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

The 2025 Tony Award nominations have arrived for a season studded with movie and television stars, with nods going to George Clooney, Sarah Snook and Bob Odenkirk in their debuts. But other favourites, like Oscar-winners Denzel Washington and Kieran Culkin were left out in the cold for their roles in theatrical productions.

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

Twenty-nine shows got at least one nomination across the 26 Tony categories, even long—closed shows like A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical and Swept Away.

Clooney got a nod as a leading actor in a play for his retelling the story of legendary reporter Edward R. Murrow in an adaptation of his 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck. Another hot ticket — a revival of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross — earned Odenkirk a nod, but not for his co-stars Kieran Culkin or comedian Bill Burr.

Snook, Culkin’s Succession co-star, earned a nomination for playing all 26 parts in The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Stranger Things star Sadie Sink earned one for leading John Proctor is the Villain. Stranger Things: The First Shadow, an effects-driven prequel to her hit Netflix show, earned five nods, including for lead actor Louis McCartney. Daniel Dae Kim, known for TV series such as Lost and Hawaii Five-0, scored a nod for his leading role in Yellow Face. 

The news was less good for Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler, both in their Broadway debuts. Neither got nominations for their Romeo + Juliet pitched to Generation X and millennials. Robert Downey Jr., who also made his Broadway debut in the play McNeal, wasn’t recognized. Mia Farrow earned a nomination 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 north of $900 US for orchestra seats, received no nominations.

Our Town, starring Jim Parsons and Katie Holmes, earned a best play revival Tony nomination, but nothing for its actors. 

Audra McDonald received her 11th Tony nomination — the most for any Broadway performer — for her turn as Rose in a hailed revival of Gypsy, a role that led to previous Tonys for the likes of Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly and LuPone. McDonald, already a holder for the most Tonys by a performer — with six — now vies for a seventh.

She will face off against Nicole Scherzinger in Sunset Blvd., Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard in Death Becomes Her, and Jasmine Amy Rogers from Boop! The Musical.

The top musicals and plays

Buena Vista Social Club, which takes its inspiration from Wim Wenders’s 1999 Oscar-nominated documentary on the making of the album of the same name, will face off for best musical crown with Death Becomes Her, based on the 1992 cult-classic film about frenemies who seek a magic eternal youth and beauty potion.

The category also includes Maybe Happy Ending, a rom-com musical about a pair of androids that crackles with humanity and Dead Outlaw, a musical about a real-life alcoholic drifter turned failed bandit who was shot dead in 1911 and whose afterlife proved to be stranger than fiction as he was displayed for decades.

A second show with a corpse, the British import Operation Mincemeat, also made it, the improbably true story about a British deception operation designed to mislead Nazi Germany about the location of the Allied landing at Sicily.

In the best play category, English, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sanaz Toossi’s look at four Iranian students preparing for an English language exam, made the cut. As did The Hills of California, Jez Butterworth’s look at a family gathering for the impending death of its matriarch set in a hotel in the summer of 1976 in England.

They’ll compete with John Proctor Is the Villain, Kimberly Belflower’s examination of girlhood, feminism, the #MeToo movement and a compelling rebuttal to The Crucible, and Purpose, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s drawing-room drama about an accomplished Black family destroying itself from within.   

The category is completed with Oh, Mary!, an irreverent, raunchy, gleefully deranged revisionist history by Cole Escola centred on Mary Todd Lincoln, a boozy, narcissistic, potty-mouthed first lady determined to strike out of the subordinate role into which history has placed her.

Harvey Fierstein will also receive a special Tony Award for lifetime achievement in the theatre, and the Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award will go to Celia Keenan-Bolger.

The Tony Awards will be handed out June 8 at Radio City Music Hall in New York during a telecast hosted by Wicked star and Tony winner Cynthia Erivo.

Here is the full list 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 in a Musical

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

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in 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 in 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 in 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 in a Featured Role in 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 in a Featured Role in a Musical

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

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in 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 in a Featured Role in 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 in 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 in 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.