Ariana DeBose Returning to Host the 2024 Tony Awards for the Third Year in a Row
"I couldn't pass up the chance," said the Oscar winner and stage vet, who will also produce the theater honors and choreograph the opening number
Ariana DeBose is pulling a Tony Awards hat trick.
For the third time in a row, the stage actress and Oscar winner will host the honors, which recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre.
The 2024 Tony Awards, the 77th annual in the show's history, will air live from the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City on Sunday, June 16 (8 p.m. ET) on CBS and Paramount+.
“I couldn’t pass up the chance to host the Tonys one more time at Lincoln Center," said DeBose, who in addition to being the evening's emcee will also serve as a producer for the program and will choreograph the opening number. "I’m excited to collaborate with the team to create an incredible celebration of this season’s achievements on Broadway for our community and for everyone at home."
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DeBose was nominated for a Tony Award for her role as Donna Summer in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical. She made her Broadway debut in Bring It On: The Musical in 2011, and went on to appear in Motown: The Musical (2013), Pippin (2014), Hamilton (from 2015 to 2016) and A Bronx Tale (2016 to 2017).
Her Oscar aside, for playing Anita in Steven Spielberg's West Side Story, DeBose earned an Emmy Award nomination for the 75th annual Tony Awards in 2022.
The Tony Awards are presented by the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing and have been broadcast on CBS since 1978. Nominations for the 2024 honors will be announced on Tuesday, April 30.
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A whopping 15 new musicals opened this season, a historic number as typically there are only half that. The closest that came was in 2017, when the number hit 13.
Fighting it out to be one of the five nominees for the coveted best musical category will be the blockbuster joy ride Back to the Future; the elegant Days of Wine and Roses, starring Kelli O'Hara and Brian d'Arcy James; Harmony, Barry Manilow's original musical 30-years in the making; the Alicia Keys jukebox musical Hell's Kitchen; Here Lies Love, David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's exploration of Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos' rise and fall in the Philippines; and the adaptation of the 2015 documentary How to Dance in Ohio, about a group of teenagers with autism preparing for a spring formal.
There's also Illinoise, inspired by Sufjan Stevens' acclaimed 2005 concept album; Lempicka, a musical about Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka; the Britney Spears fairytale Once Upon a One More Time; the Hillary Clinton and Malala Yousafzai-produced musical about the American women's suffrage movement Suffs; The Heart of Rock and Roll, with a score of Huey Lewis and the News hits; and musical versions of four beloved novels: The Great Gatsby, The Notebook, The Outsiders and Water for Elephants.
Only a selection of those will be open come nominations time, with Days of Wine and Roses, Harmony, Here Lies Love, How to Dance in Ohio and Once Upon a One More Time already closed.
Over in the non-musical category, the productions up eligible for the best new play prize are Grey House by Levi Holloway; I Need That by Theresa Rebeck; Jaja's African Hair Braiding by Jocelyn Bioh; Just For Us by Alex Edelman; Mary Jane by Amy Herzog; Mother Play by Paula Vogel; Patriots by Peter Morgan; Prayer for the French Republic by Joshua Harmon; Stereophonic by David Adjmi; The Cottage by Sandy Rustin; and The Shark is Broken by Ian Shaw and Joseph Nixon.
As far as revivals are concerned, the 2023-2024 season included fresh productions of a crop of beloved musicals and plays.
For musicals, Cabaret, Gutenberg! The Musical!, Merrily We Roll Along, Spamalot, The Who's Tommy, and The Wiz will all be up for a nomination. And for plays, the nominees will be chosen from Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, Branden Jacobs Jenkins' Appropriate, John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, Ossie Davis' Purlie Victorious and Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya.
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Other shows that were part of the 2023-2024 Broadway seasons included El Mago Pop, Spain's magic spectacular show from Antonio Díaz, the highest-grossing European illusionist in the world. And Melissa Etheridge's rock concert-memoir hybrid Melissa Etheridge: My Window.
In addition to the main show, CBS and Pluto TV will partner to present The Tony Awards: Act One, a pre-show leading into the Tonys where the first round of trophies will be handed out.
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