2024 Tony Awards: Daniel Radcliffe, ‘The Outsiders’ and ‘Stereophonic’ win big as women make strides

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe cemented his stage career pivot by winning featured actor in a musical, while The Outsiders, a gritty adaptation of the classic young adult novel, won the Tony Award for Best New Musical on a night when women made strides

The Outsiders, a gritty adaptation of the classic young adult novel, became the essence of a Broadway insider on Sunday, winning the Tony Award for best new musical on a night when women made strides.

The musical based on the beloved S. E. Hinton book is about rival gangs of haves and have-nots in 1960s Oklahoma. The win meant Angelina Jolie, a producer, landed her first Tony, too.

Producer Matthew Rego, in his acceptance speech, thanked Hinton, in the audience at Manhattan’s Lincoln Center: “Susie, I’m here to tell you that your story and its eternal message of love and family and staying gold has forever changed all of our lives.”

Stereophonic, the play about a Fleetwood Mac-like band recording an album over a turbulent and life-changing year, won best new play and had the night’s most total awards at five. It was written by David Adjmi, with songs by former Arcade Fire member Will Butler.

“Oh, no. My agent gave me a beta blocker, but it’s not working,” Adjmi said. He added the play took 11 years to manifest.

“This was a very hard journey to get up here,” he said. “We need to fund the arts in America.”

Two special guests electrified the crowd — Jay-Z and Hillary Rodham Clinton. The latter, a producer of a musical about suffragettes, presented Suffs.