Liberation wins best play at Tony Awards, Death of a Salesman leads nights prizes

Broadway’s biggest night split its loyalties between a new play with intellectual and political force and a star-packed revival built on a classic title. Liberation, Bess Wohl’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about a 1970s Ohio consciousness-raising group, won best play, while Death of a Salesman led the ceremony’s prize count and underscored how powerfully revivals and name recognition still shape the awards race.

The 79th Annual Tony Awards were held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, with P!NK hosting for the first time. The show aired live on CBS and streamed on Paramount+, a reminder that the Tonys now have to serve both the theater crowd in the room and a wider home audience watching on broadcast and streaming.

Liberation was the clearest statement of the night in favor of new writing. Directed by Whitney White and opened on Broadway on October 28, 2025 after a Roundabout Theatre Company run, the play won the 2026 Tony Award for best play after also taking the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Drama on May 4. The Pulitzer board described the work as a striking blend of comedy and sincerity that uses the story of Wohl’s mother to examine how the feminist movement grew out of conversation. With the win, Wohl became only the fourth female playwright in Tony history to win best play, and the first American woman to do so in close to 40 years. Wendy Wasserstein was the last American woman to win, for The Heidi Chronicles in 1989, and Yasmina Reza was the last woman overall before Wohl, for God of Carnage in 2009.

If Liberation represented the case for new work, Death of a Salesman represented Broadway’s continuing reliance on prestige revival and star-driven familiarity. The production, starring Nathan Lane and Laurie Metcalf, led the night with the most wins in live coverage reports, taking home honors that included acting and technical categories. John Lithgow also won for Giant, reinforcing how the awards again favored productions anchored by recognizable performers and established titles.

The 2026 Tony nominations were announced on May 5, after the April 26 eligibility cutoff, and the results reflected a season in which Broadway still leaned on proven properties while making room for fresh voices. The balance of the night suggested an industry trying to do both at once: sell tickets with marquee names and classics, while still signaling that new writing can break through at the top.