Tony Awards 2023 live updates: What the WGA strike means for Broadway’s big night

The 2023 Tony Awards are airing live Sunday, June 11, on CBS and Paramount+. Here’s what you need to know:

How to watch the ceremony | Best musical nominees, ranked | Why the audience deserves a Tony

How has the writers’ strike affected the Tonys?

Because of the ongoing Writer’s Guild of America strike, there won’t be an opening number by Lin-Manuel Miranda — or any pre-written witty banter by host Ariana DeBose — but the 76th Tony Awards will air live from United Palace in New York on Sunday.

As the first major awards show to be affected by the Hollywood strike, the ceremony was briefly canceled last month, only to be revived after a group of prominent playwrights — including Jeremy O. Harris and Tony Kushner — lobbied the WGA alongside the Tony Awards Management Committee for a waiver to proceed.

The Tonys are broadcast on CBS and streamed on Paramount+, both companies that the WGA is striking against. But members of the guild have agreed not to picket as long as the show does not feature any scripted bits or commentary. Miranda is not a member of the WGA, but ceased writing his highly anticipated number for the Tonys in solidarity with striking writers.

Many of the playwrights with work being honored at the Tonys are also WGA members who shore up their livelihoods by writing for film and TV, and that crossover led to the possibility that the Tonys could suffer collateral damage from the strike. As did the fact that this year’s Tonys are notably diverse, with two gender nonconforming actors favored to win awards, five nominated plays and play revivals by Black writers, and four Black nominees for best actor in a play.

Broadway — and theater at large — is still suffering fallout from the devastating COVID closures enacted during the height of the pandemic. Ticket sales and attendance have yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels, and many critically acclaimed shows still lose money. The Tonys, which air early in nominated shows’ Broadway runs, shine a spotlight on winners and can boost interest and buzz vital to survival.

“Tony Awards Productions (a joint venture of the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing) has communicated with us that they are altering this year’s show to conform with specific requests from the WGA, and therefore the WGA will not be picketing the show,” the WGA said in a statement last month.

Without a script, the show is expected to rely heavily on the song-and-dance numbers from nominated shows including “Kimberly Akimbo” and “Some Like it Hot;” and winners will likely make a point of expressing their solidarity with the WGA.

— Jessica Gelt

What the Pasadena Playhouse Tony win means

Pasadena Playhouse, the State Theatre of California, has received the 2023 Regional Theatre Tony Award.

(Jeff Lorch )

Producing artistic director Danny Feldman is accepting the Regional Theatre Tony Award for Pasadena Playhouse on Sunday in one of the most remarkable turnarounds for an American theater.

In 2010, the Playhouse filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. When Feldman took over the reins in 2016, the theater was once again in a state of financial peril, with only enough cash to operate a month at a time.

How did he bring the official State Theatre of California back from the brink? By grounding it in the local community, prioritizing artistic excellence and refusing to underestimate the intelligence and his discernment of his audience. Instead of caving to box office fears, Feldman made a commitment to theater as a public forum, a gathering place for collective reflection and a showcase for virtuosity.

The Playhouse launched one of its most ambitious initiatives this year, a 6 six-month long Sondheim Celebration that paid tribute to the late Broadway legend through a series of productions, concerts and community offerings. The lineup included deluxe revivals of “Sunday in the Park With George” and “A Little Night Music” that allowed Angelenos to experience Sondheim with full orchestras and diverse casts that made the greatness of this artist seem at once exalted and accessible.

Feldman has shown that nonprofit theaters can still dream big even when the headwinds are formidable. Who would have imagined that Pasadena Playhouse would have returned from the pandemic stronger than ever? Well, anyone who had seen Michael Michetti’s superb production of “King Charles III,” David Lee’s scintillating revival of “Ragtime” or Mike Donahue’s thrilling resurrection of “Little Shop of Horrors” starring George Salazar and Michaela Jaé Rodriguez.

The Sondheim Celebration has shown what can be done on the grandest scale imaginable Last year’s production of Martyna Majok’s “Sanctuary City” revealed the power of a more modest but no less revelatory theatrical canvas. In a few short years, Feldman has made the once faltering Playhouse not only the best theater in Los Angeles but one of the leading nonprofit companies in the nation.

— Charles McNulty