Are you ready for this year’s Tony Awards? This celebration of Broadway excellence airs Sunday, June 7 on CBS, and will feature live performances, emotional speeches, and (witty) commentary from hosts Kristin Chenoweth and Alan Cumming. Now in its 69th year, the New York-based awards ceremony has a rich history of building up the Great White Way. Here are six facts you may not know about the annual Tony Awards!
“Tony” was a woman.
The American Theatre Wing named the original 1947 awards after actor and director Antoinette Perry, a beloved co-founder of the organization who passed away in 1946. The director and producer of numerous successful Broadway plays (including the 1944 production of “Harvey”), Perry’s legacy of excellence in live theater is continuously celebrated with each year’s Tony ceremony.
The first live national broadcast was in 1967.
The Tony Awards were first recorded for local television as early as 1956, but it wasn’t until 1967—20 years after the first official awards—that the program reached a national audience via telecast. Last year, over 7 million viewers tuned in to CBS to watch Hugh Jackman host the 68th Tony Awards.
The Tony statuette was designed through a contest.
The American Theatre Wing first started giving out the famous statuettes in 1949, after the United Scenic Artists designers’ union held a contest to design the award. Art director (and Oscar winner) Herman Rosse created the winning model, a circular medallion featuring drama masks on one side and Antoinette Perry’s image on the other that is still in use today.
The number of awards has more than doubled since 1947.
While the first Tony Awards nominated productions in 11 different categories, this year’s ceremony will feature 26 competitive awards, as well as a few non-competitive honors. Notably, the best director award was split into best director of a play” and best director of a musical in 1960, and the best special theatrical event Tony, created in 2001 for performances not easily defined as play or musical, was retired in 2009.
It’s not just for Broadway.
While the competitive segment of the Tony Awards does focus on Broadway theater, the annual Regional Theatre Tony Award honors organizations across the country that exemplify great American theater. Previous winners include D.C.’s Arena Stage (the first recipient in 1976), La Jolla Playhouse (1993), and Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre (2007). This year’s winner? Cleveland Play House in Northeast Ohio.
It honors great acting teachers.
The Tony Awards and Carnegie Mellon University teamed up to create the excellence in theatre education award, a celebration of great theater teachers across the United States. Educators are nominated by former or current students (or other artists whose lives they’ve touched), and the winner will be awarded a $10,000 cash prize for his or her school. The 2015 honoree and finalists will be announced during the June 7 Tony telecast.
See Broadway history unfold! Watch the Tony Awards telecast live, Sunday June 7 on CBS.
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