Tony Awards offer many intriguing matchups in a star-studded season

NEW YORK -- A pair of singing androids. Two Pulitzer Prize-winning plays. A drunken Mary Todd Lincoln. A musical with a corpse as its hero. Romeo, Juliet and teddy bears with rave music. Not to mention George Clooney.

Broadway has had a stuffed season with seemingly something for everyone and now it's time to recognize the best with the Tony Awards, hosted by Cynthia Erivo, set for Sunday night on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.

Broadway buzz is usually reserved for musicals but this year the plays — powered by A-list talent — have driven the conversation. There's Clooney in “Good Night, and Good Luck,” Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal in “Othello,” Sarah Snook in a one-woman version of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and her “Succession” co-star Kieran Culkin and Bob Odenkirk in “Glengarry Glen Ross.” (Clooney, Snook and Odenkirk are nominated for Tonys.)

There were two Pulitzer winners — 2024 awardee “English” and “Purpose” from 2025 — but perhaps one of the season's biggest surprises was “Oh, Mary!,” Cole Escola’s irreverent, raunchy, gleefully deranged revisionist history centered on Mary Todd Lincoln. All three are nominated for best play, along with “John Proctor is the Villain” and “The Hills of California.”

On the musical side, three options seem to be in the mix for the top prize: “Maybe Happy Ending,” a rom-com about a pair of androids; “Dead Outlaw,” about an alcoholic drifter whose embalmed body becomes a prized possession for half a century; and “Death Becomes Her,” the musical satire about longtime frenemies who drink a magic potion for eternal youth and beauty. “Maybe Happy Ending,” “Death Becomes Her” and another musical nominee, “Buena Vista Social Club,” lead nominations with 10 apiece.

The 2024-2025 season took in $1.9 billion, making it the highest-grossing season ever and signaling that Broadway has finally emerged from the COVID-19 blues, having overtaken the previous high of $1.8 billion during the 2018-2019 season.

“We’re going through this strange period, which I would think someday we can draw the line from COVID to this, as you can draw the line from the early 1980s with AIDS to the explosion of big musicals again,” says Harvey Fierstein, who will get a special Tony for lifetime achievement.

Audra McDonald, the most recognized performer in the theater awards’ history, could possibly extend her Tony lead. Already the record holder for most acting wins with six Tonys, McDonald could add to that thanks to her leading turn in an acclaimed revival of “Gypsy.” She has to get past Nicole Scherzinger, who has been wowing audiences in “Sunset Blvd.”

And Kara Young — the first Black female actor to be nominated for a Tony Award in four consecutive years — could become the first Black person to win two Tonys consecutively, should she win for her role in the play “Purpose.”

Other possible back-to-back winners include director Danya Taymor, hoping to follow up her 2024 win with “The Outsiders” with another for “John Proctor Is the Villain,” and “Purpose” playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, who won last year with “Appropriate.”

Other possible firsts include Daniel Dae Kim, who could become the first Asian winner in the category of best leading actor in a play for his work in a revival of “Yellow Face.” And Marjan Neshat and her “English” co-star Tala Ashe could become the first female actors of Iranian descent to win a Tony.

Broadway this season saw a burst in alt-rock and the emergence of stories of young people for young people, including “John Proctor is the Villain” and a “Romeo + Juliet” pitched to Generation Z and millennials.

Sunday's telecast, as usual, will have a musical number for each of the shows vying for the best new musical crown, as well as some that didn't make the cut, like “Just in Time,” a musical about Bobby Darin, and “Real Women Have Curves.” This year, there's also room for “Hamilton,” celebrating its 10th year on Broadway. But the musicals “BOOP! The Betty Boop Musical” and “SMASH” didn't get slots.

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For more coverage of the 2025 Tony Awards, visit https://apnews.com/hub/tony-awards.