Top 30 Best Tony Award Performances of All Time
Video Overview & Insights
The Tony Awards bring Broadway to the small screen. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the greatest musical performances at the annual Tony awards ceremony. Our countdown includes "Gypsy," "Cats," "Company," and more! Which of these Tony performances lives rent-free in YOUR head? Tell us in the comments!
The biggest shock and miscarriage was Raul Esparza not winning the tony for Company even David Hyde Pierce won for Curtains. A slight performance simlar to his turn in Fraizer said did you see this mans performance he should have this
I suspect his coming out just before the awards
Watch more great Tony Awards videos here:
The Best Tonys Performance of Each Year (2000-2022) - https://youtu.be/9-ErStbdjB8
Sutton Foster and the cast of "Anything Goes" leaps off my screen. Sheer show power exuberance.
Top 10 Underappreciated Tony Awards Performances - https://youtu.be/KqAV3TIktKM
Top 10 Greatest Tonys Host Performances - https://youtu.be/uWIfP64r3Ms
Couldn't help notice th curl onthe back of Lupone's wig kept moving around on its own.
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I saw Dreamgirls in Boston prior to it moving to Broadway and Jennifer Holliday's performance was spectacular. The audience was standing and cheering even before 'I Am Telling You' was over. That show probably pushed me into my life-long love of musical theater and I still cry every time I hear her performance.
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Awesome list - I saw Rent - Lion King and Wicked in the Theater - and all were absolutely amazing
#TonyAwards #Tonys #Musicals #Broadway #Performances
Neil Patrick Harris, kudos to him.
More User Perspectives
Let it Burn should be much higher.
@Zwest07At this point, I would put Les Miz much lower. Great song, but the Tony performance is just -- okay compared to some more modern pieces.
@christinedunning8463Good list. Number one was well deserved. I think Defying Gravity should have made it though.
@todhaley3668i had NO IDEA that apparently i actually got to see the original Next to Normal cast in it's first year running and i took it for granted because I was in high school at the time, which is WHY we went to see it - the school paid for the tickets as part of our theatre class elective. I had no idea i was witnessing something like that for the first time
@belzabub5359Mathilda was a screamfest, and not a pleasent one. Not the Boy Next Door terrible. Company, why sing a song when you can scream it.
@robbey10Oh yeah you did forget Angela Lansbury. But I'll give you a break because you got #1 right.☺
@Tee-wg3mgYOU GOT IT RIGHT!!! JENNIFER HOLIDAY NUMBER ONE!!! I would have put Grand Hotel at #2. 😀😀
@Tee-wg3mgNatasha and Pierre was ROBBED and I will DIE on this hill
@hannahbarch4695Would have lived to see Come From Away on the list!
@kathys2876up next: the hamilton tony performance 2025
@silly_morninggloryAfter 2025, you'd have to add Hamilton's 10th anniversary performance.
@jennytaylor8535Matty?? its Mandy...
@calebgreen3554How could you leave out Liza Minnelli's epic CITY LIGHTS performance from THE ACT ? 😳
@SallyWilliamsI’m gonna need an updated list and have Audra’s 2025 performance of “Rose’s Turn” to go STRAIGHT to the top thank you!!!
@fionabarrett3863Ragtime got so overshadowed by The Lion King. It's marvelous score.
@LuisRodriguez-bo4xgThis needs to be updated and I mean specifically no.1.... audra Macdonald
@graybrennan1You need to update this and put Audra Day in this for her role as Mama Rose in Gypsy!
@corazonbesoThe Lion King was mesmerizing! I still want to it live.
@jmw939The opening of "A Chorus Line". One of the first things I thought was "wow, I don't feel like Broadway actors dance quite that well anymore." Then I thought "wow, I don't think Broadway actors sing that poorly now."
It seems there has been a shift away from dancing towards singing. Given our culture of singing shows and a fall in the interest of dancing, this makes sense.
Think Hamilton should have been higher.
@tibbytx1Yes yes- DREAMGIRLS !!! Effies’s deep breath and look of desperation at the end 👏🏽 👏🏽 🥹
@ristinareactionsI have to say that The Lion King should have been #1. It was unbelievably epic and gave me goosebumps and I couldn't wait to see the show.
@JeffEdge-w3rLet it Burn is in the top 5 ever.
@triffusI was hoping against hope that "We'll Take A Glass Together" would show up and was so glad to see it!! ❤
@emilygracey"Late actor Rual Esparza"? I'm 99.99 percent sure he is still alive...
@jscho8674AWESOME list. Hoped to see Beauty & the Beast in there somewhere, but I'll be ok with it!
@DaniTrynCynthia Erivo's performance of "I'm Here" at the Tonys is the precise reason she should've been Celie in "The Color Purple" movie musical instead of Fantasia!
@elephantbluepeterI heard Jennifer Holliday sing And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going on the radio before I heard her sing it on Broadway live. Both times were absolutely phenomenal. Hearing her sing it on the radio made people all over the world come to Broadway to hear her live. She brought the house completely down. It was a thunderous and bravo overload of a performance. Dream girls is a magnificent show.
@josephjames3838Ummm Always Staring Over from If/Then was a great performance
@henryharrington4108Umm. No. Number one belongs to “Bigger” from the 2013 Tonys.
@johnsonken96What about come from away and the impacts of 911 and what Canada did during that time
@alicianorton7558Katrina Linke was mesmerizing. The music was so unusual, and she was spectacular.
@maggiegibbons2890I will now stop watching your top lists as you leaven off Defying Gravity off your Top 30 Best Tony Award performances
@leonardrusso3227Being alive only at 26??
@garrettr3644I couldn't understand how Lion King wasn't #1. Then Jennifer Holliday went and made me tear up in 2 seconds flat!
@KaiserinErzsiThe fact that let it burn wasn’t higher on this list is an absolute crime.
@ShannonMarie-vz8njWe all know the most iconic one is anything goes Patti LuPone 1988 tony
@natnisanijchin7477I was in the theater the night that Jennifer Holliday made goosebumps on every arm in the theater, She hit one not so hard and pure that it bounced off the walls at the back of the theater and we all turned to look to see if there was someone else there singing with her, AWESOME.
@gracebrown3494"Brotherhood of Man" Deserved a spot.
@marboeditz9295did patti know you put her under cats
@natnisa2yeahya626One thing you neglected to mention about The Lion King's Tony performance: it's even more impressive when you consider the entire design of the performance was created around the theatre it originally was in: a smaller theatre with box seats that were utilized by certain 'creatures' to create more of a jungle/plains environment. Birds and monkeys appear in the boxes and on the rims of the balcony, and the smaller atmosphere makes the audience part of the animals arriving to celebrate. But the Tony's that year were at FRICKING RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL - which is HUGE. Yet, they still managed to recreate that feeling of inclusion of the audience. It makes the performance that much more magical, that it was able to lose none of that feeling.
@kimberlybrady6976I don't understand how the "honorable mentions" weren't in the top 10. I thought Into The Woods would have been in there along with Hugh Jackman as the flamboyant "Boy From Oz", at least as honorable mentions.
@sydnigrauberger5984