2024 Tonys kick off with awards for Daniel Radcliffe, Jeremy Strong, Kara Young and Kecia Lewis
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Alicia Keys electrified the Tony Awards on Sunday, teaming up with superstar Jay-Z on their hit 'Empire State of Mind,' while history was made when Broadway toasted the 11th woman to win the best director crown, Danya Taymor.
Alicia Keys electrified the Tony Awards on Sunday, teaming up with superstar Jay-Z on their hit “Empire State of Mind,” while history was made when Broadway toasted the 11th woman to win the best director crown, Danya Taymor.
Taymor — whose aunt is Julie Taymor, the first woman to win a Tony Award for directing a musical — helmed “The Outsiders,” a gritty musical adaptation of the classic American young adult novel.
“Thank you to the great women who have lifted me up,” she said, adding Angelina Jolie, a producer, among her list.
Keys appeared at the piano on the stage of the David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Centre as the cast of her semi-autobiographical musical “Hell’s Kitchen” was presenting a medley of songs and then began singing her and Jay-Z’s 2009 smash. She then left the stage to join the rapper on some interior steps to wild applause.
Host Ariana DeBose kicked off the telecast with an original, acrobatic number and Jeremy Strong took home the first big award of the night as Broadway's biggest party opened its arms to hip-hop and rock fans.
Strong, the “Succession” star, landed his first Tony for his work in the revival of Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 political play “An Enemy of the People.” The theater award for best lead actor in a play will sit next to his Emmy, Screen Actors Guild Award and Golden Globe.
The play is about a public-minded doctor in a small town who discovers the water supply for the public spa is contaminated but his efforts to clean up the mess pit his ethics against political cowards.
