2025 Tony Awards: 11 Things You Didn’t See on TV

The Tony Awards returned to Radio City Music Hall for the first time in three years on Sunday (June 8) evening, with 2016 Tony winner Cynthia Erivo hosting the main broadcast and Darren Criss (who would win a Tony before the night was over) and Renée Elise Goldsberry (who won a Tony in 2016) co-hosting the pre-show awards.

Erivo — who was recently on the cover of Billboard talking about her new studio album, I Forgive You — opened the show with a musical number that demonstrated the near-EGOT (she’s just short an Oscar at this point, despite three noms) talent is one of the premier voices of her generation.

It’s been a big time for Broadway: the 2024-2025 season pulled in nearly $2 billion in revenue, which is not only a huge bounce back from its post-pandemic box office doldrums but marks the highest grossing Broadway season on record. When all was said and done, Maybe Happy Ending was the biggest winner of the 2025 Tonys, with the little-production-that-could nabbing a total of six Tony Awards after a slow start at the box office during previews.

Aside from performances from 11 musicals currently playing on Broadway, the broadcast also boasted a 10-year anniversary salute to Hamilton, with Lin-Manuel Miranda and the original cast reuniting to knock out a medley of songs from the Tony-winning juggernaut.

Billboard was backstage during the 2025 Tonys in the press room, asking questions of the new Tony winners and, in many cases, watching them watch a live feed of the broadcast to see who was winning awards while they were chatting with the press. Here’s what we learned.