Radio City Music Hall was vibrating. You could feel it through the floorboards back in June 2014. People usually expect the Tonys to be a bit stiff, maybe a little too "jazz hands" for the average person watching at home, but the 68th Annual Tony Awards felt different. It was the night Broadway decided to flex.
Hugh Jackman didn't just walk onto the stage. He hopped. For like, five minutes straight. He was channeling Bobby Van from the 1953 film Small Town Girl, bouncing through the elevators and the dressing rooms like a man possessed by a pogo stick. It was weird. It was athletic. Honestly, it was the perfect "welcome back" for Jackman, who hadn't hosted the show in nine years.
The Night Audra McDonald Became the GOAT
If you follow theater at all, you know Audra McDonald is a force of nature. But that night? She became a legend. When she won Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her role as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill, the room basically exploded.
This wasn't just another trophy for her shelf. It was her sixth.
Six Tonys.
That win officially put her past Angela Lansbury and Julie Harris. She became the most decorated performer in Tony history. But the real kicker—the thing that most people forget—is that with that win, she had won in every single acting category possible. Lead and Featured, Play and Musical. Nobody else has done that. Her speech was a tear-jerker, too. She was sobbing, barely keeping her mascara together, thanking the "strong and brave courageous women" she stood on to get there. It felt like watching history in real-time.
Breaking Bad Meets Broadway
While Audra was making history, Bryan Cranston was making a debut. Most of the world still saw him as Walter White. He had just wrapped Breaking Bad and decided to take on the role of Lyndon B. Johnson in All the Way.
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Talk about a pivot.
Cranston ended up snagging the Tony for Best Leading Actor in a Play. He beat out some heavy hitters, including Mark Rylance and Chris O’Dowd. It’s funny because you’d think a TV star might get the side-eye from the theater purists, but he earned it. The play itself also took home the big one: Best Play. It was a massive night for a show about 1960s politics that, on paper, sounds like it might be a bit dry. It wasn't.
The Rise of the Underdog: A Gentleman’s Guide
Going into the night, everyone was talking about A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. It was this dark, hilarious musical that had been in development for eleven years. Eleven! It was the little show that could.
It ended up being the night’s big winner, grabbing four awards including the coveted Best Musical. Darko Tresnjak, who won for Best Direction, gave one of the most memorable shout-outs of the night to his mother, who had been a skydiver during World War II. You can't make that stuff up.
The show's lead, Jefferson Mays, didn't win that night (he lost to Neil Patrick Harris), but he did something crazy: he played eight different characters in the same show. Basically, he died on stage 6,000 times over the course of the run.
Hedwig and the "Crazy Pants" Win
Speaking of Neil Patrick Harris, he was everywhere. He had just finished hosting the Tonys the year before, and now he was there as a nominee for Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
He won. Obviously.
His performance as a gender-bending East German rock star was electric. During the ceremony, he performed "Sugar Daddy" and gave a lap dance to Sting. He even planted a kiss on his husband, David Burtka, right there on the broadcast. When he got to the podium, he looked genuinely stunned, saying, "A year ago I was hosting the Tony, this is crazy pants!"
Hedwig tied with Gentleman's Guide for the most wins of the night, taking home four statues, including Best Revival of a Musical and a win for Lena Hall, who played Yitzhak.
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Moments You Might Have Forgotten
A lot happened in those three hours. It wasn't just about the trophies.
- Idina Menzel (or "Adele Dazeem" if you're John Travolta) performed "Always Starting Over" from If/Then.
- Sting showed up to preview his musical The Last Ship.
- Wicked celebrated its 10th anniversary with a performance of "For Good" that had half the audience reaching for tissues.
- Carole King joined Jessie Mueller (who won Best Actress in a Musical) on stage to sing "I Feel the Earth Move."
There was also this weird, slightly confusing hip-hop performance of The Music Man featuring LL Cool J and T.I. It was... a choice. It didn't exactly fit the vibe of the rest of the night, but hey, it's the Tonys. They like to experiment.
Why the 68th Annual Tony Awards Still Matter
Looking back, the 68th Annual Tony Awards served as a bridge. It was the moment where big "prestige" TV stars like Cranston and Harris proved they weren't just visiting Broadway—they were part of it. It was the night Audra McDonald moved into a stratosphere of her own.
It also reminded everyone that theater doesn't have to be stuffy. Between a rock-and-roll transsexual singer and a musical about a guy murdering his way through a family tree, Broadway felt edgy.
If you're looking to dive deeper into this era of theater, you should definitely check out the cast recordings for Beautiful: The Carole King Musical or A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. They hold up surprisingly well. You can also find the clips of Audra McDonald's record-breaking win on YouTube—it's worth it just to see the raw emotion.
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To really understand why this night was a turning point, take a look at the winners list from the surrounding years. You'll notice a shift toward more diverse storytelling and bolder production choices that really started to coalesce right around this time.
Next Steps for Theater Fans:
- Watch the archival footage of the Hedwig performance to see how NPH transformed for the role.
- Listen to the Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill album to hear Audra McDonald's incredible vocal transformation into Billie Holiday.
- Track down a copy of the script for All the Way—it’s a masterclass in political drama.