Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play | |
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![]() 2019 Recipient: Elaine May for The Waverly Gallery | |
Awarded for | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play |
Location | New York City |
Presented by | American Theatre Wing, The Broadway League |
Currently held by | Elaine May for The Waverly Gallery (2019) |
Website | TonyAwards.com |
The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play is an honor presented at the Tony Awards, a ceremony established in 1947 as the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre. The award is given to actresses for quality leading roles in a Broadway play. [1] Despite the award first being presented in 1947, there were no nominees announced until 1956. There have been two ties in this category, and one three-way tie.
Year | Actress | Play | Character |
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1947 1st Tony Awards | |||
Ingrid Bergman | Joan of Lorraine | Mary Grey / Joan of Arc | |
Helen Hayes | Happy Birthday | Addie Bemis | |
1948 2nd Tony Awards | |||
Judith Anderson | Medea | Medea | |
Katharine Cornell | Antony and Cleopatra | Cleopatra | |
Jessica Tandy | A Streetcar Named Desire | Blanche DuBois | |
1949 3rd Tony Awards | |||
Martita Hunt | The Madwoman of Chaillot | Countess Aurelia |
Year | Actress | Play | Character |
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2020 74th Tony Awards | Joaquina Kalukango | Slave Play | Kaneisha |
Laura Linney | My Name Is Lucy Barton | Lucy Barton | |
Audra McDonald | Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune | Frankie | |
Mary-Louise Parker | The Sound Inside | Bella Baird |
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Actress who have been nominated multiple times in any acting categories
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in Midtown Manhattan.
Anne Hampton Potts is an American actress. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Corvette Summer (1978) and won a Genie Award for Heartaches (1981), before appearing in Ghostbusters (1984), Pretty in Pink (1986), Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986), Who's Harry Crumb? (1989), and Ghostbusters II (1989). She voiced Bo Peep in the Disney and Pixar animated films Toy Story (1995), Toy Story 2 (1999), and Toy Story 4 (2019). Potts played Mary Jo Jackson Shively on the CBS sitcom Designing Women (1986–1993). She went on to be nominated for a 1994 Primetime Emmy Award for playing Dana Palladino on the CBS sitcom Love & War (1993–1995), and was nominated for Screen Actors Guild Awards in 1998 and 1999 for playing Mary Elizabeth Sims in the Lifetime drama series Any Day Now (1998–2002). Her other television credits include GCB (2012), The Fosters (2013–2018), and Young Sheldon (2017–present).
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The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play is an honor presented at the Tony Awards, a ceremony established in 1947 as the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, to actors for quality leading roles in a Broadway play. The awards are named after Antoinette Perry, an American actress who died in 1946. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the Tony Award Productions, a joint venture of The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, to "honor the best performances and stage productions of the previous year." Despite the award first being presented in 1947, there were no nominees announced until 1956.
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