Tony Awards telecast makes inclusive history and puts on quite a show despite Hollywood strike

The intimate, funny-sad musical Kimberly Akimbo nudged aside splashier rivals on Sunday to win the musical crown at the Tony Awards

The intimate, funny-sad musical Kimberly Akimbo nudged aside splashier rivals on Sunday to win the musical crown at the Tony Awards on a night when Broadway flexed its creative muscle amid the Hollywood writers’ strike and made history with laurels for nonbinary actors J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell.

Kimberly Akimbo, with songs by Jeanine Tesori and a book by David Lindsay-Abaire, follows a teen with a rare genetic disorder that gives her a life expectancy of 16 navigating a dysfunctional family and a high school romance. Victoria Clark, as the lead in the show, added a second Tony to her trophy case, having previously won one in 2005 for The Light in the Piazza.

Producer David Stone credited the musical’s writers for penning a magic trick, calling Kimberly Akimbo a “musical comedy about the fragility of life, so healing and so profound and joyous that is almost impossible.” The musical took home a leading five awards, including best book and score.

Earlier, Tony Awards history was made when Newell and Ghee became the first nonbinary people to win Tonys for acting. Last year, composer and writer Toby Marlow of Six became the first nonbinary Tony winner.

“Thank you for the humanity. Thank you for my incredible company who raised me up every single day,” said the leading actor in a musical winner Ghee, who stars in Some Like It Hot, the adaptation of the classic cross-dressing comedy film. The soulful Ghee stunned audiences with their voice and dance skills, playing a musician — on the run from gangsters — who tries on a dress and is transformed.

Newell, who plays Lulu — an independent, don’t-need-no-man whiskey distiller in Shucked — has been blowing audiences away with their signature number, Independently Owned. They won for best featured actor in a musical.

“Thank you for seeing me, Broadway. I should not be up here as a queer, nonbinary, fat, Black little baby from Massachusetts. And to anyone that thinks that they can't do it, I’m going to look you dead in your face that you can do anything you put your mind to,” Newell said to an ovation.