This is the latest edition of The Critics, our weekly roundup of critical reviews, essays, and conversations from senior newsletter editor Jasmine Vojdani. Want to have it arrive in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here:
On Sunday, Cynthia Erivo will host the Tony Awards for the 2024–25 season. This year, the musicals Buena Vista Social Club, Death Becomes Her, and Maybe Happy Ending are among the most nominated — each received ten nods. But the Tonys can tell you only so much about what happened onstage this year, and luckily for us, our critics and writers have a sharp eye for other things worth celebrating. Critic Jackson McHenry and writers Rebecca Alter and Jason P. Frank came together to appraise the season in a way that only they could: dreaming up the Phonys, awards with categories specific enough to capture the true spirit of theater this season, from Star-making Performance by a Nonhuman to Best Campaign for a Best Actress Nominee.
You can take a nostalgic tour of last year’s nominees and winners here. —Jasmine Vojdani
Best Tony Nomination
Forty-two productions debuted on Broadway in the 2024–25 season, outpacing recent years, so there was much for the Tonys to consider. The following nominations struck us as particularly on the money:
James Monroe Iglehart for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical in A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical
Justina Machado for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical in Real Women Have Curves
Rachel Hauck for Best Scenic Design in a Musical in Swept Away
Jasmine Amy Rogers for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical in Boop! The Musical
Francis Jue for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play in Yellow Face
Jason P. Frank: I think Justina Machado should get this one because her nomination earned Real Women a Tonys performance.
Jackson McHenry: And she was in an early version of the play, so it’s cool that she’s coming back. It’s a good part. There’s a lot of mother-daughter tension because they’re basing it off the play, so they can’t change too much. I think a typical commercial musical would go for a happier ending.
Rebecca Alter: My vote is for Jasmine Amy Rogers. She carries Boop! The Musical. This was by far the most competitive category this year. Her getting in there against all odds as a newcomer is fabulous.
Best Unnominated Performance
These performers didn’t get their Tony flowers, but we haven’t forgotten them. The nominees are Christopher Sieber in Death Becomes Her, Thom Sesma in Dead Outlaw, Michael Urie in Once Upon a Mattress, Helen J. Shen in Maybe Happy Ending, and Alana Arenas in Purpose.
Jason Frank: I’m going to say Alana Arenas in Purpose. To me, it was a star-making turn. She just felt so embodied. I didn’t physically scooch forward in my seat to listen closer to someone at any other time this year. She is so remarkable, and she’s the only person from that cast who’s not nominated. I’m not going to name names, but she’s better than some people in that cast.
Rebecca: I’ll give my vote to Michael Urie in Once Upon a Mattress because I thought that was genuinely such a weird interpretation of that type of character. It was a reminder that he should be a supporting actor in more things.
Jackson: I have to pull for Thom Sesma in Dead Outlaw. He’s really good and reserved for a lot of the show and then, at the 11th hour, he comes out and does the crooner number as a real guy — Dr. Thomas Noguchi, coroner to the stars — and bends the audience around his thumb. It’s fun to give him the big moment in that show, and I personally find the song incredibly delightful.
But we still love you, Helen J. Shen!
Most Repeated Trends From the Commonwealth
From solo performers playing multiple characters to an overuse of cameras, self-satisfied British humour, and a general lack of understanding of subtext, this year you couldn’t escape tropes from Britain and Australia. The nominees: Vanya, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Operation Mincemeat, and Tammy Faye.
Jackson: Tammy Faye is just dumb. It has a weird level of sympathy for Tammy Faye Bakker but asks you to clap for Jerry Falwell. It also just doesn’t get how musicals work. It has no controlled perspective on its humor. It’s overblown and had a lot of screens. And Elton John wasn’t ever there.
Rebecca: Agreed. There’s a lack of nuance about its understanding of American Christian culture.
Best Performance As a Corpse
And no, simply dying and then disappearing offstage does not count — a corpse lingers. The field is surprisingly packed: Andrew Durand as Elmer McCurdy in Dead Outlaw, Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard in Death Becomes Her, The Corpse (Bill) in Operation Mincemeat, the mutilated cat in Stranger Things, and the ghosts in Our Town.
Rebecca: It has to be Andrew Durand. I believed he was a corpse.
Jason: For the entire second half of the show, he doesn’t move. It’s the defining corpse of all time on Broadway.
Rebecca: They should put that on the marquee.
Star-making Performance by a Nonhuman
They may not speak our language, but they captured our hearts. The illustrious nominees: Pudgy, the dog in Boop! The Musical; Stella, the titular tree in Redwood; Hwaboon, the potted plant in Maybe Happy Ending; Caroline, the cow in Gypsy; and the rubber ducky in Just in Time.
Jason: Stella is the only one a character falls in love with in the show. She is by far the most important to the plot of her respective show out of this crew. In fact, she is the entire reason Redwood exists — she is the titular redwood. I think the fact that Idina Menzel plays a lesbian and the tree is a woman means they really wanted you to know this was an erotic love. It’s the most grown-up of any of the options here, for sure.
Rebecca: I’m gonna stick with Hwaboom. Of these performances, its is the most inanimate and yet evocative. Hwaboon does very little and is a wholly embodied plant who also, frankly, should be nominated in the Best Tonys Campaigning category because this has become like a true mascot of Broadway. There needs to be a Sardi’s portrait of Hwaboon.
I’ll also say just something about why I’m not voting Pudgy: So much of Pudgy’s performance is actually owed to his fabulous puppeteer, Phillip Huber, who is very human.
Jackson: It’s a tough call between those two. I’ll go with Stella. I endorse California solidarity.
Most Twisted Family-Tree Reveal
This year, sinister family relations were a plot twist in many a play, including Just in Time, Dead Outlaw, and Ghosts.
Jason: Halfway through the reveal in Just in Time, a woman from New Jersey near me said “She’s his motha!” very loudly, and I enjoyed that. It’s a twist that provokes reaction.
Rebecca: When the reveal happened, Bobby Darin’s sister-mother was standing right next to us in the round — that gimmick goes a long way. You could see everyone’s reactions.
Honorable Mention: The Roommate, for when we learned Ronan Farrow was playing Mia Farrow’s son on the phone.
Best Use of Actual Hollywood Star Power
These people used their cachet for good and secured funding for their respective shows. Thank you, Sadie Sink for John Proctor Is the Vilain; Darren Criss for Maybe Happy Ending; George Clooney for Good Night, and Good Luck; and Daniel Dae Kim for Yellow Face.
Jason: For me, it’s Darren Criss because I don’t think the show could necessarily exist on Broadway the way it does without the backing of a star. He’s kind of the only person who could do it. It feels really unique to his placement in the culture. You have to have someone who’s into musical theater. You want them to have some form of Asian ancestry. He’s so enthusiastic about the show that it really made it pop. And he has been willing to do it for a really long time, not just as a limited run; he’s in it for a full year.
Rebecca: And it’s such a physically demanding role. So my vote is also for Criss.
Jackson: I’d say Sadie Sink for getting John Proctor made. It’s a really impressive performance. I also think it’s impressive that she takes a role that’s a lead by a hair but really part of an ensemble. It’s good casting that she is this girl who’s coming back to school after a mysterious absence, so she’s famous within the universe of the show in a way that allows her familiarity with the audience to make sense. The play had been done regionally and in colleges, but to actually get the momentum over the line to a Broadway production, you’d need someone to commit to it. So it’s cool she did.
Best Use of Screens
We’ve renamed this category from last year’s Most Egregious Use of Screens because, admittedly, screens are probably here to say; may as well embrace them. Our nominees are Maybe Happy Ending and Sunset Blvd.
Rebecca: I think the outdoor walk in Sunset Blvd. takes it. In the year of “Gotta Get a Gimmick,” this is the best gimmick I saw. The fact that, on most nights of the week, you can go to 44th Street and stand on the sidewalk at a distance and watch part of a Broadway number for free? Huge plus.
Jackson: And Sunset is about film. But it’s also like, please don’t do this again. This works now, but we don’t need more.
Best Movable Cube Set Inside a Set
English, Dead Outlaw, and Maybe Happy Ending all featured impressive multifaceted cube- or rectangular-shaped sets that moved.
Jason: I’d give it to English because it’s the only one that also functions as a sundial. It tells you what time it is by where the Sun is in the window.
Rebecca: I hate to say it — because I keep making it a Maybe Happy Ending sweep — but those sets made my jaw drop. The way those cubes move around!
Jackson: The Dead Outlaw one is fun. It feels like you’re watching a garage band. I appreciate that the paintings on the wall make it look like you’re in an Elks lodge in Omaha.
Rebecca: And contained within that set is this extremely sexy guitarist in a vest.
Best Individual Costume Pieces
Many accessories continued to enchant us long after curtain call, including the gowns designed to mimic the characters’ wounds in Death Becomes Her; the cartoon underwear in Oh, Mary!; the chaperone hats in Oh, Mary!; the cornstarch blood in Sunset Blvd.; The Betty Boop pants on Trisha in Boop! The Musical; Darren Criss’s high-waisted pants in Maybe Happy Ending; and Jonathan Groff’s Speedo in Just in Time.
Jason: Honestly, I’m going Jonathan Groff’s Speedo. It informed my perception of both the character and the actor — that’s impressive for one article of clothing. Jonathan Groff would like you to know how much he works out, and I learned that from the Speedo.
Rebecca: While I would have loved to give it to Speedo, unfortunately that led to a snub of Speedo’s castmate Fedora. Fedora is very important. But I’ll give it to the Oh, Mary! underpants because there’s only a flash of them. But the fact that they’re big white bloomers with cartoon red hearts — that’s the extra little detail that signals the exact sensibility that was put into this show.
Jackson: I’ll go with the wounds in the gowns in Death Becomes Her because they’re just very fun. I appreciate that they continue to iterate on that bit whenever they do public appearances. I hope they show up to the Tonys in the same designs.
Best Campaign for a Best Actress Nominee
The road to a Tony takes place on- and offstage, and even a bitter feud can sway opinion. Here’s who caught our eye: Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard (as a duo) for Death Becomes Her; Patti LuPone for Nicole Scherzinger in Sunset Blvd. (intentional); Patti LuPone for Audra McDonald in Gypsy (unintentional); Jasmine Amy Rogers for Boop! The Musical; and Hannah Solow, also for Boop! The Musical.
Jason: For me, it’s Patti for Audra because it was unintentional. Patti for Nicole was an intentional thing where she wanted to say Nicole deserved to win, as opposed to Patti for Audra, which seems to have congealed an industry behind Audra that had gotten maybe a little bored of awarding her, and she might actually win because of it. I think it is the most successful campaign.
Rebecca: I love that, but I want to go with Megan and Jennifer as one. There were so many shows this year that tried to cater to hip young folks (Romeo + Juliet, John Proctor), and the one that managed to explode on TikTok is purely riding on the old-school camp star power of these two! How fun.
Jackson: I think Jasmine Amy Rogers’s “I’m just happy to be here” campaign is kind of impressive in that it’s just her being like, “Well, I’m Boop!” It’s almost not even a campaign as much as it’s “Oh shucks, what the hell!”
The Special Lempicka Award
The Lempicka Award honors the show each year that is most akin to the beloved flop musical Lempicka — i.e., a story of women’s empowerment that includes a lot of belting and some crazy set pieces and is also not very good.
Rebecca: I’ve never seen a more Lempicka show than Redwood, and that includes Lempicka.
Demon Twink of the Year
Here’s looking at you, James Scully as Mary’s teacher in Oh, Mary!; Sarah Snook as Dorian Gray in The Picture of Dorian Gray; Louis McCartney as Henry Creel in Stranger Things; Hagan Oliveras as Lee in John Proctor Is the Vilain; Kevin Csolak as Tulsa in Gypsy; and David Greenspan (lifetime eligibility).
Demon Twinks already win so much and give so little back to their communities other than bony asses, bad attitudes, and Addison Rae platforming that the committee is taking a stand against its own award and choosing to forgo picking a winner.