Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Back to Opinion

Photo EssayYour guide to 2023’s Jewish Tony Awards nominees

Featuring Micaela Diamond, Tom Stoppard, Brandon Uranowitz and Jessica Hecht

The 76th Annual Tony Awards takes place on Sunday, June 11, and cap a big year for Jews on Broadway. Ben Platt and Micaela Diamond dramatized the lynching of Leo Frank in Parade, even when neo-Nazis protested outside the theater. Some Like It Hot, a musical adaption of Billy Wilder’s 1959 film of the same name, garnered 13 nominations, the most of any show; did you know that its writers decided to cut the musical’s most Jewish song?

It seems like Jews and Broadway go together almost as well as cream cheese and lox. Many of the great Broadway artists were Jewish, like Oscar Hammerstein II and Stephen Sondheim; ditto for playwright Arthur Miller, composer Jerome Kern and lyricist Betty Comden. 

Let’s meet some of 2023’s nominees. 

To contact the author, email opinion@forward.com

1 / 23

2 / 23 Introduction

3 / 23 Micaela Diamond, Best Leading Actress in a Musical (Parade)

4 / 23 Micaela Diamond, Best Leading Actress in a Musical (Parade)

5 / 23 Sonia Friedman, Best Play (Leopoldstadt), Best Revival (August Wilson's The Piano Lesson) and Best Musical (New York, New York)

6 / 23 Sonia Friedman, Best Play (Leopoldstadt), Best Revival (August Wilson's The Piano Lesson) and Best Musical (New York, New York)

7 / 23 Jessica Hecht, Best Leading Actress in a Play (Summer, 1976)

8 / 23 Jessica Hecht, Best Leading Actress in a Play (Summer, 1976)

9 / 23 Amy Herzog, Best Revival (A Doll’s House)

10 / 23 Amy Herzog, Best Revival (A Doll’s House)

11 / 23 Thomas Kitt, Best Original Score (Almost Famous)

12 / 23 Julia Lester, Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical (Into the Woods)

13 / 23 Julia Lester, Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical (Into the Woods)

14 / 23 Patrick Marber, Best Direction of a Play (Leopoldstadt)

15 / 23 Patrick Marber, Best Direction of a Play (Leopoldstadt)

16 / 23 Jeffrey Seller, Best Revival of a Musical (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street)

17 / 23 Jeffrey Seller and Tommy Kail, Best Revival of a Musical (Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street)

18 / 23 Tom Stoppard, Best Play (Leopoldstadt)

19 / 23 Tom Stoppard, Best Play (Leopoldstadt)

20 / 23 Tom Stoppard, Best Play (Leopoldstadt)

21 / 23 Brandon Uranowitz, Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play (Leopoldstadt)

22 / 23 Additional Nominees

23 / 23 Tony Awards for Lifetime Achievement: John Kander and Joel Grey

Correction: A version of this article misidentified two actresses’ religions. Ethel Merman was Episcopalian, not Jewish. Lea Michele was born to a Jewish father but was raised Catholic.

To contact the author, email opinion@forward.com

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version