing that without them I might as well be lip-syncing show tunes in my bedroom mirror. And so I dedicate this award to the people in the dark.”
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