Performances from ‘Hell’s Kitchen,’ ‘The Outsiders’ and ‘Cabaret’ set for 2024 Tony Awards
NEW YORK — The best of the best of this year’s Broadway season will get prime-time placement for the 77th Annual Tony Awards.
New musicals including “Hell’s Kitchen,” “Water for Elephants,” and “The Outsiders,” as well as an interactive revival of “Cabaret,” are among the performers set for the 2024 ceremony, hosted by Oscar winner Ariana DeBose at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center on June 16.
Scheduled to air live on CBS from 8-11 p.m. ET, the awards will also be streamed on Paramount+ and available on demand the following day.
Producers announced Thursday the show will feature performances from eight of the productions nominated for best musical and best revival of a musical.
“Illinoise,” “Merrily We Roll Along,” “Suffs” and “The Who’s Tommy” are also among this year’s lineup — though the specific musical numbers have not been announced.
Nominations for the 2024 Tony Awards were unveiled April 30, with “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Stereophonic” leading the pack of the most nominated productions of the seasons with 13 nods each.
Sixteen-time Grammy Award-winner Alicia Keys may be ready to add a Tony to her trophy case with “Hell’s Kitchen,” a critically acclaimed tour-de-force inspired by her teenage years growing up in the neighborhood surrounding the Times Square theater the show now plays in.
Among its 13 nominations, the Public Theater transfer scored in the best musical category and received four nods for main cast members — newcomer Maleah Joi Moon, theater veterans Brandon Victor Dixon and Shoshana Beane, and stage and screen journeywoman Kecia Lewis.
Intellectual properties from the literary and film industries have proven to provide a treasure trove for Broadway. Among this season’s productions that were adapted from books or movies is “The Outsiders” — based on S.E. Hinton’s bestselling 1967 novel and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 movie of the same name — which netted 12 Tony nominations.
Blending bluegrass, Americana, folk and rock, the show details the conflict between two rival gangs in 1960s Oklahoma. Actors Brody Grant, Sky Lakota-Lynch and Joshua Boone all received their first Tony Award nominations for their compelling performances.
“Water for Elephants” is another beloved book-turned-film-turned-sprawling Broadway musical. Originating as a bestselling 2006 novel (written by Sara Gruen) and later adapted for the big screen in 2011 (starring Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon and Christoph Waltz), the stage production added a splash of color to the story about a man revisiting his past in a traveling circus during the Great Depression.
Starring “The Flash” star Grant Gustin, Isabelle McCalla and Gregg Edelman, “Water for Elephants” netted seven Tony Award nominations.
“Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club,” which wows sold out audiences consistently in the reconstructed August Wilson Theater, received nine nominations including acting nods for its four main actors — Gayle Rankin, Oscar and Tony Award-winner Eddie Redmayne, two-time Tony winner Bebe Neuwirth and Steven Skybell.
The immersive production, which also stars Ato Blankson-Wood, brings new life into the iconic Kander and Ebb musical. A round stage in the center of what was typically the orchestra floor, with audience members on all sides, sets the scene for a 1930s Berlin nightclub.