SCHMIGARUDIN!
Two producers' big night.
With Schmigadoon! named Best Musical and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman best play revival, the 2026 Tony Awards was a winner for producers Christine Schwarzman and Scott Rudin.
Bess Wohl’s Liberation was named Best Play — the first by an American woman since Wendy Wasserstein’s The Heidi Chronicles in 1989. A searingly of-the-moment Ragtime, directed by Lear deBessonet and produced by Lincoln Center Theater in association with Tom Kirdahy, won for best musical revival
Schmigadoon! — about a contemporary couple trapped in an old-fashioned, faux Golden-Age musical — was produced by Lorne Michaels and Schwarzman’s No Guarantees Productions. It also won for Cinco Paul’s book and score and Doug Besterman and Mike Morris’ orchestrations.
“Sometimes singing, dancing and a lot of jokes and a happy ending is really all you need,” Michaels, the Saturday Night Live impresario, said onstage at Radio City Music Hall.
Schwarzman thanked Apple TV, which produced Schmigadoon! as a streaming series, for canceling it after two seasons. “Without them dropping it, we couldn’t have picked it up and ran with it, so thanks Apple TV,” she said.
A retired intellectual property lawyer, Schwarzman is married to Stephen Schwarzman, the co-founder and CEO of the investment giant Blackstone. He has a net worth of $46 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
In less than a decade, she has amassed 40 Broadway credits and won six Tonys as a co-producer — and now one as a lead producer. “I also want to express my thanks to the theater community, who gave a wayward lawyer a chance ten years ago. It changed my life.”
While Schmigadoon! looks backward for inspiration, the lively Tony telecast catered as much as possible to a younger audience. The pop star Pink opened with a kinetic version of the R&B hit “Lady Marmalade,” with names of Broadway actresses inserted into the lyrics. The eager-to-please host all but announced her desire to make her Broadway debut.
Death of a Salesman also won for Joe Mantello’s direction, Laurie Metcalf as featured actress, Chloe Lamford’s scenic design, Jack Knowles’ lighting design and Mikaal Sulaiman’s sound design. Rudin, who returned to the industry this past season after self-exiling for abusing staff, neither appeared nor was mentioned onstage in the acceptance speeches. Nathan Lane, who was nominated for best actor as Willy Loman but lost to John Lithgow for Giant, accepted Salesman’s Tony for best revival.
Lane’s speech was followed by a medley from the long-running Book of Mormon, which happens to have been originally produced by Rudin.
The pressure was on the Broadway League and American Theatre Wing, which co-own the Tonys, to deliver a compelling telecast. CBS aired the show, as it has since 1978, but the broadcast contract expires after the 2027 ceremony. It’s unclear whether Paramount CEO David Ellison, who controls CBS, has any interest in continuing with a Broadway awards show that draws less than a third of the audience of the Oscars.
It’s been a challenging year on Broadway. Grosses in the first 22 weeks of 2026 are down 5% from the same period in 2025, according to my analysis of Broadway League data. There were just six new musicals this past season, and the four that are still running are treading water at best — especially with the elevated expenses associated with campaigning for Tonys and performing on the telecast.
Schmigadoon! should get a boost from its Best Musical win. Producers of The Lost Boys will aim to capitalize on their four Tonys — for featured actors Shoshana Bean and Ali Louis Bourzgui, and scenic and lighting design.
Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) and Titanique were shut out. Both staged compelling numbers on tonight’s program, but that may not be enough to sustain long runs.
Ragtime also won for lead actor Joshua Henry and lead actress Caissie Levy. The Tony love may facilitate an extension of the show, which is currently selling tickets through August 2. Lincoln Center Theater’s most recent best musical revival winner, The King and I, ran for about 15 months. Before that, South Pacific ran nearly 2 1/2 years.