Nicole Scherzinger and Sarah Snook win top prizes at Tony Awards

Succession star Sarah Snook and singer Nicole Scherzinger were among the big winners at Sunday’s Tony Awards.

Scherzinger was named best actress in a musical for her role in Sunset Boulevard, Jamie Lloyd’s minimalist reboot of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical.

In an emotional acceptance speech, Scherzinger reflected on her recent Broadway success, which came two decades after shooting to fame with the Pussycat Dolls.

“Growing up, I always felt like I didn’t belong, but you all have made me feel like I belong and I have come home, at last,” she said. “If there’s anyone out there who feels like they don’t belong or your time hasn’t come, don’t give up.”

“Just keep on giving and giving because the world needs your love and your light now more than ever. This is a testament that love always wins.”

The singer and former X Factor judge won the same prize at the UK equivalent of the Tonys, the Olivier Awards, for her performance in the show’s original West End run.

She said it had been an “honour” to work with composer Lord Lloyd Webber, and paid tribute to director Jamie Lloyd, saying: “You saw in me what no one else did. You have given us all new ways to dream and you have changed my life forever.”

Scherzinger also performed As If We Never Said Goodbye during the ceremony, and was introduced by Glenn Close, who played Desmond in Sunset Boulevard when it played on Broadway in 1995.

The Tony Awards, hosted by Wicked star Cynthia Erivo at Radio City Music Hall in New York, celebrate the best in US theatre, and particularly Broadway.

Snook won best leading actress in a play, for performing all 26 roles in a one-woman stage adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.

In her acceptance speech, the actress said: “This means so much for a little Australian girl to be here on Broadway.

“[The Picture of Dorian Gray] is billed as a one-person show, and I don’t feel alone any night that I do this show. There are so many people on stage making it work and behind the stage making it work.”

Other winners included Maybe Happy Ending, which took home best musical, while its lead actor Darren Criss also won a lead acting prize.

“I have such immense pride to get to be part of this notably diverse, exquisite Broadway season this year,” he said.

Paying tribute to his wife, he added: “Your love and your support for me and our beautiful children, combined with the miracle of working on something as magical as Maybe Happy Ending, has been and will always be award enough.”

Purpose, about an African-American family who reunite in Chicago, was named best play, a month after winning the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Meanwhile, Cole Escola was named best actor in a play for Oh Mary!, a one-act reimagining of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination through the eyes of his wife – a raging alcoholic who dreams of life as a cabaret star.

Sunset Boulevard also won best musical revival, while Eureka Day, about a school in California which must confront its vaccination policy after an outbreak of mumps among the pupils, won best revival of a play.

Elsewhere in the ceremony, Erivo was joined on stage by singer Sara Bareilles for a rendition of Tomorrow from the musical Annie, in tribute to those in the theatre community who had died throughout the year. The song’s composer, Charles Strouse, died last month.

Presenters at the event included Samuel L Jackson, Oprah Winfrey, Ben Stiller and Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The original cast of Hamilton reunited to perform a rapturously received medley, to celebrate the show’s 10th anniversary.

In the last year, a string of new shows and stars drew 14.7 million people to Broadway performances, grossing $1.89bn (£1.39bn) at the box office.

Best musical

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

Best play

• WINNER: Purpose
• English
• The Hills of California
• John Proctor is the Villain
• Oh, Mary!

Best revival of a play

• WINNER: Eureka Day
• Romeo + Juliet
• Our Town
• Yellow Face

Best revival of a musical

• WINNER: Sunset Boulevard
• Floyd Collins
• Gypsy
• Pirates! The Penzance Musical

Best actress in a musical

• WINNER: Nicole Scherzinger, Sunset Boulevard
• Megan Hilty, Death Becomes Her
• Audra McDonald, Gypsy
• Jasmine Amy Rogers, BOOP! The Musical
• Jennifer Simard, Death Becomes Her

Best actor in a musical

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

Best actress in a play

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

Best actor in a play

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

Best direction of a musical

• WINNER: Michael Arden, Maybe Happy Ending
• Saheem Ali, Buena Vista Social Club
• David Cromer, Dead Outlaw
• Christopher Gattelli, Death Becomes Her
• Jamie Lloyd, Sunset Boulevard

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