At the 73rd annual ceremony, Ali Stroker has become the first wheelchair user to win a Tony Award.
The actress, who lost the use of her legs in a car accident when she was two years old, won Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her role as Ado Annie in the revival of Oklahoma!. In her acceptance speech, she dedicated her award to ‘every kid who is watching tonight who has a disability, who has a limitation or a challenge, who has been waiting too see themselves represented in this arena’.
The biggest winner at the ceremony, hosted by James Corden, was the musical Hadestown, which tells a version of the Ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Euridice and is based on an album of the same name by Anaïs Mitchell. It won eight awards, including Best Musical, Best Original Score and Best Direction of a Musical. Rachel Chavkin highlighted in her acceptance speech that she was in fact the only female director on Broadway this season, and that ‘there are so many women who are ready to go. There are so many artists of colour who are ready to go.’
The most successful play of the night was The Ferryman, which picked up four awards including Best Play and Best Direction of a Play.
Other winners included Bryan Cranston, who won Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for Network, and Stephanie J. Block, who won Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for The Cher Show.
The full list of winners can be found here.
Watch James Corden opening the show:
