First-Time Tony Winners Talk About Their Victories

At the 78th Tony Awards on Sunday night, there was much excitement about the Broadway actors who won their first Tonys — including stage veterans like Natalie Venetia Belcon and newcomers like Cole Escola. Here’s what those seven actors had to say about winning their first Tony Award, in speeches delivered from the ceremony or in the press room.

Best Leading Actress in a Play

Sarah Snook, ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’

Snook, already an Emmy winner for “Succession,” won a Tony for playing all 26 roles in the stage adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Now, she can sit her Tonys statuette next to her Olivier award, which she won in 2024 — just after having her first child — for the same performance in London’s West End.

Best Leading Actor in a Play

Cole Escola, ‘Oh, Mary!’

Cole Escola, accepting their Tony for best leading actor in a play for the comedy “Oh, Mary!”Credit…Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Escola, an alt-cabaret performer who wrote and stars in the comedy “Oh, Mary!,” became the first nonbinary performer honored with a Tony in this category. In the show, which they developed for over a decade, they play a drunken, cabaret-aspiring Mary Todd Lincoln. It is their Broadway debut.

Best Leading Actress in a Musical

Nicole Scherzinger, ‘Sunset Boulevard’

Nicole Scherzinger, who won for best leading actress in a musical for “Sunset Boulevard,” said: “Just keep on giving and giving because the world needs your love and your light.”Credit…Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

After a powerful performance of “As If We Never Said Goodbye” earlier in the ceremony, Scherzinger, the former lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls, received her first Tony, for playing the washed-up silent film star, Norma Desmond, in a revival of “Sunset Boulevard.” Like Snook, she also won an Olivier in 2024 for her London performance in the role.

Best Leading Actor in a Musical

Darren Criss, ‘Maybe Happy Ending’

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