The 77th Annual Tony Awards, held on Sunday, June 16, shone a beautiful light on Black excellence on Broadway.
Everyone went crazy as Maleah Joi Moon won the Tony for Best Performance by an Actress in a leading role in a musical for “Hell’s Kitchen,” in which she plays Ali, the Alicia Keys role in the Alicia Keys musical. This young lady is having a great season—she has also won the Theatre World Award for her stage performance debut and the Drama Desk Award for her dynamic performance in this role. She was in tears as she thanked God, the American Theatre Wing, her village, the company of “Hell’s Kitchen,” and Keyes. She dedicated her award to her parents: “I hope you just get to celebrate—you sacrificed so much!”
If you have not gone to see “Hell’s Kitchen,” make plans to go. Moon deserved every accolade she has received. Her performance is stupendous.
Her co-star Kecia Lewis walked away with a Tony for Best Performance by an Actress in a featured role in a musical for her role as Miss Liza Jane in “Hell’s Kitchen.” Lewis, a 40-year veteran of the theater, was emotional as she said, “I thank you, God, my first, my last, my everything…Being in this business 40 years, I wanted to give up many times.”
Lewis thanked the creative team, her manager, her vocal coach, her aunt who believed in her, her parents, and her son. “Being here 40 years means a lot of work, a lot of tears. It was making sure that I did what I had to do to endure.” She recalled how she walked into the Imperial Theater at 18 years old and now, 40 years later, she declared, “This moment is the one I dreamed of for 40 years, so I say to everyone who can hear my voice: Don’t give up!”
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It was a wonderful night for Black women, as Kara Young won the Tony for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play for “Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch,” in which she played Lutiebelle GussieMae Jenkins, a role that her idol, the great, late Ruby Dee, played on Broadway 62 years ago.
Young had been nominated for Tony Awards two previous times, for “Clyde’s” and “Cost Of Living,” but the third time was the charm with “Purlie Victorious.” “This is a historically timeless piece,” she said. “It is important for Ossie and Ruby to be acknowledged and for their names to be known. To keep their legacy alive is incredibly important to me. For everybody to know this play is incredibly important to me. This play is literally saying we can’t forget our history, we can move forward together. Purlie is fighting for the freedom of all mankind, and for me to be a part of that feels like everything that I’ve ever wished for in storytelling came to fruition.”
Dede Ayite, a marvelous costume designer, won a Tony for Best Costume Design of a Play for “Appropriate,” and “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding.” Saying that she grew up inspired by people like Paul Tazewell, Ayite added that this award means to “just keep at it…This award is not just about me—it’s about the community that believed in me. We have done it together.”
Referring to her work on “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” Ayite talked about what it meant to create costumes that were authentic to the women represented in the play. “It’s very important to me to just find their heart. People look at those women and think they are caricatures—they are so loud and bold, but they have such depth to them, and so as a costume designer with ‘Jaja’s,’ it was important to me to find their humanity and showcase that—their tenderness and complexity,” Ayite said.
Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins won the Tony for Best Revival of a play for “Appropriate.” The play tells the story of a white family who discover their very racist and dark past when the patriarch dies, and his children and grandchildren return to the family home.
“It’s impossible to ask everyone to walk away with the same thing,” Jacobs-Jenkins said. “I just want people to walk away and want to talk to someone else about this experience. I’ve talked to people who brought their families back to the show—their kids, their moms—and that’s what really gets me to feel happy. I think theater should be something that helps you grow.”
This year’s Tony Awards presented African Americans with phenomenal honors. George C. Wolfe received a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the theater. Wolfe has been behind numerous productions, including “Topdog/Underdog,” “Bring in DA Noise/Bring in DA Funk,” “Angels in America,” and “The Colored Museum.” Wolfe is a playwright and director and so much more. He’s been in the business for decades and has an amazing amount of energy. His plays are always powerful and deep.
When Wolfe received the Tony, he spoke about how his parents told him he was special and to always be himself. In terms of how he became the person he is in the business, Wolfe said, “The exhilaration is the hard work, the not knowing, going into a room with a group of people who you are excited by and thrilled by, and they will question you and you will question them. That’s the joy. It’s the journey of the discovery and the people that you meet and the relationships that evolve and the work.”
Cjay Philip won the Excellence in Theatre Education Award. She is the founder and creative director of Dance & Bmore Theatre Programs in Baltimore, Md. She works with young people, helping them understand that theater is made from all different types of access. In her programs, sixth graders are learning about the technical aspects of the business as well as the creative aspect. “You don’t have to be Beyoncé to have a place in the arts,” Philip explained.
Nikiya Mathis won a special Tony Award for Wig and Hair for “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” which marked the first time someone in Wig and Hair has received a special Tony. “This is beyond my wildest dreams, and I’m grateful to God and the Black women of the theater community,” Mathis said.
She received this award by working on a show that had a creative team of Black women, giving her encouragement and support. “For Jocelyn to say ‘we see you,’ it really was Black women supporting each other and us listening to each other. When I got the job, I was afraid—it was a lot of trial and error, figuring out how I was going to make those microbraids appear…Now that I got to see people seeing and respecting the work, it means so much to me.”
Billy Porter received the Isabelle Stevenson Award. “It speaks to believing in the work and putting one foot in front of the other and knowing that to be chosen as an artist is to have responsibility greater than ourselves,” he said. “There is LGBTQ+ as well as Black. I’m a Black man first. I’m grateful to be in a place where I can make a difference.”
Colleen Jennings-Roggensack received Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre.
The 77th Annual Tony Awards were hosted by Ariana DeBose and a marvelous opportunity to see the fantastic productions that Broadway has to offer. Go see Broadway productions!