This Day, That Year – April 6

This day in history we feature the Tony Awards. The first Tony Awards are presented for theatrical achievement on this day in 1947.

Trivia – Tony Awards

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in Midtown Manhattan. The 1st Tony Awards was held at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City. ATW co-founder Louise Heims Beck was responsible for over seeing the organization of the first awards.

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The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances. One is also given for regional theatre. Several discretionary non-competitive awards are given as well, including a Special Tony Award, the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre, and the Isabelle Stevenson Award. The awards were founded by theatre producer and director Brock Pemberton and are named after Antoinette “Tony” Perry, an actress, producer and theatre director who was co-founder and secretary of the American Theatre Wing. The trophy consists of a spinnable medallion, with faces portraying an adaptation of the comedy and tragedy masks, mounted on a black base with a pewter swivel. The rules for the Tony Awards are set forth in the official document “Rules and Regulations of The American Theatre Wing’s Tony Awards”, which applies for that season only. The Tony Awards are the New York theatre industry’s equivalent to the Emmy Awards for television, the Grammy Awards for music, and the Academy Awards (Oscars) for film, and a person who has won all four is said to have won the EGOT. The Tony Awards are the U.S. equivalent of the United Kingdom’s Laurence Olivier Awards and France’s Molière Awards. The 75th annual ceremony was held on June 12, 2022, at Radio City Music Hall in New York City and was broadcast live on CBS, as well as the Paramount+ streaming service. Ariana DeBose served as the host.

Source – Wikipedia