The 75th Annual Tony Awards are extending the eligibility period of the season by several days and pushing back the nominations announcement date, the awards body announced Friday.
Previously, the announcement of the 2022 Tony nominees was scheduled to take place on May 3. They have now been pushed back to May 9. The eligibility period, which was originally scheduled to end April 28, will now run until May 4.
Charlotte St. Martin, president of the Broadway League, and Heather Hitchens, American Theater Wing president and CEO, explained that the shift happened in part to make sure voters have more time to see eligible shows before they vote on the nominations. They also cited the struggles and delays caused by COVID-19 that many shows have been facing.
“Due to the challenges that Broadway has faced in recent weeks, and in an effort to allow nominators to see Tony eligible shows, we have decided to extend the deadline for eligibility requirements,” the statement read. “Therefore, the Tony Nominations will now take place on Monday, May 9.”
Currently, there are no Broadway productions scheduled to open between April 28 and May 4 that would have been affected by this extension. However, the switch will allow current productions to shift openings by a few days in the event of COVID cases affecting the casts or other complications. There are currently six Broadway productions set to open for late April before the initial eligibility cut-off date: a revival of the Barbra Streisand musical “Funny Girl” at the August Wilson Theatre on April 24; a revival of Thorton Wilder’s “The Skin of Our Teeth” at the Lincoln Center Theatre on April 25; original Pulitzer Prize-winning musical “A Strange Loop” at the Lyceum Theatre on April 26; film-to-musical adaptation “Mr. Saturday Night” at the Nederlander Theatre and satirical play “POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive” at the Shubert Theatre, both on April 27; and a Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga-led production of “Macbeth” at the Longacre Theatre, which initially just made the original eligibility period, opening April 28. Several of these productions have already faced issues with COVID cases, with “Macbeth” in particular having to cancel several preview performances after Craig tested positive for the virus.
The nominees will be announced May 9, on the Tony Award’s official YouTube page, at 6 a.m. PT/9 a.m. ET. The ceremony itself will be held at Radio City Music Hall in New York on June 12. The ceremony will air live during all U.S. time zones for the first time, beginning 5 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT on CBS. The ceremony will also stream live on Paramount+.
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