Columbia Theatre-Makers Win Big at the 2025 Tonys
Update:
The 2025 Tony winners were announced last night in a star-studded ceremony, and Columbia producers took home three of the night’s biggest awards. The winners of Best Play, Best Musical Revival and Best New Musical were all co-produced by Columbia alums.
Maybe Happy Ending won not only Best New Musical, but six awards total, the most Tonys of any production this season. Theatre Management and Producing alum Ali Daylami ’24 co-produced the quirky sci-fi musical about sentient robots falling in love as they become obsolete (which also featured the work of several Stage Management faculty members and alums). This is Daylami's first Tony.
Purpose, whose book won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama this year, also took home the Tony Award for Best New Play. Inspired by the life of Reverend Jesse Jackson, Purpose enters the home of a prominent civil rights family for less than 24 hours, where tensions between generations and individuals eventually explode over a dinner table. The show was co-produced by 2013 Prince Fellow Aaron Glick. Glick has won a Tony before—Best Revival of a Play—in 2019 for Boys in the Band, which he co-produced.
Best Musical Revival went to one of the buzziest shows of the season, West End export Sunset Boulevard. Theatre Management and Producing alums Jamie Forshaw ’09, David Manella ’18, and Kate Cannova ’13 co-produced the minimalist retelling of this iconic film noir. The show swept last year’s Olivier Awards, including Best Musical Revival, in its British debut. Manella, who graduated from Columbia’s joint JD/MFA program, also won a Tony last year, for Best Revival of a Musical with Merrily We Roll Along.
These and other shows with Columbia theatre-makers on their teams brought home several more awards, ranging from prizes for best acting to shoutouts for scenic design. See a list of these awards below:
Sunset Boulevard
Best Musical Revival
Best Leading Actress in a Musical for Nicole Scherzinger
Best Lighting Design of a Musical for Jack Knowles
Maybe Happy Ending
Best New Musical
Best Book of a Musical
Best Leading Actor in a Musical for Darren Criss
Best Direction of a Musical for Michael Arden
Best Scenic Design of a Musical for Dane Laffrey and George Reeve
Best Original Score for Will Aronson and Hue Park
Purpose
Best New Play
Best Featured Actress in a Play for Kara Young
Oh Mary! (co-produced by 2024 Prince Fellow George Strus)
Best Leading Actor in a Play for Cole Escola
Best Direction of a Play for Sam Pinkleton
Yellow Face (written by Professor David Henry Hwang)
Best Featured Actor in a Play for Francis Jue
Buena Vista Social Club (directed by Saheem Ali ’07 and lead-produced by 2006 Prince Fellow Orin Wolf)
Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Natalie Venetia Belcon
Best Choreography for Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck
Best Orchestrations for Marco Paguia
Best Sound Design of a Musical for Jonathan Deans
Stranger Things: The First Shadow (executive-produced by Thomas Swayne ’20)
Best Scenic Design of a Play for Miriam Buether and 59
Best Lighting Design of a Play for Jon Clark
Best Sound Design of a Play for Paul Arditti
See a full list of 2025 Tony Award winners here.
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Original: May 7, 2025
The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing honored fourteen Columbia writers, directors and producers among the nominees for the 2025 Tony Awards. The ceremony was presented by Sarah Paulson and Wendell Piece on May 1, 2025, at the Sofitel New York hotel in Midtown.
Buena Vista Social Club, directed by Saheem Ali ’07 and lead-produced by 2006 Prince Fellow Orin Wolf, led the night with the most honors, including ten nominations and a Special Tony Award for the musicians who make up the musical’s band. Ali’s direction earned him a nod for Best Direction of a Musical, his second Tony nomination for directing. The production also received a nomination for the coveted award, Best New Musical.
Other contenders in the Best New Musical category include Dead Outlaw, co-produced by Theatre Management and Producing alum Thomas Swayne ’20 and 2021 Prince Fellow Lawryn LaCroix; and Maybe Happy Ending, co-produced by Theatre Management and Producing alum Ali Daylami ’24. Swayne also executive produced the prequel play Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which brought in five nominations and earned a Special Tony Award for Illusions and Technical Effects.
Three Columbia-led productions were nominated for Best New Play. John Proctor Is the Villain was co-produced by Theatre Management and Producing alums Jen Hoguet ’12 and Steve Dow ’09. Oh, Mary! was co-produced by 2024 Prince Fellow George Strus. Purpose, which just won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, was co-produced by 2013 Prince Fellow Aaron Glick.
Yellow Face, written by Professor David Henry Hwang, was nominated for Best Play Revival. Hwang was recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Dramatists Guild for his contributions to theatre.
Theatre Management and Producing alums David Manella ’18 and Kate Cannova ’13 were nominated for buzzy productions in both Best Play Revival and Best Musical Revival. They co-produced the Gen-Z-coded, Jack Antonoff-soundtracked revival of Romeo+Juliet as well as the bold, minimalist revival of Sunset Boulevard, which they co-produced with fellow Theatre Management and Producing alum Jamie Forshaw ’09. Sunset Boulevard tied for the most nominations of any musical.
LaCroix also pulled a second nomination for co-producing Gypsy, which will compete with Sunset Boulevard for Best Musical Revival. 2022 Front Row Fellow Lamar Richardson CC ’15 and 2022 Prince Fellow Jamila Ponton Bragg also co-produced the iconic musical.
Numerous Columbia professors, students and alumni were involved in nominated productions. To read more about their contributions, check out our Theatre News Feed. Please send any tips to us at [email protected].
The 2025 Tony Awards will be hosted at Radio City Music Hall on June 8, 2025, starting at 8 pm EST. Oscar nominee and Tony Award winner Cynthia Erivo will be presenting. The full list of 2025 Tony Award nominees can be found here.