‘It Felt Like a College Improv Group’: Two Tony Voters Debate Their 2025 Ballots

Stage Whisperer and our anonymous Tonys voters are in agreement: It’s a strikingly robust season for Broadway, one in which 42 new musicals and plays have opened. Simply, there was a lot to keep up with, even for the professionals. Some shows were destined to be cash-grab dirges. Others were just head-scratchingly great. Buena Vista Social Club, Death Becomes Her, and Maybe Happy Ending were awarded the most Tony nominations with ten each, and John Proctor Is the Villain and The Hills of California followed with seven apiece. “It was a real range of quality, substance, and star,” one voter told us about the overall competition. “The crowded marketplace created much more feast or famine than you would in a normal season because there were so many extremes.” Another voter agreed that panning for theater gold — and the costs associated with it — took more patience than usual. “There was a lot to see, it was a little crazy,” they explain. “Every few weeks we would get these emails, like, ‘this broke the box-office record at this theater.’ It’s like, well, yeah. You’re charging $400 for tickets. Of course you broke the box-office record. Give me a freaking break. But I’m glad we had all these shows.”

Unlike last year, when the choices were uneven, both voters were thrilled to note the strength of this season’s performances. “It’s an embarrassment of riches,” one puts it. “I honestly think the leading-actress nominees were the most astounding and best number we’ve ever had.” In anticipation of the Tony Awards airing on June 8, per tradition, these two voters shared their unbridled thoughts and who will likely be making their final ballots.

Best Musical

Buena Vista Social Club
Dead Outlaw
Death Becomes Her
Maybe Happy Ending
Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical

Voter 1: I don’t understand the fanfare, critical acclaim, or nominator acclaim of Operation Mincemeat at all. It felt like a college improv group doing inside jokes. I’m baffled. I thought Dead Outlaw was exciting. It was a uniquely staged and sounding production. I don’t know that I quite understood what it was saying — if it was saying anything else about the world, about a message or a meaning. But it’s highly entertaining and informative, and I thought their story was great and worthy of accolades. Buena Vista Social Club gets applause for its transformation from Off Broadway to Broadway. It did the work and improved greatly, but I don’t see it as a full-storied musical. When I look at the 14 new musicals that opened on Broadway that tell expansive stories with books, characters, and ideas, Buena Vista Social Club doesn’t rise to the top for me, but it’s a good night out. That leaves Death Becomes Her and Maybe Happy Ending. I loved both. There’s an argument to either for getting my votes. If we’re prognosticating, the Tonys tend to go for the more intimate, unique, and artistic show than the commercial show with IP, which would lean Maybe Happy Ending to be the likely winner. But Death Becomes Her has such an artistic and inventive way of thinking of musical theater, despite the IP. It’s done a lot for the art form in taking a cult classic and making a mainstream musical.

Voter 2: This is a fun quintet. You leave all of them with a smile on your face and people want that. One show I was disappointed that didn’t make the cut was Real Women Have Curves. I’m sorry it got so overlooked. I mean, obviously something has to get overlooked, but it had so much heart and was so well done. And also timely with the themes. Right now, it’s between Dead Outlaw and Maybe Happy Ending. I’ve said from the start of this season that it’s going to be the race between those two. They’re both so original. They’re both kind of “out there.” They’re both so funny and have so much heart. A show about robots and a show about a corpse, who would’ve thought? I really love both of them.

Best Play

English
The Hills of California
John Proctor Is the Villain
Oh, Mary!
Purpose

Voter 1: I’m pretty much team Oh, Mary!. It’s so inventive, creative, and entertaining. I’m impressed with its ability to survive this long on Broadway. I think that’s Tony worthy.

Voter 2: This is the second year in a row we’ve had five really good Best Play nominees. People might be giving the edge to Oh, Mary!, but I’m hesitant to give my vote to the play. I don’t know how you don’t vote for English here. English really stuck with me, and I hope it stuck with other voters, because it’s hard when a show’s not running during the voting season. Purpose does have that edge, and Purpose is great. It’s one of those big, messy August: Osage County–style family dramas. The food is flying and the random secrets are being revealed. Lots of gasps — everyone loves that stuff. John Proctor is interesting. It won’t resonate with a certain faction of voters, the older men. It’s definitely pitched toward a specific audience, but that’s what’s great about it and what’s going to help it have a life for years in college productions and regional theaters. But English is really it for me.

Best Revival of a Musical

Floyd Collins
Gypsy
Pirates! The Penzance Musical
Sunset Blvd.

Voter 1: Oh, it’s not a question. It’s Sunset Blvd. all the way. It succeeds in every way a revival should: It’s reinvented and reimagined for this moment. And it’s still heartbreaking and true to its initial intentions, original feel, and tone. Everyone’s giving performances of a lifetime and it’s theatrical fireworks every night. I’ve seen it three times. Gypsy is the greatest musical of all time. I’ll always want it to be nominated for Revival, but this particular version wasn’t my favorite.

Voter 2: Gypsy is more traditional, but it’s still a very bold reinvention. With Sunset Blvd., I went into it sort of going, Okay, I know what to expect, and I was totally blown away. At intermission I was like, This is so insane in the absolute best way. And at the end I was like, This is amazing. I didn’t expect to be sucked in like that. I love that they leaned into the camp. I’m going back and forth between the two shows across the street from each other.

Best Revival of a Play

Eureka Day
Romeo + Juliet
Thornton Wilder’s Our Town
Yellow Face

Voter 1: Eureka Day and Yellow Face were the best productions of these four, but the other two are more “quintessential” revival types, because they’re older texts that were reinvented and exciting in their reinvention — which is what I think a best revival is. Eureka Day and Yellow Face have never had Broadway productions before, but because of a technicality are considered revivals because they had prominent New York productions. I find that odd. So I’m struggling because of the normal way that I tend to vote for revivals, the classic text reinventions, which the other two productions would be. But I thought Eureka Day was a brilliant play, and if this is how I’m able to honor it because that’s what it qualifies for, it gets my vote.

Voter 2: Why is Romeo + Juliet in there? I guess they were like, Okay, we can’t put Othello in there, that was trash, and we can’t put in Glengarry Glen Ross. We can’t reward the blatant cash grabs. To be clear: Othello isn’t good. Not that Romeo + Juliet was great. Othello is just a slog. Also it’s a hard play to sell. It’s a play about killing women — yay! It’s never going to be a good time, but it’s just not well done, which is a shame. I think Eureka Day and Yellow Face are the best ones here. In Eureka Day, there was one scene where the concerned parents are in an online meeting and they’re typing back and forth on a big projected screen. You can see all the conversations and one-liners. It was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my life. People were falling out of their seats laughing. But, Yellow Face, too. I’m a big David Henry Hwang fan, so I might be leaning toward Yellow Face.

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical

Darren Criss — Maybe Happy Ending
Andrew Durand — Dead Outlaw
Tom Francis — Sunset Blvd.
Jonathan Groff — Just in Time
James Monroe Iglehart — A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical
Jeremy Jordan — Floyd Collins

Voter 1: They didn’t flex to six for the women and I think there were some real snubs there, so I’m a little frowned by the men. They all deserve to be there, so I’m certainly not judging that, but it’s really Jonathan Groff and Tom Francis’s year for me. Jonathan is once again giving a performance of a lifetime. He did that last year too, and has absolutely created a joy-fest for that show. No matter how you feel about Bobby Darin and his music, you have to see it because of Jonathan. But Tom Francis is doing an exquisite job at reinventing a classic role in a musical that I don’t recall in the several iterations I’d seen. I was very affected and enraptured by his role. Jonathan won a year ago and this is Tom’s Broadway debut. So I’m voting for Tom.

Voter 2: After seeing Jonathan Groff in Just in Time, I don’t know how he doesn’t win. The best thing about it is that he’s not doing an imitation. He’s like, Hi, I’m Jonathan Groff, and this is my love letter to Bobby Darin. He sings and dances like a dream. It’s just such a complete performance. I know he just won a Tony and people are like, “How do you reward someone two years in a row?” Know your history: Judith Light won for Other Desert Cities in 2012 and then The Assembled Parties in 2013. Now, I do think Darren Criss and Andrew Durand are both really strong contenders. It takes a lot of talent to give humanity to a robot and a corpse. And Tom Francis has people lining up in Shubert Alley every night just to watch him walk through the street and sing the title song. Jeremy Jordan has a lot of fans but I just can’t warm to Floyd Collins.

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical

Megan Hilty — Death Becomes Her
Audra McDonald — Gypsy
Jasmine Amy Rogers — Boop! The Musical
Nicole Scherzinger — Sunset Blvd.
Jennifer Simard — Death Becomes Her

Voter 1: They’re all worthy of being there, but this category is the one that’s missing too many women for me. Am I allowed to vote for someone who’s not listed? The honorary vote would be Idina Menzel for Redwood, who deserves to be there because of the emotional range and the fact she sings and swings her face off. But since she’s not there, Nicole Scherzinger gets my vote. She’s doing a Norma that not only have I never seen but I didn’t know was possible. She elevated the entire story for me to another level because of her transcendent performance.

Voter 2: Well, Audra McDonald. But why are there not six in this category like the men? I’m guessing there might not have been a consensus among the nominators on who the six would be. There were so many eligible leading ladies. Look at who got left out: past winners Idina Menzel, Adrienne Warren, and Sutton Foster. Sutton actually strikes me as the most notable omission because she was doing gymnastics and throwing herself all over the stage in Once Upon a Mattress, but it was a long time ago. Recency bias is very real with the Tonys. That said, all of these five women absolutely deserve to be here. I’m really glad Jasmine Amy Rogers got in there for Boop!. If you have the wrong person in that role, that show just collapses.

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play

George Clooney — Good Night, and Good Luck
Cole Escola — Oh, Mary!
Jon Michael Hill — Purpose
Daniel Dae Kim — Yellow Face
Harry Lennix — Purpose
Louis McCartney — Stranger Things, The First Shadow

Voter 1: I’m leaning to Louis McCartney. What Louis is doing is otherworldly. It’s a performance I’ve never seen on a stage from such a young person. The range and characterizations are extraordinary. The uniqueness is remarkable in how he’s interpreting and playing this boy. I think Stranger Things should have gotten many more nominations than it did, so I want to throw a lot of my weight behind Louis because it’s going to be a fight to the finish. But it’s Cole Escola’s to lose. What Cole is doing on that stage, and the fact that they wrote and conceived it, made such inroads in the theater community for their brand of humor and style of entertainment. Cole is going to run away with it.

Voter 2: There’s no question: It’s Cole Escola. It’s an iconic performance. When I saw it down at the Lucille Lortel more than a year ago, who would’ve thought it would go to Broadway and become this sensation? When I heard it was going to Broadway, I was like, Really? How’s it going to do that? It’s amazing when this little play with this totally offbeat sensibility — a crazy take on Abraham Lincoln and his cabaret-singing wife — makes sense like this. I love seeing how Broadway has embraced the show and has embraced Cole, and there’s no question they’re going to win. George Clooney, once he got good reviews, of course was going to get nominated. But that’s more of a “Thank you, please come back to Broadway again”–type thing. I’m pleased Denzel Washington didn’t get nominated for Othello. I felt like he was just sort of reading the lines at the end. I was like, Well, he got through it. I’m sure it was a hill he wanted to climb.

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play

Laura Donnelly — The Hills of California
Mia Farrow — The Roommate
LaTanya Richardson Jackson — Purpose
Sadie Sink — John Proctor Is the Villain
Sarah Snook — The Picture of Dorian Gray

Voter 1: I’m currently leaning to Sarah Snook. It’s a remarkable performance for a play that I didn’t have great affinity for, nor great knowledge of, and I was completely swept up because of her.

Voter 2: Sarah Snook. How does she do this eight times a week? I was really glad to see Laura Donnelly in there because I loved her performance and I loved that play. But Sarah Snook — what she’s doing every night is on another level. I thought I knew Dorian Gray, but there’s so much depth and so many layers. It was sort of one surprise after another. I guess now I really need to watch Succession.

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical

Brooks Ashmanskas — Smash
Jeb Brown — Dead Outlaw
Danny Burstein — Gypsy
Jak Malone — Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical
Taylor Trensch — Floyd Collins

Voter 1: It’s hard to think anyone will be better than Danny Burstein. It’s his to lose.

Voter 2: I love Danny Burstein and that probably would’ve been where I was going until I saw Operation Mincemeat. All the actors are such chameleons, but when Jack Malone sings “Dear Bill,” the whole audience melts into a puddle of tears. He’s kind of the heart of the show. That song sealed it for me. If David Hyde Pierce campaigned as a supporting actor for Pirates! The Penzance Musical, he probably would’ve won this category. But he’s a lead, so he got left out.

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical

Natalie Venetia Belcon — Buena Vista Social Club
Julia Knitel — Dead Outlaw
Gracie Lawrence — Just in Time
Justina Machado — Real Women Have Curves: The Musical
Joy Woods — Gypsy

Voter 1: Julia Knitel is incredible. I’m leaning toward her. Every time she walked onstage, she captivated me and I was focused on her every detail. She plays multiple characters, but each one was incredibly appealing and different. Then she plays one character more than others, and that character has depth, meaning, and a beautiful voice. I always think about featured actors standing out for me in a show. That’s to me what makes them Tony-worthy — even if they’re not onstage for very long, you miss them when they’re not there and you don’t forget them. That’s how I felt every time she was and wasn’t on the stage.

Voter 2: Julia Knitel for Dead Outlaw. I feel like she’s the calm and center of that wacky, absurdish show, and she has one of the most beautiful songs. Also, I have to say, I’m glad Justina Machado got in there.

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play

Glenn Davis — Purpose
Gabriel Ebert — John Proctor Is the Villain
Francis Jue — Yellow Face
Bob Odenkirk — Glengarry Glen Ross
Conrad Ricamora — Oh, Mary!

Voter 1: I’m a huge fan of Conrad Ricamora’s performance. What he’s doing is so funny, so specific, and so Abraham Lincoln. I can’t imagine another actor playing that role. They got the Glengarry Glen Ross actors wrong, though. If anyone was going to get it, it was Bill Burr. He’s doing exactly what I described when I said what I love about a featured performance: He’s owning that stage, when he’s not on you miss him, when he’s back he’s got you in the palm of his hand, and you’re completely focused on him every time his presence is known. Bob Odenkirk didn’t do that for me.

Voter 2: I think Francis Jue is going to get my vote. It’s the second time he’s played that role in Yellow Face. The first time was almost 20 years ago in the Off Broadway premiere at The Public. He grew even more into it. I’m generally a fan of his, but I loved him so much here. Bob Odenkirk really blew me away, and he’s the absolute standout of that show. I was sort of waiting for Kieran Culkin to get the nomination just because, even though he’s the least Ricky Roma in 40 years of Ricky Romas.

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play

Tala Ashe — English
Jessica Hecht — Eureka Day
Marjan Neshat — English
Fina Strazza — John Proctor Is the Villain
Kara Young — Purpose

Voter 1: It’s hard to think Kara Young doesn’t have, if not the best performance of the year, a very competitive one for Purpose. Marjan Neshat also stood out and is an incredibly memorable piece of English. She’s giving a Tony-worthy performance. I don’t know which of those two has my vote just yet.

Voter 2: Four years, four nominations for Kara Young. Let’s just celebrate that for a moment. Oh, gosh, this is tough. I’m leaning toward Jessica Hecht. I was thinking about Jessica and the speech her character makes toward the end, when she explains why she was against the vaccination. And I was like, Oh, my God, she actually made me sympathetic with the anti-vaxx sentiment. That was such an achievement. No one does that tightly wound matriarch like she does. She’s always so, so strong. I would love to see this be her year.

Best Book of a Musical

Buena Vista Social Club — Marco Ramirez
Dead Outlaw — Itamar Moses
Death Becomes Her — Marco Pennette
Maybe Happy Ending — Will Aronson and Hue Park
Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical — David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, and Zoë Roberts

Voter 1: Death Becomes Her. The book is incredibly strong and elevates the classic source material. Marco Pennette made it a more universally relatable and more enjoyable incarnation as a musical, which is a remarkable accomplishment.

Voter 2: ​​Maybe Dead Outlaw, because it’s such an outrageous story, but I wouldn’t discount Death Becomes Her. I might wind up splitting the book and lyrics and musical. I don’t know if you’ve watched the movie lately, but Death Becomes Her isn’t great. It’s not even good. It’s really creaky and slow. The musical is so clever and fun, and I feel like that’s because of the book.

Best Original Score

Dead Outlaw — David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna
Death Becomes Her — Julia Mattison and Noel Carey
Maybe Happy Ending — Will Aronson and Hue Park
Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical — David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, and Zoë Roberts
Real Women Have Curves: The Musical — Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez

Voter 1: If we’re going off of toe-tapping and palm-slapping, then Dead Outlaw had it for me. The night I saw it, when the band entered onto the stage, they each got their own round of applause. They feel like stars of the show, too. I absolutely think when you focus and center the band in the storytelling, you appreciate them and the music on another level.

Voter 2: Dead Outlaw and Maybe Happy Ending are the ones I still find myself listening to and are the strongest of the bunch. That said, I can actually remember bits of the songs from Real Women Have Curves, which says a lot about the show. When you can actually remember stuff from a show without going to Spotify or YouTube, that’s a real achievement. “Dead” from Dead Outlaw is the catchiest song of the season. I can’t get it out of my head after I listen to it.

Best Choreography

Smash — Joshua Bergasse
Gypsy — Camille A. Brown
Death Becomes Her — Christopher Gattelli
Boop! The Musical — Jerry Mitchell
Buena Vista Social Club — Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck

Voter 1: They’re each using choreography in compelling ways and achieving a high standard. But the most visually compelling physicality and dance was on the stage of Death Becomes Her. There were some really dynamic stage pictures. The choreography moved the story in lots of places. There was high inventiveness and creativity in the movement and the choreography. To put it simply, Death Becomes Her just entertained me the most.

Voter 2: Boop!. It’s old-fashioned, crowd pleasing, tap-as-fast-as-you-can choreography. It’s a little Tommy Tune–esque. I mean that in the best way. Jerry Mitchell knows how to put together a dance show. I’m glad that Camille A. Brown was nominated. Gypsy isn’t necessarily a dance show, but she did some fantastic things like the “Garden of Eden” sequence referencing Josephine Baker. But also, where is Warren Carlyle? Pirates! The Penzance Musical has dancers leaping around on barrels and jumping around on planks. That might’ve been his best work I’ve seen and I’m a little ticked off he was left out.

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