Level 1 - Absolute Beginner

The Tony Awards are very important prizes for theatre in the United States. They are given each year to the best shows and actors on Broadway, which is the most famous theatre area in New York City.

Tonight, June 7, the 79th Tony Awards ceremony is taking place at Radio City Music Hall. This is a very famous and beautiful building in New York City. The singer Pink is the host of the show.

The show 'The Lost Boys' has the most nominations this year, tied with another show called 'Schmigadoon!'. Both have 12 nominations. A nomination means people think the show could win a prize.

A very special actress named June Squibb is nominated this year. She is 96 years old. This makes her the oldest person ever nominated for a Tony Award.

Tony Award

one of the most important prizes in American theatre, given each year to the best Broadway shows and performers

Broadway

the most famous theatre district in New York City, known for its large and spectacular stage productions

nomination

when someone or something is officially chosen as a candidate for a prize or award

ceremony

a formal event held to celebrate or give out awards

host

a person who presents and leads an event such as an awards show

musical

a type of theatre show that combines songs, dancing and acting to tell a story

revival

a new production of a play or musical that was first performed many years ago

audience

the group of people who watch a performance or show

Level 2 - Elementary

Broadway's biggest night of the year is taking place on Sunday, June 7, as the 79th Annual Tony Awards are held live at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Pop star Pink is hosting the three-hour ceremony, which will air on CBS and stream on Paramount Plus starting at 8 PM Eastern time.

The musical 'The Lost Boys' and the stage adaptation of the Apple TV comedy 'Schmigadoon!' are the front-runners of the evening, each picking up 12 nominations including Best Musical. They are closely followed by the revival of the classic musical 'Ragtime,' which received 11 nominations.

One of the most talked-about moments of the night will involve June Squibb, a 96-year-old actress nominated for Best Actress in a Play. If she wins, she would become the oldest acting winner in Tony history, surpassing Lois Smith, who won at the age of 89. Squibb is best known for her Oscar-nominated role in the 2013 film 'Nebraska.'

The evening will also feature celebratory performances marking several Broadway anniversaries. The 30th anniversary of the long-running revival of 'Chicago' will be celebrated with a star-studded number featuring Queen Latifah, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Alex Newell and other performers. Special tributes will also mark significant anniversaries of 'The Book of Mormon,' 'A Chorus Line' and 'Rent.'

front-runner

the person or thing considered most likely to win a competition

adaptation

a work such as a play or film that is based on an original story from another medium

Best Actress

a Tony Award category recognising the best female lead performance in a stage play

anniversary

the date on which an event that happened in a previous year is remembered or celebrated

star-studded

featuring many famous or celebrated performers

revival

a new production of a play or musical that was originally staged years or decades earlier

tribute

a special performance or statement made to show respect and admiration for someone or something

streaming

watching video content live or on demand over the internet without downloading it

Level 3 - Intermediate

The 79th Annual Tony Awards are being held live at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 7, with singer and performer Pink serving as host in her first major awards-ceremony presenting role. The ceremony, broadcast on CBS and Paramount Plus from 8 PM Eastern time, crowns the 2025 to 2026 Broadway season and arrives during a period of renewed commercial energy for New York theatre, with several productions extending their runs well beyond their original booking periods.

'The Lost Boys,' a dark-comic supernatural musical based on the 1987 Joel Schumacher cult film, and 'Schmigadoon!,' a stage adaptation of the Apple TV Plus musical-comedy series created by Cinco Paul, enter the evening tied as the season's most nominated productions with 12 nominations each, including the marquee Best Musical category. Closely behind is a reimagined revival of the Ragtime musical with 11 nominations, receiving particular praise from critics for its updated orchestrations and a cast widely regarded as one of the finest in recent memory.

The story that has captivated Broadway observers most this season involves June Squibb, the 96-year-old actress nominated for Best Actress in a Play for her role in the darkly comic stage adaptation of 'Thelma.' If Squibb wins, she would succeed Lois Smith, 89 at the time of her 2020 nomination for 'The Inheritance,' as the oldest acting nominee and winner in Tony history. Squibb, who received an Oscar nomination for her supporting performance in the 2013 Alexander Payne film 'Nebraska,' has been performing in major stage and screen roles for over six decades.

The evening will also feature a major celebratory segment honouring the 30th anniversary of the 'Chicago' revival, which has run continuously since its 1996 revival premiere and holds the record as the longest-running American musical in Broadway history. An all-star ensemble including Queen Latifah, Alex Newell, Adrienne Warren and Jesse Tyler Ferguson is expected to perform selections from the Kander and Ebb score. Separate tributes will mark milestone anniversaries for 'The Book of Mormon,' 'A Chorus Line' and 'Rent.'

marquee

describes the most prestigious or prominent category, event or billing in a competition or programme

orchestration

the arrangement of a piece of music for different instruments in a theatrical production

cult film

a film that has developed an intensely devoted following over time, often despite limited mainstream success at release

booking period

the time for which a theatre production is initially scheduled to run before possible extension

score

the complete collection of songs and music written for a particular musical or film

reimagined

created or presented in a significantly new way that reinterprets the original material

ensemble

Level 4 - Advanced

The 79th Annual Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Broadway Theatre - universally known as the Tonys - convene Sunday evening at Radio City Music Hall, where Rockefeller Center's Art Deco showpiece becomes the locus of Broadway's annual reckoning with its own commercial and artistic aspirations. Singer Pink, making her first foray into awards-show presenting, serves as host across a three-hour CBS and Paramount Plus telecast that the American Theatre Wing hopes will arrest the gradual erosion of the ceremony's linear-television audience, which has trended downward in each of the past four years despite sustained strong box-office performance across the sector.

Two productions define the competitive landscape entering the evening. 'The Lost Boys,' a darkly comic supernatural musical adapted from Joel Schumacher's beloved 1987 vampire-horror film and featuring book by Kait Kerrigan and music and lyrics by Brian Lowdermilk, leads all shows with 12 nominations including Best Musical, Best Original Score and Best Choreography, after a developmental arc spanning three regional tryout productions and an off-Broadway run at the Atlantic Theater Company. It shares its nomination count with 'Schmigadoon!,' a stage incarnation of the Apple TV Plus musical-comedy series conceived by Cinco Paul that has generated some of the most enthusiastic critical notices of the season, particularly for its savagely affectionate parody of Golden Age musical conventions. The 'Ragtime' revival follows on 11 nominations, praised for Bartlett Sher's direction and a reconceived orchestral palette that strips back the Flaherty-Ahrens score to its most searching emotional registers.

The narrative gravitating most powerfully around tonight's ceremony is June Squibb, 96, nominated for Best Actress in a Play for her performance as Thelma in a stage adaptation of Josh Margolin's 2024 action-comedy film. Should Squibb convert her nomination into a win, she will become not merely the oldest acting laureate in Tony history - surpassing Lois Smith, who was 89 when nominated in 2020 for 'The Inheritance' - but, by some margin, the oldest competitive acting winner in the history of any major Anglophone theatre award. Squibb carries into the evening a career spanning six decades of film and stage work, anchored by her Oscar-nominated supporting performance in Alexander Payne's 2013 'Nebraska,' a performance that earned her a Screen Actors Guild nomination and reinvigorated a career many in the industry had assumed had already reached its summit.

Beyond the competitive categories, the ceremony will stage a landmark tribute to the 1996 revival of 'Chicago,' whose 30th anniversary marks a singular achievement in the history of commercial theatre: a continuous run that has grossed more than two billion dollars, employed several thousand actors across its Broadway and international touring companies, and effectively established the template for the modern revival as a perpetual revenue vehicle rather than a fixed-term event. An ensemble including Queen Latifah, Alex Newell, Adrienne Warren, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Julianne Hough will perform selections from the John Kander and Fred Ebb score. Separate tribute segments honour the 25th anniversary of 'The Book of Mormon,' the 50th anniversary of 'A Chorus Line' and the 30th anniversary of 'Rent,' assembling original cast members to mark productions that, between them, reshaped the commercial grammar of Broadway across four consecutive decades.