The country’s charged political climate found its way into Broadway’s biggest night on Sunday, with calls from the stage in support of trans rights, free speech and greater understanding.
Ali Louis Bourzgui, the 26-year-old star who pulled off an upset win for the Tony Award for best featured actor in a musical for “The Lost Boys,” gave the most political speech of the night, speaking out against the billionaires who will “never find happiness from their money” and the colonizers who will “never find fulfillment from the land and lives they steal.”
Amid the Trump administration’s continued push for deportations, Bourzgui, who is of Moroccan descent, dedicated his win to the “beautiful tapestry of immigrant families” who help make up the United States, whom he told: “May you one day not have to audition for the empathy that should be freely given by this country that benefits from your beauty.” He added that Palestinians deserve to live “a free life, a full life without occupation.”
Earlier in the night, Qween Jean, who became the first openly transgender person to win a Tony Award for best costume design of a musical, for “Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” championed trans visibility.
“Trans people,” Jean said in her acceptance speech, “we have to take up space, we have to shift the paradigm.” She urged viewers to come together to “make real, permanent change.”
After winning the Tony for his role as Roald Dahl in “Giant,” which explores Dahl’s antisemitism, John Lithgow told journalists backstage: “Cruelty of all kinds, hatred of the other, these are things that we’re dealing with these days, upfront and personal,” adding, “I think that’s what makes ‘Giant’ so important.”
During a lighthearted bit designed to underscore threats to free speech, the actor Bobby Cannavale told the ceremony’s host, Pink, that while he was fearful that free speech was “slowly eroding before our eyes,” he found encouragement that Broadway was succeeding at the “task of speaking truth to power.”
In her opening monologue, Pink reminded the audience that theatergoers look to Broadway to reflect the state of the world. “This year,” she said, “the worst parts of history began repeating itself, and we were given ‘Ragtime’ and ‘Liberation’” — two shows that explore themes of race and feminism.
“This year, our country grew more divided than ever, and we were given ‘Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York),’” Pink added, referring to the rom-com musical.
“This year,” she went on, “our trans siblings started to lose even more rights, and we were given ‘Cats: The Jellicle Ball.’”
Malia Mendez contributed reporting.
