The Tony Awards Administration Committee met for the fourth and final time during 2025-26 Broadway season to determine the eligibility status of 13 Broadway productions ahead of the 2026 Tony Awards.
The productions discussed today were: Becky Shaw, Cats: The Jellicle Ball, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Titaníque, The Fear of 13, Proof, Fallen Angels, Schmigadoon!, The Balusters, Beaches, A New Musical, Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show, August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, and The Lost Boys.
The committee made the following determinations:
Becky Shaw will be considered eligible in the Best Revival of a Play category. Gina Gionfriddo will be considered eligible as author.
Andrew Lloyd Webber, David Wilson, Trevor Holder, and Doug Schadt will be considered eligible in the Best Orchestrations category for Cats: The Jellicle Ball.
Laurie Metcalf will be considered eligible in the Best Featured Actress in a Play category for Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.
Christopher Abbott will be considered eligible in the Best Featured Actor in a Play category for Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.
Marla Mindelle will be considered eligible in the Best Lead Actress in a Musical category for Titaníque.
Don Cheadle will be considered eligible in the Best Featured Actor in a Play category for Proof.
Cinco Paul will be considered eligible in the Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre category for Schmigadoon!.
Alex Brightman will be considered eligible in the Best Lead Actor in a Musical category for Schmigadoon!.
Sara Chase will be considered eligible in the Best Lead Actress in a Musical category for Schmigadoon!.
Anika Noni Rose will be considered eligible in the Best Lead Actress in a Play category for The Balusters.
Jessica Vosk will be considered eligible in the Best Lead Actress in a Musical category for Beaches, A New Musical.
Kelli Barrett will be considered eligible in the Best Lead Actress in a Musical category for Beaches, A New Musical.
James Noone (Scenic Design) and David Bengali (Video Design) will be considered jointly eligible in the Best Scenic Design of a Musical category for Beaches, A New Musical.
Luke Evans will be considered eligible in the Best Lead Actor in a Musical category for Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show.
Andrew Durand will be considered eligible in the Best Lead Actor in a Musical category for Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show.
Stephanie Hsu will be considered eligible in the Best Lead Actress in a Musical category for Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show.
LJ Benet will be considered eligible in the Best Lead Actor in a Musical category for The Lost Boys.
All other eligibility will be consistent with the opening night credits.
The biggest surprise of these decisions is the eligibility of Schmigadoon! in the Original Score category. To qualify for this race, a show must attest that at least 50% of its musical score is original material created for the Broadway production. Much of the music in Schmigadoon! first debuted in Season 1 of the Apple TV series. However, it’s not just brand new songs that qualify for original material; the ruling also takes into account new individual lyrics, bars of music, and underscoring. Composer Cinco Paul was able to show that he had enough new material to make the cut and Schmigadoon! should now be a major threat in a category that was seriously lacking in actual musical productions.
Over on the acting front, the Tony Administration Committee broke precedent by considering Andrew Durand and Stephanie Hsu as lead performers in The Rocky Horror Show, alongside Luke Evans as Dr. Frank-N-Furter. The pair play Brad and Janet, who are traditionally eligible for the featured acting races, as Jarrod Emick and Alice Ripley were for the 2000 revival. Durand’s entrance into the Lead Actor in a Musical race is particularly important because there are now nine eligible contenders which is just enough to increase the number of guaranteed nominees from four to five.
There are a number of other performers making category switches. The entire casts of Becky Shaw and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone are billed below the title in the opening night Playbill, and no decision was made to differentiate their Tony eligibility from their billing. Therefore, Joe Turner stars Cedric the Entertainer and Taraji P. Henson will compete in the featured acting categories alongside Becky Shaw‘s Madeline Brewer and Alden Ehrenreich.
Many pundits assumed Tessa Thompson would be considered a lead performer alongside Adrien Brody in The Fear of 13, but the administration chose to honor her below-the-title billing and she will compete for Featured Actress in a Play. In contrast, Don Cheadle received above-the-title billing for Proof due to his stature in the industry, but moved to featured actor based on the fact that he plays more of a supporting role in the show alongside Ayo Edibiri.
Anika Noni Rose is taking the opposite journey by being singled out as the sole lead of David Lindsey-Abaire’s sharp satire, The Balusters. That movie also helps make room for co-stars like Marylouise Burke and Margaret Colin to potentially earn a Featured Actress in a Play nomination.
Nominations for the 2026 Tony Awards will be announced on May 5. This year’s Tony Awards will return to Radio City Music Hall in New York City on June 7, hosted by Pink.
