Purpose, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ drawing-room drama about an accomplished Black family that exposes hypocrisy and pressures during a snowed-in gathering, was honoured as the best new play at the 2025 Tony Awards.
Jacobs-Jenkins, a second-time Tony winner, also earned the Pulitzer Prize for Purpose.
Best actresses:
Sarah Snook, known for her role in Succession, won the Tony Award for leading actress in a play for her tireless work in The Picture of Dorian Gray.
“This means so much for a little Australian girl,” Snook, who plays all 26 roles in her play, said.
Purpose actress Kara Young bagged the featured actress in a play trophy for her work in the best play of the year. With this trophy, she became the first Black person to win two Tonys consecutively.
Young is the first Black female actor to be nominated for a Tony in four consecutive years, of which she bagged two.
The actress thanked her parents, playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, her cast and director Phylicia Rashad. She called the theatre “a sacred space and it makes us united.”
Best actors:
Francis Jue, who won best actor in a featured role in a play for his work in a revival of Yellow Face, shared that he was gifted the tux he was wearing from another Asian actor who wanted him to wear it to the Tonys.
“I’m only here because of the encouragement and inspiration of generations of wonderful, deserving Asian artists who came before me,” he said. “To those who don’t feel seen. I see you,” he added.
Jak Malone won best actor in a featured role in a musical for the British import Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical, playing a woman every performance. He hoped his win could be a powerful advocacy for trans rights.
Here’s a select list of winners at 2025 Tony Awards:
Best Play: Purpose
Best actress in a featured role in a musical: Natalie Venetia Belcon, Buena Vista Social Club
Best actress in a featured role in a play: Kara Young, Purpose
Best actor in a featured role in a musical: Jak Malone, Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical
Best actor in a featured role in a play: Francis Jue, Yellow Face
Best actress in a leading role in a play: Sarah Snook, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Best original score: Maybe Happy Ending (Music: Will Aronson, Lyrics: Will Aronson and Hue Park)
Best costume design of a musical: Paul Tazewell, Death Becomes Her
Best costume design of a play: Marg Horwell, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Best Choreography: Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck, Buena Vista Social Club
Best book of a musical: Will Aronson and Hue Park, Maybe Happy Ending
