George Clooney scores 2025 Tony Award nod, but Denzel Washington, Kieran Culkin snubbed

The Associated Press

· Posted: May 01, 2025 12:07 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 minutes ago

The 2025 Tony Award nominations person arrived for a play studded with movie and tv stars, with nods going to George Clooney, Sarah Snook and Bob Odenkirk successful their debuts. But different favourites, similar Oscar-winners Denzel Washington and Kieran Culkin were near retired successful the acold for their roles successful theatrical productions.

Three Broadway shows — Buena Vista Social Club, Death Becomes Her and Maybe Happy Ending — each earned a starring 10 Tony nominations on Thursday. 

Twenty-nine shows got astatine slightest 1 information crossed the 26 Tony categories, adjacent long—closed shows similar A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical and Swept Away.

Clooney got a motion arsenic a starring histrion successful a play for his retelling the communicative of legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow successful an adaptation of his 2005 movie Good Night, and Good Luck. Another blistery summons — a revival of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross — earned Odenkirk a nod, but not for his co-stars Kieran Culkin oregon comedian Bill Burr.

Snook, Culkin's Succession co-star, earned a information for playing each 26 parts successful The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Stranger Things star Sadie Sink earned 1 for starring John Proctor is the Villain. Stranger Things: The First Shadow, an effects-driven prequel to her hit Netflix show, earned 5 nods, including for pb histrion Louis McCartney. Daniel Dae Kim, known for TV bid specified arsenic Lost and Hawaii Five-0, scored a motion for his starring relation successful Yellow Face. 

The quality was little bully for Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler, some successful their Broadway debuts. Neither got nominations for their Romeo + Juliet pitched to Generation X and millennials. Robert Downey Jr., who besides made his Broadway debut successful the play McNeal, wasn't recognized. Mia Farrow earned a information for The Roommate but her co-star, the Broadway diva Patti LuPone, did not.   

And in a shock, the edgy Othello, with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal, that producers are charging northbound of $900 US for orchestra seats, received nary nominations.

Our Town, starring Jim Parsons and Katie Holmes, earned a champion play revival Tony nomination, but thing for its actors. 

Audra McDonald received her 11th Tony information — the astir for immoderate Broadway performer — for her crook arsenic Rose successful a hailed revival of Gypsy, a relation that led to erstwhile Tonys for the likes of Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly and LuPone. McDonald, already a holder for the astir Tonys by a performer — with six — now vies for a seventh.

She volition look disconnected against Nicole Scherzinger successful Sunset Blvd., Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard successful Death Becomes Her, and Jasmine Amy Rogers from Boop! The Musical.

The apical musicals and plays

Buena Vista Social Club, which takes its inspiration from Wim Wenders's 1999 Oscar-nominated documentary connected the making of the medium of the aforesaid name, will look disconnected for champion philharmonic crown with Death Becomes Her, based connected the 1992 cult-classic film about frenemies who question a magic eternal younker and quality potion.

The class besides includes Maybe Happy Ending, a rom-com philharmonic astir a brace of androids that crackles with humanity and Dead Outlaw, a philharmonic astir a real-life alcoholic drifter turned failed bandit who was changeable dormant successful 1911 and whose afterlife proved to beryllium alien than fabrication arsenic helium was displayed for decades.

A 2nd amusement with a corpse, the British import Operation Mincemeat, also made it, the improbably existent communicative astir a British deception cognition designed to mislead Nazi Germany astir the determination of the Allied landing astatine Sicily.

In the champion play category, English, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sanaz Toossi's look astatine 4 Iranian students preparing for an English connection exam, made the cut. As did The Hills of California, Jez Butterworth's look astatine a household gathering for the impending decease of its matriarch acceptable successful a edifice successful the summertime of 1976 successful England.

They'll vie with John Proctor Is the Villain, Kimberly Belflower's introspection of girlhood, feminism, the #MeToo question and a compelling rebuttal to The Crucible, and Purpose, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins's drawing-room play astir an accomplished Black household destroying itself from within.   

The class is completed with Oh, Mary!, an irreverent, raunchy, gleefully deranged revisionist past by Cole Escola centred connected Mary Todd Lincoln, a boozy, narcissistic, potty-mouthed archetypal woman determined to onslaught retired of the subordinate relation into which past has placed her.

Harvey Fierstein volition besides person a peculiar Tony Award for beingness accomplishment successful the theatre, and the Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award volition spell to Celia Keenan-Bolger.

The Tony Awards volition beryllium handed retired June 8 astatine Radio City Music Hall in New York during a telecast hosted by Wicked prima and Tony victor Cynthia Erivo.

Here is the afloat database of nominations:

Best Musical

• Buena Vista Social Club.
• Dead Outlaw.
• Death Becomes Her.
• Maybe Happy Ending.
• Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical.

Best Play

• English — Sanaz Toossi.
• The Hills of California — Jez Butterworth.
• John Proctor is the Villain — Kimberley Belflower.
• Oh, Mary! — Cole Escola.
• Purpose — Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

Best Performance by a Leading Actor successful a Musical

• Darren Criss — Maybe Happy Ending.
• Andrew Durand — Dead Outlaw.
• Tom Francis — Sunset Blvd.
• Jonathan Groff — Just successful Time.
• James Monroe Iglehart — A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical.
• Jeremy Jordan — Floyd Collins.

Best Performance by a Leading Actress successful a Musical

• Megan Hilty — Death Becomes Her.
• Audra McDonald — Gypsy.
• Jasmine Amy Rogers — Boop! The Musical.
• Nicole Scherzinger — Sunset Blvd.
• Jennifer Simard — Death Becomes Her.

Best Performance by a Leading Actor successful a Play

• George Clooney — Good Night, and Good Luck.
• Cole Escola — Oh, Mary!
• Jon Michael Hill — Purpose.
• Daniel Dae Kim — Yellow Face.
• Harry Lennix — Purpose.
• Louis McCartney — Stranger Things: The First Shadow.

Best Performance by a Leading Actress successful a Play

• Laura Donnelly — The Hills of California.
• Mia Farrow — The Roommate.
• LaTanya Richardson Jackson — Purpose.
• Sadie Sink — John Proctor is the Villain.
• Sarah Snook — The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Best Book of a Musical

• Buena Vista Social Club — Marco Ramirez.
• Dead Outlaw — Itamar Moses.
• Death Becomes Her — Marco Pennette.
• Maybe Happy Ending — Will Aronson and Hue Park.
• Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical — David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts.

Best Original Score

• Dead Outlaw — David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna.
• Death Becomes Her — Julia Mattison and Noel Carey.
• Maybe Happy Ending — Will Aronson and Hue Park.
• Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical — David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts.
• Real Women Have Curves: The Musical — Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez.

Best Performance by an Actor successful a Featured Role successful a Musical

• Brooks Ashmanska — SMASH.
• Jeb Brown — Dead Outlaw.
• Danny Burstein — Gypsy.
• Jak Malone — Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical.
• Taylor Trensch — Floyd Collins.

Best Performance by an Actress successful a Featured Role successful a Musical

• Natalie Venetia Belcon — Buena Vista Social Club.
• Julia Knitel — Dead Outlaw.
• Gracie Lawrence — Just successful Time.
• Justina Machado — Real Women Have Curves: The Musical.
• Joy Woods — Gypsy.

Best Performance by an Actor successful a Featured Role successful a Play

• Glenn Davis — Purpose.
• Gabriel Ebert — John Proctor is the Villain.
• Francis Jue — Yellow Face.
• Bob Odenkirk — Glengarry Glen Ross.
• Conrad Ricamora — Oh, Mary!

Best Performance by an Actress successful a Featured Role successful a Play

• Tala Ashe — English.
• Jessica Hecht — Eureka Day.
• Marjan Neshat — English.
• Fina Strazza — John Proctor is the Villain.
• Kara Young — Purpose.

Best Scenic Design of a Play

• Marsha Ginsberg — English.
• Rob Howell — The Hills of California.
• Marg Horwell and David Bergman — The Picture of Dorian Gray.
• Miriam Buether and 59 — Stranger Things: The First Shadow.
• Scott Pask — Good Night, and Good Luck.

Best Scenic Design of a Musical

• Rachel Hauck — Swept Away.
• Dane Laffrey and George Reeve — Maybe Happy Ending.
• Arnulfo Maldonado — Buena Vista Social Club.
• Derek McLane — Death Becomes Her.
• Derek McLane — Just successful Time.

Best Costume Design of a Play

• Brenda Abbandandolo — Good Night, and Good Luck.
• Marg Horwell — The Picture of Dorian Gray.
• Rob Howell — The Hills of California.
• Holly Pierson — Oh, Mary!
• Brigitte Reiffenstuel — Stranger Things: The First Shadow.

Best Costume Design of a Musical

• Dede Ayite — Buena Vista Social Club.
• Gregg Barnes — BOOP! The Musical.
• Clint Ramos — Maybe Happy Ending.
• Paul Tazewell — Death Becomes Her.
• Catherine Zuber — Just In Time.

Best Lighting Design of a Play

• Natasha Chivers — The Hills of California.
• Jon Clark — Stranger Things: The First Shadow.
• Heather Gilbert and David Bengali — Good Night, and Good Luck.
• Natasha Katz and Hannah Wasileski — John Proctor is the Villain.
• Nick Schlieper — The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Best Lighting Design of a Musical

• Jack Knowles — Sunset Blvd.
• Tyler Micoleau — Buena Vista Social Club.
• Scott Zielinski and Ruey Horng Sun — Floyd Collins.
• Ben Stanton — Maybe Happy Ending.
• Justin Townsend — Death Becomes Her.

Best Sound Design of a Play

• Paul Arditti — Stranger Things: The First Shadow.
• Palmer Hefferan — John Proctor is the Villain.
• Daniel Kluger — Good Night, and Good Luck.
• Nick Powell — The Hills of California.
• Clemence Williams — The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Best Sound Design of a Musical

• Jonathan Deans — Buena Vista Social Club.
• Adam Fisher — Sunset Blvd.
• Peter Hylenski — Just In Time.
• Peter Hylenski — Maybe Happy Ending.
• Dan Moses Schreier — Floyd Collins.

Best Direction of a Play

• Knud Adams — English.
• Sam Mendes — The Hills of California.
• Sam Pinkleton — Oh, Mary!
• Danya Taymor — John Proctor is the Villain.
• Kip Williams — The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Best Direction of a Musical

• Saheem Ali — Buena Vista Social Club.
• Michael Arden — Maybe Happy Ending.
• David Cromer — Dead Outlaw.
• Christopher Gattelli — Death Becomes Her.
• Jamie Lloyd — Sunset Blvd.

Best Choreography

• Joshua Bergasse — SMASH.
• Camille A. Brown — Gypsy.
• Christopher Gattelli — Death Becomes Her.
• Jerry Mitchell — BOOP! The Musical.
• Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck — Buena Vista Social Club.

Best Orchestrations

• Andrew Resnick and Michael Thurber — Just successful Time.
• Will Aronson — Maybe Happy Ending.
• Bruce Coughlin — Floyd Collins.
• Marco Paguia — Buena Vista Social Club.
• David Cullen and Andrew Lloyd Webber — Sunset Blvd. 

Best Revival of a Play

• Eureka Day. 
• Romeo + Juliet.
• Thornton Wilder's Our Town.
• Yellow Face.

Best Revival of a Musical

• Floyd Collins.
• Gypsy.
• Pirates! The Penzance Musical.
• Sunset Blvd.