Tony Award - Award Milestones

Award Milestones

Some notable records and facts about the Tony Awards include the following:

Productions

• Wins: The most Tony Awards ever received by a single production was the musical The Producers (2001) with 12 awards, including best musical.
• Non-musical wins: The most Tonys ever received by a non-musical play was The Coast of Utopia (2007) with seven awards, including best play.
• Most nominated with fewer wins: The musical The Scottsboro Boys (2011) was nominated for 12 Tony Awards but did not win any. It also holds the record for most nominations for a closed show (having closed nearly six months before the Tony Awards).
• Three productions, all musicals, have won all "big six" awards for their category: South Pacific (1950 awards), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979 awards) and Hairspray (2003 awards); each won the Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book, Best Performance by a Leading Actor, Best Performance by a Leading Actress and Best Direction awards.
• Acting Awards: Only one production, South Pacific (1950 awards), has won all four of the acting awards in a single year.
• Words and Music: Only four musicals have won the Tony Award for Best Musical when a person had (co-)written the Book (non-sung dialogue and storyline) and the Score (music and lyrics): 1958 winner The Music Man (Meredith Willson – award for Book and Score did not exist that year), 1986 winner The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Rupert Holmes – who also won for Book and Score), 1996 winner Rent (Jonathan Larson – who also won for Book and Score), and 2011 winner The Book of Mormon (Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone also won for Book and Score).
• Design Awards: Eight shows have swept the design awards (original 3 of Best Scenic Design, Best Costume Design, Best Lighting Design – joined by Best Sound Design starting in 2008): Follies (1972), The Phantom of the Opera (1986), The Lion King (1998), The Producers (2001), The Light in the Piazza (2005), The Coast of Utopia (2007), the 2008 revival of South Pacific (first to sweep the expanded 4 awards for Creative Arts) and Peter and the Starcatcher (first straight play to sweep the expanded four awards for Creative Arts) (2012).
• Revivals: Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller in 1999 became the first show (play or musical) to win as Best Production in four different years, Best Play at the 1949 awards, Best Revival at the 1984 awards (before the Best Revival award was split into two categories for Play and Musical in 1994), and Best Revival of a Play at the 1999 and 2012 awards. La Cage aux Folles made history as the first musical to win as Best Production in three different years, Best Musical at the 1984 awards and Best Revival of a Musical at both the 2005 awards and the 2010 awards.

Individuals

• Wins: Harold Prince has won 21 Tony Awards, more than anyone else, including eight for directing, eight for producing, two as producer of a year's Best Musical, and three special Tony Awards. Tommy Tune has won nine Tony Awards including three for direction, four for choreography, and two for performing. Stephen Sondheim has won more Tony Awards than any other composer, with eight. Bob Fosse has won the most Tonys for choreography, also eight. Oliver Smith has won a record eight scenic design Tony Awards. Jules Fisher has won the most lighting design awards, also eight. Julie Harris, Angela Lansbury, and Audra McDonald tie for the most performance Tony Awards with five each.
• Most nominations: Along with her record of five performance wins, Julie Harris also has been nominated more often than any other performer, a total of ten times.
• Performers in two categories: Four performers (all actresses) have been nominated in two acting categories in the same year: Amanda Plummer, Dana Ivey, Kate Burton, and Jan Maxwell. Plummer in 1982 was nominated for Best Actress in a Play for A Taste of Honey and Best Featured Actress in a Play for Agnes of God, for which she won. Ivey in 1984 was nominated as Best Featured Actress in Musical for Sunday in the Park with George and Best Featured Actress in a Play for Heartbreak House. In 2002, Burton was nominated for Best Actress in Play for Hedda Gabler and Best Featured Actress in a Play for The Elephant Man. Maxwell was nominated in 2010 for Best Actress in a Play for The Royal Family and Best Featured Actress in a Play for Lend Me a Tenor.
• Performers in all categories: Four performers have been nominated for all four performance awards for which a performer is eligible. Boyd Gaines was the first performer to be nominated for each of Best Featured Actor in a Play in 1989 for The Heidi Chronicles, Best Actor in a Musical in 1994 for She Loves Me, Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 2000 for Contact (and again in 2008 for Gypsy) and Best Actor in a Play in 2007 for Journey's End. Gaines won in three of the categories (and four of the five nominations), missing only for the performance in Journey's End. Raúl Esparza was the second performer to be nominated in all four categories (no wins), achieving this over a mere six seasons: Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 2004 for Taboo, Best Actor in a Musical in 2007 for Company, Best Featured Actor in a Play in 2008 for The Homecoming, and Best Actor in a Play in 2009 for Speed-the-Plow. Angela Lansbury was the third performer to be nominated for all four performance awards. She won Best Actress in a Musical for Mame (1966), Dear World (1969), Gypsy (1975), and Sweeney Todd (1979). She was nominated for Best Actress in a Play for Deuce in 2007. She won Best Featured Actress in a Play for Blithe Spirit in 2009. She was nominated for Featured Actress in a Musical for A Little Night Music in 2010. Jan Maxwell became the fourth performer to achieve this distinction by being nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (2005), Best Featured Actress in a Play for Coram Boy (2007) and Lend Me a Tenor (2010), Best Actress in a Play for The Royal Family (2010), and Best Actress in a Musical for Follies (2012).
• Performers Playing Opposite Sex: While several performers have won Tonys for roles that have involved cross dressing, only two have won for playing a character of the opposite sex: Mary Martin in the title role of Peter Pan (1955) and Harvey Fierstein as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray (2003). In 2000, Australian actor Barry Humphries won the Special Tony Award for a live theatrical event at the 55th Annual Tony Awards for Dame Edna: The Royal Tour, Dame Edna being his "Melbourne Housewife" alter-ego who was recently on Broadway in the show All About Me.
• Shared Performances: All three of the young actors who shared the duties of performing the lead character in Billy Elliot the Musical (2009 awards) — David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik and Kiril Kulish — also shared a single nomination, then shared the win, for Best Actor in a Musical. Previously, the only prior joint winners were John Kani and Winston Ntshona, who shared the Best Actor in a Play award in 1975 for Sizwe Banzi is Dead and The Island, two plays they co-wrote and co-starred in.

Firsts

• First female to win Best Direction of a Musical: Julie Taymor for The Lion King in 1998.
• First female to win Best Direction of a Play: Garry Hynes for The Beauty Queen of Leenane in 1998.
• First female author to win Best Play: Frances Goodrich with her partner (and husband) Albert Hackett for The Diary of Anne Frank in 1956; Wendy Wasserstein for The Heidi Chronicles in 1989 was the first solo winner.
• First African-American author to win Best Play: Joseph A. Walker for The River Niger in 1974.
• First African-American to win Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play: Phylicia Rashad for A Raisin in the Sun in 2004.
• First African-American to win Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play: James Earl Jones for The Great White Hope in 1969.
• First African-American to win Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical: Cleavon Little for Purlie in 1970.
• First African-American to win Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical: Diahann Carroll for No Strings in 1962.