“Schmigadoon” Makes History Twice as “Death of a Salesman” Rules Tonys

The 79th Tony Awards unfolded at Radio City Music Hall with Pink as host, opening on a Broadway-sized reinvention of her hit “Lady Marmalade” that packed the stage with dozens of performers — among them former host Neil Patrick Harris and Megan Thee Stallion — under a banner of unity. “I’m here to celebrate the hardest-working people in show business,” Pink said as the number landed, setting the tone for an evening thick with records, snubs and surprises.

By the end of the night, most of the history belonged to a single show, and, improbably, to the technology company behind it.

Cinco Paul wrote the book, the music and the lyrics for “Schmigadoon!” by himself, and on Sunday, he carried home every writing-and-show trophy a sole author can claim. “Schmigadoon!” — adapted from the Apple TV musical-comedy series that ran two seasons — won book of a musical, original score and in the night’s final envelope, best musical, finishing with four awards.

That makes Paul only the fourth person in Broadway history to win book and score in the same year his show took the Tonys‘ top prize, a clean solo-author sweep managed before him only by Rupert Holmes with “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” in 1986, Jonathan Larson with “Rent” in 1996 and Lin-Manuel Miranda with “Hamilton” in 2016.

“Schmigadoon!” also wrote a second record book unrelated to its writing. With the show’s Tony haul, Apple became one of the rare companies to win at all four of the major American entertainment ceremonies, what we are dubbing a “studio EGOT,” major wins of Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.

Apple got there with stunning speed. Apple TV launched in November 2019, and the company completed the quartet in roughly six and a half years. The Emmys came first and often, for comedy series including “Ted Lasso” and “The Studio.” The Oscar arrived in 2022, when “CODA” won best picture, and the Grammy landed earlier this year, when Chris Stapleton’s “Bad As I Used to Be,” from the film “F1,” took the prize. The Tonys completed the run.

However, “Schmigadoon!” wasn’t the night’s biggest winner. Joe Mantello’s reimagined revival of “Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman” pulled six statues to finish as one of the most decorated plays in Tony history, tied with “The History Boys” (2006), “Red” (2010) and “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” (2018). The record is still held solely by the seven won by “The Coast of Utopia” in 2007.

John Lithgow took best actor in a play for his work as Roald Dahl in “Giant,” and in doing so opened the longest gap between competitive acting Tony wins in the awards’ history at 53 years. He also became the oldest male acting winner in history.

While that meant “Salesman” star Nathan Lane went home empty-handed, his co-star was able to find love. In winning for Linda Loman, Laurie Metcalf turned Willy’s long-suffering wife into a two-time Tony-winning role — the same part that brought Elizabeth Franz the featured actress in a play prize in 1999. It marks Metcalf’s third competitive acting Tony, after back-to-back wins in 2017 (“A Doll’s House, Part 2,” lead) and 2018 (“Three Tall Women,” featured).

Here are some of Variety’s snubs and surprises.

Surprise: Ali Louis Bourzgui beats the veterans.

Bourzgui won featured actor in a musical for “The Lost Boys,” taking the prize on his first career nomination for his turn as David, the glam-punk leader of the film-turned-musical’s vampire biker gang. At 26, he is the youngest acting nominee in this year’s class, he delivered — by my measure — the best speech of the night by anyone. And he denied 80-year-old André De Shields a sentimental second Tony.

Snub: The Tonys pass over “Two Strangers” entirely.

“Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York),” a heartfelt and frequently hilarious teeny-tiny West End import, drew a respectable run of nominations and converted none of them. In a season where “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” “The Lost Boys,” “Ragtime” and “Schmigadoon!” soaked up both the top-line races and the craft categories, the little show that could never found a lane.

Surprise: “Ragtime” wins sound design.

Kai Harada arrived in sound design of a musical with a rare double bid, for the dueling revivals “Ragtime” and “Cats: The Jellicle Ball.” The smart money held that if either of his entries landed, it would be the flashier “Cats,” and plenty of handicappers favored “The Lost Boys” or “Schmigadoon!” to take the category outright. Instead, it went to Harada for “Ragtime,” his second Tony in the category after “The Band’s Visit” in 2018. A charming moment during the Act One telecast, Harada realized he had no idea which of his two nominations had just won. “Thank you to — you know, I didn’t even hear which nomination I won for,” he began. Presenter Laura Benanti supplied the answer, and Harada rolled with it. With that settled, he carried on, finally sure he was thanking the right artisans and creative team.

Snub: “Titaníque” sinks.

The Céline Dion-fueled parody had its share of admirers, and its triple-nominated multi-hyphenate Marla Mindelle became one of the few women ever recognized in a single season for best musical, lead actress and book. But despite a respectable four-nomination showing, there was little room to break through. With “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” “The Lost Boys” and “Schmigadoon!” dominating both the top-line races and the craft categories, the hilarious romp never found a viable path to a Tony-winning moment.

Surprise: Alden Ehrenreich’s debut beats the odds.

Ehrenreich took home his first Tony, for featured actor in a play in “Becky Shaw,” beating a deep field that included Christopher Abbott (“Death of a Salesman”), Danny Burstein (“Marjorie Prime”) and Richard Thomas (“The Balusters”). The screen actor — known for “Hail, Caesar!” and as the young Han Solo of the “Star Wars” universe — needed only one trip to Broadway to claim it, as Max, the caustic center of Gina Gionfriddo’s dark comedy.

Surprise: “Ragtime” and “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” split the big prizes.

For much of the night, it looked as if “Cats: The Jellicle Ball” might convert its tech haul and its directing win into best musical revival. In the end, it was “Ragtime” that took the leading-acting races — Joshua Henry, finally a winner on his fourth nomination after “The Scottsboro Boys,” “Violet” and “Carousel,” and Caissie Levy, claiming her first, and rode that momentum to the revival crown, leaving “Jellicle” a life short (which Variety predicted). However, best direction of a musical went to the duo of Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch for “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” their ballroom reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s warhorse. Matching Trevor Nunn’s win for the original “Cats” in 1983, Levingston and Rauch became only the fourth pair of co-directors ever to share the prize.