On the one hand, this ambitious and personal play, first seen off-Broadway at the Roundabout Theatre, is a moving tribute to the big thinkers who got naked in their meetings (which is why the show judiciously locks up the audience’s phones) and to the pioneers when it came to demanding respect in the workplace, building reproductive rights, advancing sexual freedom and demanding equal pay. Not to mention myriad other victories, even while these women often were raising kids and caring for their less-than-evolved husbands.

On the other hand, its continual interrogations are a reminder of successive generations’ endless fascination with baby boomers, not to mention yet another example of Gen Xers and millennials’ weird complexity of feelings about them.

“Why did you make these sacrifices?” the play wants to know. “Did they bring you happiness? Did you abandon your principles when you had kids?” And, perhaps most interestingly of all, “Did you actually liberate anyone beyond yourselves?”

You can also see this play as highly reflective — for obvious reasons — of the current progressive age of anxiety.

Wohl’s authorial mouthpiece, the character Lizzie (Susannah Flood), begins the show by introducing both herself and her mother’s “friends” who form the feminist group that meets inside a high school gymnasium somewhere in Ohio. (David Zinn’s set looks like a functioning school gym.)  She tells us she will be playing her mother (she shares her name), and so she does, taking us inside those 1970s conscious-raising meetings on folding chairs, but also inside her own nagging sense that the country has failed to follow through on the sacrifices of these women — and even has gone in the opposite direction.

“Why?” the daughter Lizzie often interrupts the play to ask. And does that mean her mom’s generation of feminists somehow failed to make lasting, transferable change, even if they achieved some level of emancipation and power for themselves? Was her mom’s problem actually that she fell in love with a handsome guy and left Ms. Magazine to take care of her kids?

That’s a gutsy question for a writer of Wohl’s generation to interrogate, of course, especially since most feminist plays consider some of the matters questioned here to be inviolate truths and the handsome guy in question is Lizzie’s dad (played, with amusing deference to the rest of the show, by Charlie Thurston) who helped conceive her.

Make no mistake, this is a sophisticated piece of writing that goes far beyond the usual 90 minutes on Broadway, and it is cleverly self-protected too: In the opening scene, Lizzie even takes the audience to task for spending Broadway money and still wanting to get out of there as fast as possible. A paradox, she asserts, and she is right.

At times, you feel like Wohl made a list of what other progressives might criticize about both the play and the movement (too rich, white and straight) and then set consciously about fending them all off by writing beyond her own experience. She pulls it off, thanks in no small measure to this formidable ensemble, especially Kristolyn Lloyd, whose performance is the most dynamic of the night.  But there is no question that Wohl, who went to both Harvard and Yale, writes from the perspective of the liberal elite. For example, we never know in which Ohio city the play is set, even though there is much discussion of the excitement of life in New York, San Francisco and Chicago. A Buckeye would have made a different choice, but then Wohl lives in Brooklyn, where Ohio functions mostly as a metaphor for the other America.

So “Liberation” feels aimed more at the women of Park Slope than Cleveland. Then again, that is who likely will be sitting in those expensive Broadway seats (perhaps with their Upper West Side moms), but it does answer one of Lizzie’s questions about the political direction of the world in a way that the play can’t quite admit.

That said, just asking these kinds of questions is rare, especially with this level of humility.  The other great strength of “Liberation” is the potency and humanity of its characters, even if Lizzie struggles to shut up long enough to let them talk. All are adroitly performed under Whitney White’s direction; if there were a Tony Award for best ensemble, it would be wrapped up now by Betsy Aidem, Audrey Corsa, Kayla Davion, Irene Sofia Lucio and Adina Verson, as well as the aforementioned Lloyd and Flood.

If you are of a certain age, you likely will view “Liberation” as an exploration of the questions that have always come to mind as one’s era of political activism recedes and it dawns on a person that successful relationships and kids and partners take even more work, at least until the nest empties out. It’s a version of the “can-you-have-it-all question” to which, alas, the answer is always no. Whoever you are. The advertisers sold you lies. But the theater always has been the right place to wonder, and hope.

“Liberation” pokes fun at long, “male” plays written by the childless, which is a bit of a cheap shot, albeit one that lands with this audience. In reality, it has much in common with those epic lifts, and that’s a compliment. There are certain thematic interests and structural devices in common with Paula Vogel’s “Mother Play,” which is not surprising, but Wohl has such a powerful and enjoyable voice.

She makes everyone care about the questions she has herself and that’s exactly what a playwright should be doing.

At the James Earl Jones Theatre, 138 W. 48th St., New York; liberationbway.com

Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.

cjones5@chicagotribune.com

He later admitted to being surprised by how much he enjoyed it. I found it nearly as exciting, as thrilling as when I first saw the production, from a high balcony seat in the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway in October 2017.

Except that this time, I knew all the words to the songs. (To an obnoxious degree.)

How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean … . 

The way I look at it, you’re either a hard-core fan of the Lin-Manuel Miranda creation, or … you’re wrong.

The proof is in the numbers: the hip-hop musical won 11 Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize for drama after its debut, among dozens of other accolades.

Ayo I’m just like my country, I’m young, scrappy and hungry, I am not throwing away my shot … .

And even after a decade, “Hamilton” (based on a 2004 biography of Alexander Hamilton written by Ron Chernow) is as fresh — as revolutionary — in subsequent viewings to me because, above all, it entertains. Hard.

I remember that after that New York performance, I sat stunned at what I had just witnessed, then being jarred back to my senses by the roar of the standing ovation. Wow.

I’ve been a Broadway series subscriber at the Denver Center for decades, and no other performance before or since has had me so, well, high on the art. When the national touring company performed “Hamilton” at the Buell Theater in Denver in 2018, and again in 2024, I was there. When it came to Disney+ in 2020, of course I got a subscription so I could revisit the magic. (Yes, I used the word “magic” and Disney in the same sentence.)

And every time, I am driven anew to read up on the facts behind the man and the history. Some things you may not know about “Hamilton”:

• It took Miranda about seven years to write the lyrics and music for the smash Broadway musical, and a full year to write one song: “My Shot.”
• Ariana DeBose played The Bullet in the original cast, including the off-Broadway version.
• Hamilton did, in fact, advise his son to not fire his weapon in the duel that led to the 19-year-old’s death.
• George Eacker, who fired that fatal shot, died of tuberculosis two years later, at the age of 29.
• Hamilton and his wife, Eliza Schuyler, had eight children. Their second child, Angelica, suffered a breakdown after Philip’s death and spent the rest of her life in an asylum.
• Miranda earns a 3% royalty every time “Hamilton” is performed. He currently is worth about $80 million.
• Miranda played Hamilton in the musical on Broadway for less than a year, starting with its debut in 2015.
• Despite its popularity, “Hamilton” is not the highest-grossing Broadway show of all time. That honor goes to “The Lion King.”
• Hercules Mulligan, Alexander Hamilton, John Laurens and the Marquis de Lafayette didn’t actually meet at the same time in a pub in 1776, as depicted in the musical. (“Raise a glass to the four of us, tomorrow there’ll be more of us.”) Hamilton met Mulligan three years earlier, and likely was introduced to both Lafayette and Laurens after 1777.
• While it’s hard to tell from “Hamilton,” the American Revolution lasted eight years.
• Aaron Burr was the grandson of theologian and preacher Jonathan Edwards.
• Hamilton did engage in flirtatious correspondence with Angelica Schuyler, the sister of his wife, Eliza. (The cad.)

Are there problems with “Hamilton”? Sure. Critics accused Miranda of downplaying the role of slavery and of glorifying the founding fathers who supported it. While many lauded him for casting Blacks as major characters (Washington, Mulligan, Lafayette, Angelica Schuyler and Thomas Jefferson, for example), others, like Cheryn Hong of The Michigan Daily, said “Hamilton” takes the “talent and music from Black culture to tell a story of white men.”

Historical inaccuracies are also brought up, such as that there is no inkling that Hamilton, who once worked on a slave ship, was actually against slavery at all (in fact, few whites of the time came out against the heinous practice). While the musical implies that he was pro-immigration, his support for the Alien and Sedition Acts (which restricted immigration and citizenship) weakens that argument.

So much for the most humorous line: “Immigrants, we get the job done.”

However, one common complaint is a stretch: that the female characters are only there to support the men. Um, it was the 1700s, remember? (I thought Miranda did his best to give Angelica Schuyler opinions and grit, for what it’s worth.)

The New York Times recently called “Hamilton” “the Broadway hit that coupled hip-hop music with the Founding Fathers — an unlikely pairing that forever changed ticket prices and spurred an era of race-conscious casting.”

Soon, as part of the 10-year celebration, fans can see the musical — recorded with nine cameras and more than 100 microphones, according to The Times — on the big screen as it hits theaters nationwide on Sept. 5.

And I will likely be there. Because, when it comes to “Hamilton” — and taking the liberty (get it?) to paraphrase King George III — I’ll love you ’til my dying days.

NEW YORK (AP) — Even the ushers at Radio City Music Hall seemed thrilled to be in the room where it happened.

A few of them could be seen grooving, like everyone else at Sunday’s Tony Awards, to the “Hamilton” reunion performance — a medley of some of that blockbuster musical’s biggest songs, performed by the original cast. The occasion was the 10th Broadway anniversary of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s juggernaut that spawned multiple touring companies, a West End production and a live-capture film — and is still going strong.

But while the theater was buzzing to songs like “My Shot,” “The Schuyler Sisters,” “History Has Its Eyes on You” and “The Room Where It Happens,” some people were unfortunately NOT in the room where, er, it was happening. They were the ones who’d taken a trip to the bar or a stroll around the lobby, and were then held from entering until the next commercial break — missing perhaps the night’s most anticipated highlight.

They also missed the entire audience singing along with Jonathan Groff, aka King George, “Da-da-da, dat-da, dat, da-da-da, da-ya-da, Da-da, dat, dat, da-ya-da.” Note for next year: Exit at your own peril!

Some other notable moments from Tony night:

Cole Escola plans a call to Mom, thanks a Grindr date

Most award winners thank Mom, their agents, their co-stars and their spouses.

Cole Escola, one of the major stars of this Tony night, promised Mom a call, but also decided to thank “Teebo from Grindr” — the dating app — when accepting the award for lead actor in a play.

Escola is star and writer of the riotous “Oh, Mary!” — a reimagining of the life of Mary Todd Lincoln (and her beleaguered husband, Abe) that addresses the question: What if the Lincoln assassination wasn’t such a bad thing for Mary? (Mary wants to be a cabaret star, you see.) The show is seeing audiences collapse in laughter for 80 minutes every night on Broadway.

Escola, a downtown cabaret star, beat out high-wattage competitors like George Clooney and Daniel Dae Kim for the acting award. They mentioned their co-nominees in their speech, saying they had enjoyed sharing “warm salads” at pre-awards lunches.

Escola is the first nonbinary actor to win a Tony in the category.

And this guy’s still single

When “Maybe Happy Ending” writers Hue Park and Will Aronson accepted the award for best book of a musical, the first handed out, Park felt it necessary to point out that they weren’t an actual couple. “I am very much single,” he clarified, for anyone wondering.

Then later, when the duo won for best score, Park deemed a reminder necessary: “By the way, I’m still single.”

And then at the end of the night, “Maybe Happy Ending,” the charming and quirky romance between decommissioned robots in a futuristic Korea, won the big prize: best musical. Park did not get the mic. But producer Jeffrey Richards did, and he reminded the crowd: “Hue is still single.”

Broadway as home, sweet home

Cynthia Erivo, the “Wicked” star and powerhouse vocalist hosting the evening, said it first: “As they apparently say in a very fertile piece of intellectual property,” she said with a wink, “there’s no place like home. And Broadway has always been mine.”

It’s a familiar theme on Tony night: the theater community as a welcoming haven for those who may feel different or unseen. It was echoed by Harvey Fierstein, winner of a lifetime achievement award, describing how he joined the theater after being welcomed by a company in Brooklyn. And it was expressed very emotionally by Nicole Scherzinger, winning best actress in a musical for “Sunset Blvd.”

“Growing up, I always felt like I didn’t belong,” said Scherzinger, former lead singer of the pop group Pussycat Dolls who plays Norma Desmond in the minimalist version of the Andrew Lloyd Webber show. “But you all have made me feel like I belong, and I have come home at last.” Those last words echo the lyrics of one of Desmond’s big numbers, “As If We Never Said Goodbye.”

“So if there’s anyone out there who feels like they don’t belong, or your time hasn’t come, don’t give up,” Scherzinger continued. “Just keep on giving and giving because the world needs your love and your light now more than ever.”

You really COULD have heard a pin drop

There’s always lots of chatter going on during an awards show. But the way the crowd quieted down during Audra McDonald’s powerful, agonized performance of “Rose’s Turn” from “Gypsy” was striking. In the song’s quiet moments, you heard utter silence in the vast room.

McDonald, the Tonys’ most awarded actor, is clearly revered by the theater community, who cheered her with standing ovations. But the award she was up for went to Scherzinger.

‘Succession,’ succeeding again

It’s been two years since HBO’s “Succession” ended, but its stars keep turning up at awards shows — and often winning. Jeremy Strong won a Tony last year and was nominated for an Oscar this year. Kieran Culkin won an Oscar this year and is appearing on Broadway this season, though he wasn’t nominated. And now it was the turn of Sarah Snook — Emmy and Golden Globe winner — to win a Tony.

Snook, who played mercurial sibling Shiv Roy in the series, took the Tony for best actress in a play for “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” in which she plays all 26 roles.

Remembering a friend

Tony winner and musical theater regular Gavin Creel, who died last year of cancer, was a friend to many in the theater community, and was remembered more than once on Tony evening.

During the early pre-show, actor Celia Keenan-Bolger was honored with the Isabelle Stevenson award, for her advocacy work in the arts. She spoke movingly of her deep friendship with Creel and their advocacy work together.

Later, singer and actor Sara Bareilles performed a soulful duet of “Tomorrow” from “Annie,” harmonizing with Erivo, during the memorial segment. That segment ended with a photo of Creel, also a dear friend to Bareilles, who teared up.

Both Bareilles and Keenan-Bolger are involved with the Gavin Creel Fellowship, an initiative that plans to provide $25,000 grants to five emerging theater actors each year.

And she is telling you she’s not going

The final award had been announced by presenter Miranda — best musical to “Maybe Happy Ending” — and the audience started to disperse. But Erivo had another idea.

Riffing on the concept of leaving, she launched into the famous “Dreamgirls” ballad “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” — with rewritten lyrics.

It was a yet another powerhouse performance from someone who has one of the best voices on the planet. The audience stopped dispersing — and started cheering.

For more coverage of the 2025 Tony Awards, visit https://apnews.com/hub/tony-awards.

NEW YORK (AP) — Kimberly Belflower knew “John Proctor is the Villain” needed its final cathartic scene to work — and, for that, it needed Lorde’s “Green Light.”

“I literally told my agent, ‘I would rather the play just not get done if it can’t use that song,’” the playwright laughed. She wrote Lorde a letter, explaining what the song meant, and got her green light.

Starring Sadie Sink, the staggering play about high schoolers studying “The Crucible” as the #MeToo movement arrives in their small Georgia town, earned seven Tony nominations, including best new play — the most of any this season. It’s among a group of Broadway shows that have centered the stories of young people and attracted audiences to match.

Sam Gold’s Brooklyn-rave take on “Romeo + Juliet,” nominated for best revival of a play and led by Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler with music from Jack Antonoff, drew the youngest ticket-buying audience recorded on Broadway, producers reported, with 14% of ticket purchasers aged 18-24, compared to the industry average of 3%.

The shows share some DNA: pop music (specifically the stylings of Antonoff, who also produced “Green Light”), Hollywood stars with established fanbases and stories that reflect the complexity of young adulthood.

“It was very clear that young people found our show because it was doing what theater’s supposed to do,” Gold said. “Be a mirror.”

Embracing the poetry of teenage language

The themes “John Proctor” investigates aren’t danced around (until they literally are). The girls are quick to discuss #MeToo’s impact, intersectional feminism and sexual autonomy. Their conversations, true to teenage girlhood, are laced with comedy and pop culture references — Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, “Twilight,” and, of course, Lorde.

Fina Strazza, 19, portrays Beth, a leader who is whip-smart and well-intentioned — but whose friendships and belief system are shaken by the play’s revelations.

“You have so much empathy and are so invested in her, but she still has these mishaps and slip-ups that young people often have,” said Strazza, nominated for best featured actor in a play. Some audience members have given her letters detailing how Beth helped them forgive themselves for how they handled similar experiences.

The script is written in prose, with frequent line breaks and infrequent capital letters. Director Danya Taymor, nominated for best direction of a play a year after winning a Tony for another teenage canon classic, “The Outsiders, ” was drawn to that rhythm — and how Belflower’s depiction of adolescence captured its intensity, just as S.E. Hinton had.

“There’s something about the teenage years that is so raw,” Taymor said. “None of us can escape it.”

Classic themes, made modern

During his Tony-winning production of “An Enemy of the People,” Gold found himself having conversations with young actors and theatergoers about climate change, politics and how “theater was something that people their age and younger really need in a different way, as the world is becoming so addicted to technology,” he said.

That conjured “Romeo and Juliet.” The original text “has it all in terms of what it means to inherit the future that people older than you have created,” Gold said.

Building the world of this show, with an ensemble under 30, was not unlike building “An Enemy of the People,” set in 19th century Norway, Gold said: “I think the difference is that the world that I made for this show is something that a very hungry audience had not gotten to see.”

Fans, Gold correctly predicted, were ravenous. Demand ahead of the first preview prompted a preemptive extension. Word (and bootleg video) of Connor doing a pullup to kiss Zegler made the rounds. “Man of the House,” an Antonoff-produced ballad sung by Zegler mid-show, was released as a single. With the show premiering just before the U.S. presidential election, Voters of Tomorrow even registered new voters in the lobby.

Audiences proved willing to pay: Average ticket prices hovered around $150. Cheaper rush and lottery tickets drew lines hours before the box office opened. Every week but one sold out.

“The show was initially really well sold because we had a cast that appealed to a really specific audience,” said producer Greg Nobile of Seaview Productions. “We continued to see the houses sell out because these audiences came, and they were all over online talking about the ways in which they actually felt seen.”

Building a Gen Z theater experience with Gen Z

Thomas Laub, 28, and Alyah Chanelle Scott, 27, started Runyonland Productions for that very reason.

“We both felt a lot of frustration with the industry, and the ways that we were boxed out of it as students in Michigan who were able to come to New York sparingly,” Laub said. Runyonland was launched in 2018 with the premise that highlighting new, bold voices would bring change.

This spring, Scott, known for playing Whitney in HBO’s “Sex Lives of College Girls,” acted off-Broadway in Natalie Margolin’s “All Nighter.”

“I was standing onstage and looking out and seeing the college kids that I was playing,” Scott said. “I was like, ‘I respect you so much. I want to do you proud. I want to show you a story that represents you in a way that doesn’t belittle or demean you, but uplifts you.’”

Producing “John Proctor,” Scott said, gave Runyonland the opportunity to target that audience on a Broadway scale. Belflower developed the show with students as part of a The Farm College Collaboration Project. It’s been licensed over 100 times for high school and college productions. The Broadway production’s social and influencer marketing is run by 20-somethings, too.

Previews attracted fans with a $29 ticket lottery. While average prices jumped to over $100 last week (still below the Broadway-wide average), $40 rush, lottery and standing room tickets have sold out most nights, pushing capacity over 100%. The success is validating Runyonland’s mission, Laub said.

“Alyah doesn’t believe me that I cry every time at the end,” Laub said. Scott laughs. “I just want to assure you, on the record, that I do indeed cry every time.”

Harnessing a cultural catharsis

The final scene of “John Proctor” is a reclamation fueled by rage and “Green Light.” Capturing that electricity has been key to the show’s marketing.

“The pullup (in ‘Romeo + Juliet’) is so impactful because it’s so real. It’s like so exactly what a teenage boy would do,” Taymor said. “I think when you see the girls in ‘John Proctor’ screaming … it hits you in a visceral way.” That screaming made the Playbill cover.

“In my opinion, the look and feel of that campaign feels different from a traditional theatrical campaign, and it feels a lot closer to a film campaign,” Laub said. The show’s team indeed considered the zeitgeist-infiltrating work of their sister industries, specifically studios like Neon and A24.

In May, “John Proctor is the Villain” finished its second “spirit week” with a school spirit day. Earlier events included an ice cream social — actors served Van Leeuwen — a silent disco and a banned book giveaway. For those not in their own school’s colors, the merch stand offered T-shirts, including one printed with the Walt Whitman-channeling line said by Sink’s Shelby: “I contain frickin’ multitudes.”

Julia Lawrence, 26, designed the shirt after the show’s team saw her TikTok video reimagining their traditional merch into something more like a concert tee.

“It’s just so incredible to bring Gen Z into the theater that way, especially at a time when theater has never been more important,” Lawrence said. “In a world that’s overpowered by screens, live art can be such a powerful way to find understanding.”

These and many other questions will be answered on Sunday at the Radio City Music Hall in New York, where host Cynthia Erivo will present the 78th annual Tony Awards (beginning at 7 p.m. June 8 and broadcast on CBS and streamed on Paramount+). The ceremony will be the climax of the 2024-25 Broadway season and the reason that several struggling musicals (“Real Women Have Curves,” “Boop! The Musical”) are hanging in there, hoping for a life-saving boost.

Tony Award voters are casting their ballots. Let’s look at who should be ascending to the dais in the traditional ebullient panic, holding back tears and staring into the camera to tell all the envious theater kids at home how you, too, can have all this if you only fight off the naysayers and follow your dreams!

Right. Down to it.

Best musical

This one will be, and rightly should be, a runaway victory for “Maybe Happy Ending,” a delightfully unnerving musical that most everyone on Broadway underestimated because it was an original love story between two retired South Korean “helperbots.” To my mind, Will Aronson and Hue Park’s quirky, charming little tuner succeeds mostly because of one small but pivotal idea: the notion that a robot’s battery life can be a proxy for human mortality. Oliver and Claire fall in love as their percentages drop. Thus, the show manages to simultaneously tap into the fear we all have of an imminent robotic takeover (oh, it’s coming) while avoiding the problem of making a dystopian musical. By making the robots as vulnerable as us, they forged a charming romantic comedy performed by Helen J. Shen (robbed of an acting nomination) and Darren Criss (who dove deep into robotland).

The competition? Nothing credible. “Buena Vista Social Club” is a very good time, musically speaking, but has a predictably formulaic book. The inventive “Death Becomes Her” works just fine as a campy frolic but it relies much on its source movie. And “Operation Mincemeat” is the most jolly of pastiches, rib-tickling fun all the way. Only “Dead Outlaw” represents truly credible competition and deserves to siphon off some votes. But at the end of the day, it’s a musical about a corpse.

Should win: “Maybe Happy Ending”

Will win: “Maybe Happy Ending”

Best play

There were two excellent, Tony-worthy new plays in this Broadway season: Jez Butterworth’s “The Hills of California,” set in the British working-class resort of Blackpool, and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ “Purpose,” both a high-style dissection of the dysfunctional family of the civil rights icon Jesse Jackson and a moving exploration of what it’s like to be an introverted kid in a high-pressure family.

“Purpose,” which is still running and more relevant to most Tony voters, is likely to win. But Butterworth’s play forged a complex dramaturgical structure and explored deeply empathetic characters. Its central point? To explore how and why childhood trauma impacts our adulthoods.  Butterworth has been writing plays a lot longer than Jacobs-Jenkins and his experience shows; I wanted the perfectly crafted “Hills” to never end.

Writer Kimberly Belflower’s very lively “John Proctor Is the Villain” might sneak in there, but I think that audiences at this drama about high schoolers studying “The Crucible” are responding more to a brilliant production than to the play itself, which is at the end of the day a melodrama that relies on someone else’s intellectual property. No shame there, but not the equal of the competition and, with much respect, nor is the very smart and potent “English,” a show about ESL students that also leads to an inexorable conclusion matching the playwright’s point of view.

Should win: Either “The Hills of California” or “Purpose”

Will win: “Purpose”

Best musical revival

This category will hinge on how many voters embrace Jamie Lloyd’s cleverly branded deconstruction of “Sunset Blvd.” over George C. Wolfe’s more nuanced approach to “Gypsy.” In many ways, the two leading candidates represent a kind of yin and yang of musical revival.  “Sunset Blvd.” is showy and radical and replaced the gilded excess of the original production with an excess of concept, deceptively minimalist but only on the surface. Wolfe’s “Gypsy” aimed to excise the show of Patti LuPone-like drama. McDonald, who brought her classically trained voice to Rose, saw her antiheroine more as an everywoman and the production responded accordingly, as if Wolfe were trying to say that “Gypsy” was the American tragic musical that few previously understood.

I see the arguments against “Sunset Blvd.” but in the end, Lloyd’s staging was just so audaciously thrilling that it overcame them for me. As a director, he’s obsessed with film, but then this is a musical about a movie star, so if ever there was a show that could stand such a metaphoric obsession, then here it was.  And although this may seem counterintuitive, I thought “Gypsy” missed the chance to stage this title with far more Black actors, allowing it to serve as a metaphor for the condition of Black entertainers in early 20th century America. It almost went there, but not quite.

Should win: “Sunset Blvd.”

Will win: “Gypsy”

Best play revival

This was not a stellar season for play revivals. “Romeo + Juliet,” a pretentious and wildly uneven misfire, did not even remotely deserve its Tony nomination and, bracing moments notwithstanding, “Our Town” was uneven and derivative of David Cromer’s prior revival. “Eureka Day,” a piece about pretentious pre-school parents and teachers, was an effective satire but hardly surprising. That leaves David Henry Hwang’s “Yellow Face,” an autobiographical piece about Hwang himself and a “Miss Saigon” casting scandal. “Yellow Face” has knocked around the American regions for years. But this was a truly excellent piece of new direction from Leigh Silverman and for the first time, the play transcended its inside-baseball orientation and had much to say about America and race.

Should win: “Yellow Face”

Will win: “Yellow Face”

Best leading actress in a musical

Team Nicole Scherzinger or Team Audra McDonald?

Both deconstructed iconic characters (Norma Desmond and Madam Rose) using every ounce of their mutually formidable craft. With all due respect to McDonald, I’m Team Nicole because her work was the more radical of the two performances in rescuing Norma from bathetic senility and giving her back her sexuality, and because McDonald’s tragic approach to Rose inevitably de-emphasized her chutzpah and self-aware vivacity which is much of why “Gypsy” is “Gypsy.”  Still, no shame in being on the other team.

It would feel strange for either Megan Hilty or Jennifer Simard to win for “Death Becomes Her” at the expense of the other and I suspect Tony voters will feel the same way. But let’s add some props for Jasmine Amy Rogers, truly a perfect Betty Boop who managed to turn a vampish cartoon figure into a complex and vulnerable heroine.

Should win: Nicole Scherzinger

Will win: Nicole Scherzinger

Best leading actor in a musical

If you judge a performance by pizzazz, charm and growing star power, Jonathan Groff is your winner for his dazzling take on Bobby Darin in “Just in Time.”  If immersion inside a character is your choice, you are choosing between Darren Criss for “Maybe Happy Ending” and Andrew Durand in “Dead Outlaw.” I thought Durand was just astonishing as the titular outlaw, whose corpse takes on an all-American trajectory of its own. Aside from the technical demands of playing a dead dude, Durand also nailed a guy with zero access to his own feelings. In other words, what he didn’t do was probably as important as what he did. I preferred that to Jeremy Jordan in “Floyd Collins”, but I may be in a minority. And Tom Francis, who sings his way through Midtown eight times a week in “Sunset Blvd.,” will have deserved support.

Should win: Jonathan Groff, “Just in Time”

Will win: Jeremy Jordan, “Floyd Collins”

Best leading actress in a play

Mia Farrow has acted only rarely in the past decade but her empathetic performance as a vegan, pot-growing Iowan in “The Roommate” was a reminder of her astonishing ability to fuse what actors think of as externals and internals — her work felt deeply authentic but savvy observers also noted the sophistication of her comic technique and dramatic timing.

Alas for Farrow, this is an extraordinary category and by far the most competitive at this year’s Tony Awards. Take Sarah Snook, whose work in “The Picture of Dorian Gray” had not a single syllable out of place on the night I saw the show, notwithstanding the huge technical demands of a video-filled production that co-starred numerous versions of her recorded self. She’s one of the world’s great performers.

Then there was the less-famous Laura Donnelly, who played a mother and (later) her adult daughter in “The Hills of California,” all in service of the writer’s point that we all eventually have to live the way we were raised. So distinct were these two characters that some punters in my row clearly did not know they were watching the same actress they’d seen in a different role just a few minutes before. Donnelly was at once empathetic and Medea-like in her intensity. We were supposed to be scared of both of Donnelly’s characters and I swear I could not tell you which terrified me the most.

Sadie Sink also has a lot of fans and that was indeed a savvy turn in “John Proctor.” But this competition is between Snook and Donnelly and it was a hard choice for me. Donnelly haunts me the most.

Should win: Laura Donnelly, “The Hills of California”

Will win: Sarah Snook, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”

Best leading actor in play

George Clooney is on the list of nominees and I hardly need to recount his formidable talents, but he was fundamentally filmic in “Good Night, and Good Luck,” rather than truly translating his subtle version of Edward R. Murrow to a stage the size of the Winter Garden Theatre.

So, with an additional nod of admiration to the delightfully quirky Louis McCartney, who managed to survive all of the crashes and bangs of “Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” I preferred Jon Michael Hill, playing a young man born into a famous and famously dysfunctional Black political family even though he just wanted to take photographs and stay as far away as possible from his father and his actions. Hill was the most rooted actor in a stellar Steppenwolf Theatre production of “Purpose.”

But I suspect Cole Escola, the star of “Oh, Mary!,” a silly but strikingly effective satire of Mary Todd Lincoln and her bearded spouse, who will take the prize. No complaints here. Escola hardly was subtle with a guileless, all-in performance that has been packing the house. It’s a one of a kind show and that’s its greatest selling point. But Escola also offers a clever commentary on present-day America, fueled by fun, freedom and frustration.

Should win: Cole Escola, “Oh, Mary!”

Will win: Cole Escola, “Oh, Mary!”

What the Tony nominations got right — and wrong

Best direction of a musical

David Cromer’s work on “Dead Outlaw” was typically detailed and worthy and Christopher Gattelli wrangled “Death Becomes Her” with witty aplomb, but “Maybe Happy Ending” was an eye popping career-high for Michael Arden, who created the most romantic of dreamscapes and yet also insisted that the audience look precisely and only where the director wanted its eyes to be.

Should win: Michael Arden, “Maybe Happy Ending”

Will win: Michael Arden, “Maybe Happy Ending”

Best direction of a play

Speaking of career highs, Danya Taymor convinced her youthful cast in “John Proctor Is the Villain” that the stakes in this high school English class were a matter of life and death. Taymor has to compete with Kip Williams, who employed multiple screens and videographers in “The Picture of Dorian Gray” for what was more conceptual authorship than direction, and with Sam Mendes, whose mastery of the exquisite ensemble cast of “The Hills of California” was formidable. Mendes has won many kudos; most Tony voters will want to reward Taymor, a rising talent. Fair enough.

Should win: Sam Mendes, “The Hills of California”

Will win: Danya Taymor, “John Proctor Is the Villain”

Last, here are my picks for the remaining acting categories.

Best featured actress in a play

Should win: Jessica Hecht, “Eureka Day”

Will win: Jessica Hecht, “Eureka Day”

Best featured actor in a play

Should win: Glenn Davis, “Purpose”

Will win: Francis Jue, “Yellow Face”

Best featured actress in a musical

Should win: Julia Knitel, “Dead Outlaw”

Will win: Joy Woods, “Gypsy”

Best featured actor in musical

Should win: Danny Burstein, “Gypsy”

Will win: Brooks Ashmanskas, “Smash”

Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.

cjones5@chicagotribune.com

NEW YORK (AP) — Twenty-nine shows on Broadway got Tony Award nominations this season, but not all will walk away with a trophy — and the box office attention they usually bring.

Here are some key things to know as Broadway’s biggest night approaches, including how to watch, who is poised to make history, what old favorite gets to take a victory lap and how you can see George Clooney on Broadway from the comfort of your couch.

When are the Tony Awards?

The Tonys will be broadcast to both coasts on Sunday, June 8, from 8 p.m. ET-11 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT to 8 p.m. PT., live from Radio City Music Hall.

How can I watch them?

On CBS and streaming on Paramount+ in the U.S.

Who’s hosting the Tony Awards?

Tony-, Emmy- and Grammy-winner and three-time Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo, the “Wicked” star, will be making her debut hosting the Tonys. She won the lead actress in a musical Tony in 2016 for “The Color Purple” and will have just released her new album, “I Forgive You.”

A pre-show will be broadcast on Pluto TV from 6:40 p.m.-8:00 p.m. ET/3:40 p.m.-5:00 p.m. PT, where some Tonys will be handed out. Darren Criss and Renée Elise Goldsberry will host that telecast. Viewers can access it on their smart TV, streaming device, mobile app or online by going to Pluto TV and clicking on the “Live Music” channel, found within the Entertainment category on the service.

How many awards are there?

A total of 26 competitive categories, from lead and featured actors to scenic, costume and lighting design. Some technical award handouts may be pre-taped and winners won’t appear on the live show, only cut down into edited bits sandwiched into the telecast.

What are the top nominees?

There are three of them: “Buena Vista Social Club,” which takes its inspiration from Wim Wenders’ 1999 Oscar-nominated documentary; “Death Becomes Her,” based on the 1992 cult classic film; and “ Dead Outlaw,” a musical about a real life alcoholic drifter shot dead in 1911 and whose afterlife proved to be stranger than fiction. Each have a leading 10 nominations.

Who is vying for best new play and musical?

For new musicals, it’s “Buena Vista Social Club,” “Dead Outlaw,” “Death Becomes Her,” “Maybe Happy Ending” and “Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical.”

For new plays, it’s “English,” “The Hills of California,” “John Proctor Is the Villain,” “Oh, Mary!” and “Purpose.”

Many of the races are unusually tight this year, the product of a Broadway heaving with shows after having largely rebounded from the pandemic.

“I haven’t seen one nominated show that I haven’t been wowed by. Everything brings something,” says Lowe Cunningham, lead producer of “Death Becomes Her” and also a Tony voter.

“How dare the Broadway community come together with such excellent work,” she jokes. “I needed everything else to be much worse, and I don’t appreciate it.”

Can history be made?

Audra McDonald, the most recognized performer in the theater awards’ history, could possibly extending her Tony lead. Already the record holder for most acting wins with six Tonys, McDonald could add to that thanks to her leading turn in an acclaimed revival of “Gypsy.” She will push the record for a performer to most wins with seven if she prevails on Tony night.

And Kara Young — the first Black actress to be nominated for a Tony Award in four consecutive years — could become the first Black person to win two Tonys consecutively should she win for her role in the play “Purpose.”

Other possible firsts: — Daniel Dae Kim could becomes the first Asian winner in the category of best leading actor in a play for his work in a revival of “Yellow Face.” And Marjan Neshat and her co-star Tala Ashe are vying to become the first female actors of Iranian descent to win a Tony.

A special guest

Normally, shows open for several years don’t get any Tony telecast attention but “Hamilton” is no normal show. The original cast will celebrate the show’s 10th anniversary on Broadway with a performance featuring creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and actors Goldsberry, Ariana DeBose, Daveed Diggs, Jonathan Groff, Christopher Jackson, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Javier Muñoz, Leslie Odom, Jr., Okieriete Onaodowan and Phillipa Soo.

What will producers hope to avoid?

Any repeat of last year, when Jay-Z’s electrifying reunion with Alicia Keys on what appeared to be a live duet of “Empire State of Mind” was actually pre-taped hours before the live show. The appearance by the rapper in support of Keys’ musical “Hell’s Kitchen” turned out to be a piece of Hollywood trickery, undercutting the Broadway community’s full-throated embrace of live singing and dancing.

Broadway’s big season

The health of Broadway — once very much in doubt during the pandemic lockdown — is now very good, at least in terms of box office. The 2024-2025 season took in $1.9 billion, the highest-grossing season in recorded history, overtaking the pre-pandemic previous high of $1.8 billion during the 2018-2019 season.

In terms of attendance, Broadway welcomed nearly 14.7 million ticket buyers, the second best attended season on record, behind only 2018-2019. But sky-high ticket prices have led to fears that Broadway is getting financially out of touch.

A revival of “Othello” with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal broke the record for top-grossing play in Broadway history with a gross of $2,818,297 for eight performances, fueled by some seats going for as high as $921.

How can you get in the mood?

Even if you haven’t been able to get to Broadway this season, you can still see one of the shows. The night before the Tonys, “Good Night, and Good Luck” — starring and co-written by Clooney, a Tony acting nominee — will stream across CNN properties.

For more coverage of the 2025 Tony Awards, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/tony-awards

Every student involved deserves recognition, and you can check out the full list of award winners here. Read on, however, for the evening’s top moments.

One performance, an impossible amount of music

The opening performance featured music from all 29 shows from the participating schools — a seemingly impossible task, according to State Theatre President and CEO Shelley Brown, who co-hosted the show with WFMZ’s Eve Russo.

“The impossible is very possible when everybody believes it can happen, except for me,” she said. “When everybody else believed it could happen, it’s possible, and these young people are going to show you tonight how possible things really are.”

Freddy Awards 2025 at State Theatre in Easton | PHOTOS

To help others

Bethlehem Catholic High School, which performed “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” won the Air Products Education and Community Impact Award for its work to help against human trafficking.

Partnering with the nonprofit Bloom For Women, the school’s efforts included organizing educational sessions for the cast and other students, organizing donation drives for items like clothing and raising more than $1,000 by selling bracelets and flowers during show nights.

“This year’s recipient showed not only creativity but compassion, initiative and heart,” said Laurie Hackett, the community relations director for Air Products.

A Freddy Awards first

The 2025 Freddys gave out its first ever Outstanding Technical Contribution By A Student award to Nazareth Area High School student Lauren Summers for her costume design on “Seussical.”

She thanked her parents “for your unwavering support and for reminding me why I fell in love with this craft in the first place. Since I was 6 or 7, you’ve always encouraged me to design and make things, and that’s brought me to this insane point.”

Red carpet arrivals at the 2025 Freddy Awards | PHOTOS

Together through theater

Thursday’s show saw several Freddy alums return to present awards, including Sean and Alyssa Vanin.

Sean, who acted in “West Side Story” as a senior at Southern Lehigh High School, said, “We won a bunch of Freddys, we won for best outstanding musical, and that’s when [he and Alyssa] met and here we are.”

The Freddy Awards will “take a little credit for that,” Brown said.

When she asked Sean what he’d say to students who don’t participate in the school play, he said, “If you’re looking for a group of kids that are ready to welcome you and make you part of the team and work really hard with you … I mean, it’s hard to find that anywhere else.”

Freddy Awards 2025: Nazareth Area leads with 5 awards. See the full list of winners

See photos from the ceremony below.

See our list of the winners.

Nazareth Area High School’s production of “Seussical,” the musical comedy based on the works of Dr. Seuss, led the way among this year’s Freddy Awards with 5 wins, including for Outstanding Overall Production of a Musical. It also led the nominations with 18.

In second place, Freedom, Northampton Area and Warren Hills Regional high schools tied with 3 wins each.

Nearly 30 schools from Lehigh and Northampton counties and Warren County, New Jersey, participate in the program, putting on spring musicals to thousands of spectators across the region.

Below is the full list of nominees and winners.

Outstanding Technical Design By A Smaller School

• WINNER: Moravian Academy — “The Drowsy Chaperone”
• Allentown Central Catholic — “Shrek The Musical”
• Bethlehem Catholic — “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”
• Hackettstown — “Little Shop of Horrors: Broadway Version”
• Northern Lehigh — “Big Fish: School Edition”
• Northwestern Lehigh — “Pippin”
• Notre Dame — “Anything Goes (2022 Revised Version)”
• Warren County Technical — “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”

Outstanding Technical Design

• WINNER: Freedom — “Nice Work If You Can Get It”
• Bangor Area — “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”
• Easton Area — “Curtains”
• Emmaus — “Mamma Mia!”
• Nazareth Area — “Seussical”
• Northampton Area — “Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical”
• Phillipsburg — “Legally Blonde The Musical”
• Wilson Area — “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”

Outstanding Use of Costumes

• WINNER: Nazareth Area — “Seussical”
• Allen — “Avenue Q: School Edition”
• Allentown Central Catholic — “Shrek the Musical”
• Dieruff — “Hello, Dolly!”
• Parkland — “Les Misérables: School Edition”
• Phillipsburg — “Legally Blonde The Musical”
• Salisbury — “The Hello Girls”
• Whitehall — “Disney’s The Little Mermaid”

Outstanding Performance by a Male Ensemble Member

• WINNER: Dominic Oviedo as Reuben, Bethlehem Catholic — “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”
• Arden Henley as Judah, Belvidere — “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”
• Porter Severino as Bobby Pepper, Easton Area — “Curtains”
• Matthew McCambridge as Pepper, Emmaus — “Mamma Mia!”
• Nick Hidalgo-Schnaars as George, Moravian Academy — “The Drowsy Chaperone”
• Quincy Johnson as General Schmitz, Nazareth Area — “Seussical”
• Noah Shafer as Grandmaster Chad & Others, Southern Lehigh — “Legally Blonde The Musical”

Outstanding Performance by a Female Ensemble Member

• WINNER: Tailisha Montanez Vargas as Lucy, Allen — “Avenue Q: School Edition”
• Fiona Flatt as Madame, Bangor Area — The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• Kamryn Rex as Bambi Bernet, Easton Area — “Curtains”
• Melanie-Rose Wentum as Trix, Moravian Academy — “The Drowsy Chaperone”
• Christina Carlin as Mrs. Mayor, Nazareth Area — “Seussical”
• Lila McConnell as Gavroche, Parkland — “Les Misérables: School Edition”
• Alyse Collier as Scuttle, Whitehall — “Disney’s The Little Mermaid”

Outstanding Small Ensemble Performance

• WINNER: Milo Dominguez, Echo Picone in “Something To Believe In,” Warren Hills Regional — “Newsies”
• Rosalynda Garcia, Ayden Gonzalez, Zoey Lambert, Gustavo Pegan Maldonado, Mayrali Melendez in “Motherhood March,” Dieruff — “Hello, Dolly!”
• Anna Chavolla-Ramirez, Kyra Kelly, Lila Schneider in “Dancing Queen,” Emmaus — “Mamma Mia!”
• Cole Faccinetto, Kiersten Rubery in “Looking For A Boy,” Freedom — “Nice Work If You Can Get It”
• Andrew Bays, Ben Graybeal, Declan Messics, Hana Mohamed in “Thank You For The Music,” Liberty — “Mamma Mia!”
• Cameron Laskosky, Vasilis Motsenigos, Lilianna Schantz in “A Heart Full of Love,” Parkland — “Les Misérables: School Edition”
• Jaelynn Caraballo, Emily Wilson in “Sweet Child,” Whitehall — “Disney’s The Little Mermaid”

Outstanding Use of Choreography and Musical Staging

• WINNER: Warren Hills Regional — “Newsies”
• Bangor Area — “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”
• Dieruff — “Hello, Dolly!”
• Easton Area — “Curtains”
• Emmaus — “Mamma Mia!”
• Freedom — “Nice Work If You Can Get It”
• Nazareth Area — “Seussical”
• Notre Dame — “Anything Goes (2022 Revision)”

Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

• WINNER: Kiersten Rubery as Duchess Estonia Dulworth, Freedom — “Nice Work If You Can Get It”
• Lila Schneider as Tanya, Emmaus — “Mamma Mia!”
• Celia Moutselou as Niki Harris, Easton Area — “Curtains”
• Isabella Scheirer as Vi Moore, Lehigh Valley Academy RCS — “Footloose”
• Ava Noll as Gertrude McFuzz, Nazareth Area — “Seussical”
• Lilianna Schantz as Eponine, Parkland — “Les Misérables: School Edition”
• Emerson Tyrell as Paulette Bonafonté, Southern Lehigh — “Legally Blonde The Musical”

Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

• WINNER: Cole Faccinetto as Cookie McGee, Freedom — “Nice Work If You Can Get It”
• Ayden Gonzalez as Cornelius Hackl, Dieruff — “Hello, Dolly!”
• Declan Messics as Bill Austin, Liberty — “Mamma Mia!”
• Colin Moore as Robert Martin, Moravian Academy — “The Drowsy Chaperone”
• Danny Carroll as Lord Evelyn Oakleigh, Notre Dame — “Anything Goes (2022 Revision)”
• Vasilis Motsenigos as Marius, Parkland — “Les Misérables: School Edition”
• Agidio Poloni as Thenardier, Parkland — “Les Misérables: School Edition”
• Paul luvone as Davey, Warren Hills Regional — “Newsies”

Vic Kumma Award for Outstanding Solo Vocal Performance

• WINNER: Emerson Tyrell in “Ireland,” Southern Lehigh — “Legally Blonde The Musical”
• Jaleil Ward in “Heaven’s Light,” Bangor Area — “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”
• Anessa Rodriguez in “The Winner Takes It All,” Catasauqua — “Mamma Mia!”
• Anna Chavolla-Ramirez in “Slipping Through My Fingers,” Emmaus — “Mamma Mia!”
• Tori Prostko in “But Not For Me,” Freedom — “Nice Work If You Can Get It”
• Adriana Danyluk in “I Don’t Need A Roof,” Northern Lehigh — “Big Fish: School Edition”
• Maansi Birru in “I Dreamed A Dream,” Parkland — “Les Misérables: School Edition”
• Dylan Penyak in “Out There,” Wilson Area — “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”

Outstanding Production Number

• WINNER: Bangor Area, “Topsy Turvy (Parts 1 and 2)” — “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”
• Easton Area, “In The Same Boat (Complete)” — “Curtains”
• Emmaus, “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme” — “Mamma Mia!”
• Hackettstown, “Feed Me (Git It!)” — “Little Shop of Horrors: Broadway Version”
• Nazareth Area, “Oh, The Thinks You Can Think” — “Seussical”
• Notre Dame, “Blow, Gabriel, Blow” — “Anything Goes (2022 Revision)”
• Parkland, “Master Of The House” — “Les Misérables: School Edition”
• Warren Hills Regional, “The World Will Know” — “Newsies”

Outstanding Technical Contribution By A Student

• WINNER: Lauren Summers for Costume Design, Nazareth Area — “Seussical”
• Sarah Jarrett for Scenic Design, Allentown Central Catholic — “Shrek the Musical”
• Alexa Ebeling for Lighting Design, Emmaus — “Mamma Mia”
• Vlada Grudinin for Lighting Design, Nazareth Area — “Seussical”
• CC Williamson-Schneider for Lighting Design, Northampton Area — “Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical”
• Quinten Berryman and Madeline Ligas for Lighting Design, Parkland — “Les Misérables: School Edition”
• Braedyn Zappe for Scenic Design, Whitehall — “Disney’s The Little Mermaid”

Outstanding Performance By An Orchestra

• WINNER: Nazareth Area — “Seussical”
• Easton Area — “Curtains”
• Hackettstown — “Little Shop of Horrors: Broadway Version”
• Northampton Area — “Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical”
• Parkland — “Les Misérables: School Edition”
• Phillipsburg — “Legally Blonde The Musical”
• Warren Hills Regional — “Newsies”

Outstanding Featured Performance by an Actor

• WINNER: Nick Janneck as Dom Claude Frollo, Bangor Area — “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”
• Charles Kenney as Sam Carmichael, Emmaus — “Mamma Mia!”
• Percy Fowler Perlaza as Man In Chair, Moravian Academy — “The Drowsy Chaperone”
• Damon Dellanno as Horton the Elephant, Nazareth Area — “Seussical”
• CJ Hittinger as Moonface Martin, Notre Dame — “Anything Goes (2022 Revision)”
• Ryan Pakzad as Uncle Fester, Saucon Valley — “The Addams Family: School Edition”
• Patrick D’Amico as Emmett Forrest, Southern Lehigh — “Legally Blonde The Musical”

Outstanding Featured Performance by an Actress

• WINNER: Hailey Achey as Miss Trunchbull, Northampton Area — “Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical”
• Ariday Aviles as Georgia Hendricks, Easton Area — “Curtains”
• Hannah Kern as Sophie Sheridan, Emmaus — “Mamma Mia!”
• Grace Bielski as Audrey II, Hackettstown — “Little Shop of Horrors: Broadway Version”
• Hana Mohamed as Sophie Sheridan, Liberty — “Mamma Mia!”
• Ava Semos as Jojo, Nazareth Area — “Seussical”
• Maansi Birru as Fantine, Parkland — “Les Misérables: School Edition”
• Kalla Barrett as Clopin, Wilson Area — “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”

Outstanding Stage Crew

In memory of Capt. Christopher Seifert

• WINNER: Nazareth Area — “Seussical”
• Bangor Area — “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”
• Easton Area — “Curtains”
• Emmaus — “Mamma Mia!”
• Liberty — “Mamma Mia!”
• Northampton Area — “Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical”
• Parkland — “Les Misérables: School Edition”
• Southern Lehigh — “Legally Blonde The Musical”

Outstanding Performance by a Featured Dancer

• WINNER: Hailey Laury as Mrs. Wormwood, Northampton Area — “Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical”
• Julianne Gallagher as Featured Dancer, Bangor Area — “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”
• Kyleigh Whitmire as Vlad Vladikoff, Nazareth Area — “Seussical”
• Ella St. Pierre as Reno Sweeney, Notre Dame — “Anything Goes (2022 Revision)”
• Kristen Lussier as Ballerina Ancestor, Saucon Valley — “The Addams Family: School Edition”
• Abigail Cagnassola as Albert, Warren Hills Regional — “Newsies”
• Liam Coyle as Featured Dancer, Wilson Area — “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”

Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

• WINNER: Audrey Wood as Matilda, Northampton Area — “Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical”
• Rachel Finkbeiner as Esmeralda, Bangor Area — “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”
• Cassie Schleich as Carmen Bernstein, Easton Area — “Curtains”
• Anna Chavolla-Ramirez as Donna Sheridan, Emmaus — “Mamma Mia!”
• Sophia Merker as Elle Woods, Phillipsburg — “Legally Blonde The Musical”
• Jenna Seasholtz as Elle Woods, Southern Lehigh — “Legally Blonde The Musical”
• Echo Picone as Katherine Plumber, Warren Hills Regional — “Newsies”

Outstanding Ensemble

• WINNER: Warren Hills Regional  — “Newsies”
• Bangor Area — “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”
• Easton Area — “Curtains”
• Emmaus — “Mamma Mia!”
• Moravian Academy — “The Drowsy Chaperone”
• Nazareth Area — “Seussical”
• Notre Dame — “Anything Goes (2022 Revision)”
• Parkland — “Les Misérables: School Edition”

lehighvalleylive.com Student Achievement Award

• WINNER: Cecilia Ruyak — Stage Manager, Emmaus — “Mamma Mia!”
• Alexander VandeVeegaete — Vocal Director/Theatre President, Belvidere — “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”
• Lydia Hornbaker — Student Director/Choreographer, Freedom — “Nice Work If You Can Get It”
• Mackenzie Pratt — Stage Manager, Lehigh Valley Academy RCS — “Footloose”
• Ava Trifiletti — Troupe President/Stage Manager/Stage Crew Leader, Nazareth Area — “Seussical”
• Katelyn McElroy — Choreographer, North Warren Regional — “Shrek the Musical”
• Angelena DeMarco — Theater President, Phillipsburg — “Legally Blonde The Musical”

Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

• WINNER: Dylan Penyak as Quasimodo, Wilson Area — “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”
• Charlie Strzelecki as Shrek, Allentown Central Catholic — “Shrek the Musical”
• Jaleil Ward as Quasimodo, Bangor Area — “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”
• David Simon Fortsch as Lt. Frank Cioffi, Easton Area — “Curtains”
• Evan Stitt as The Cat In The Hat, Nazareth Area — “Seussical”
• Samuel Lundberg as Jean Valjean, Parkland — “Les Misérables: School Edition”
• Milo Dominguez as Jack Kelly, Warren Hills Regional — “Newsies”

Outstanding Overall Production by a Smaller School

• WINNER: Moravian Academy — “The Drowsy Chaperone”
• Allentown Central Catholic — “Shrek the Musical”
• Bethlehem Catholic — “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”
• Hackettstown — “Little Shop of Horrors: Broadway Version”
• Northern Lehigh — “Big Fish: School Edition”
• Notre Dame — “Anything Goes (2022 Revision)”
• Wilson Area — “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”

Outstanding Overall Production of a Musical

• WINNER: Nazareth Area — “Seussical”
• Bangor Area — “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”
• Easton Area — “Curtains”
• Emmaus — “Mamma Mia!”
• Parkland — “Les Misérables: School Edition”
• Warren Hills Regional — “Newsies”

Red carpet arrivals at the 2025 Freddy Awards | PHOTOS