The Tonys got their name from Antoinette Perry

The Tony Awards, explained

Broadway's top honor began in 1947, when the American Theatre Wing created the Tony Awards in memory of Antoinette "Tony" Perry. From scrolls and cigarette lighters to today's iconic medallion, the Tonys have evolved into a nationally televised celebration of Broadway's best.

The Tony Awards were founded by Brock Pemberton

A Kansas boy who went on to become a groundbreaking Broadway producer, Brock Pemberton is also the founder of the Tony Awards. He went from a prodigious Midwestern newspaper reporter to a New York drama critic and quickly caught the attention of a local producer, who offered Pemberton a job and kick-started his decades-long Broadway career, which included cofounding the influential American Theatre Wing.

Try your hand at Tonys trivia

Wondering which musical was nominated for the most Tony Awards, or which theatrical families have seen multiple members nominated in the same year? This collection of statistics and trivia about the awards will satisfy your curiosity. There's even a section for people who have won Oscars and Tonys for the same role—also known as "overachievers."

The best Tony performances of all time

A big part of the Tony Awards ceremony is the selection of live performances from that year's nominated musicals. This Time Out list pulls together 35 of the best songs from over six decades of broadcasts, complete with videos of each. Catch the savannah-themed spectacle of 1998's "Circle of Life" from "The Lion King," the classic "Tomorrow" from "Annie," and many legendary Patti LuPone performances, among others.

Tony Awards are given only to shows playing in theaters with more than 500 seats

That means only shows playing in Broadway theaters are eligible for Tonys. Off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway theaters have fewer seats.

The awards are selected by approximately 50 industry insiders

The judges are required to see every production in a season. The Tony Awards Administration Committee, a self-governing board, selects these nominators, who serve on staggered terms of one to three years.

The Tony is the 'T' in EGOT

For a small number of incredibly talented people, an EGOT—winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony—is a career goal. The original EGOT-er was Richard Rodgers, who also won a Pulitzer. There are plenty of familiar names along the way, including Elton John, Whoopi Goldberg, and Jennifer Hudson.

The Tony statue features tragedy and comedy masks

The twin masks, one smiling and one frowning, represent the dual worlds of comedic and dramatic theatrical productions. Their roots go all the way back to ancient Greece, where they were used to cue the audience in on character emotions, no matter how far back from the stage they were seated (and to hide the real faces of men playing female characters).

Hal Prince holds the record for most Tonys, with 21

As the producer and director of iconic shows like "West Side Story," "Sweeney Todd," and "Evita," Hal Prince made a huge impression on Broadway history. This episode of the "Anything Goes" podcast is part of a three-part series that highlights the songs that defined Prince's career.

August Wilson’s ‘Fences’ swept the 1987 awards season

The play about a Black family in Pittsburgh won a Pulitzer Prize, a Tony Award, and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best play of the year.

Tony Hawk often doesn't get recognized in public

Tony Hawk is frequently misrecognized—partly because he's older now and his legal name is Anthony—with strangers often telling him he "looks like Tony Hawk" without realizing he is, in fact, the famed skateboarder.

Soap operas earned their name thanks to the sponsorships of soap brands

Many early 20th-century radio programs for women were sponsored by brands that introduced each new episode. Because these dramas were aimed at women, many of their sponsors were for household products, like soap. The association led some to refer to the shows as "soap operas," a title that stuck.

The Martha Graham Dance Company was the first integrated Broadway dance company

In 1951, Graham hired Mary Hinkson and Mattie Tierney, two Black dancers who started in the company's dance corps and eventually took on lead roles in productions. The move broke color barriers that were the norm for the time.

‘Torch songs’ are passionate expressions of unrequited love

The term comes from an idiom about dedicated romantics carrying torches for their love interests. The style was especially popular for female vocalists before the rise of rock ‘n’ roll and significantly influenced early girl group records.

Peloton, 'And Just Like That …,' and Chris Noth: all about Mr. Big's Peloton death and the following ad

In the "Sex and the City" spin-off "And Just Like That …", Mr. Big—played by Chris Noth—dies after having a heart attack after a Peloton class. In real life, the Peloton team had not been informed of the plot point. Peloton worked quickly to create an ad starring Noth in just two days in an attempt to get ahead of the story. But very soon after, Noth received public sexual assault allegations, leading to Peloton pulling the ad.

Why beefsteak tomatoes are named after a meaty dish

No, they won't get vegetarians into trouble, but beefsteak tomatoes did earn their name because of their meaty texture. People also associate the hearty beefsteak with sandwiches and burgers because they make for a perfect topping on meat-centric dishes. This quick explainer breaks down the basic etymology of the beefsteak and provides a few helpful ideas for using the tomato in your next meal.

A Tennessee children's hospital changed its name to Dolly Parton Children's Hospital

In 2026, East Tennessee Children's Hospital in Knoxville changed its name to Dolly Parton Children's Hospital. According to an announcement from Parton and the hospital's CEO, Parton will collaborate with the hospital to ensure it continues providing care for children in the Knoxville area.

Modern Champagne owes much of its existence to one woman: Widow Clicquot

Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, better known as the Widow Clicquot, might not have actually invented Champagne, but her innovative approach to winemaking yielded many techniques still used today. Taking over her husband’s failing business after his death, the Widow Clicquot combined business savvy and innovative thinking to make the process easier, more efficient, and, most important, more profitable.

Five books edited by Toni Morrison

Early in her literary career, Toni Morrison was an editor for Random House, where she acquired titles and worked with their writers to fine-tune their manuscripts. In 1983, Morrison left to focus on her own books, but she still managed to work on several excellent books. This list of five of those titles helpfully offers some context to highlight the ways Morrison acquired and assisted the writers through publication.

Tinnitus is derived from the Latin verb tinnire, meaning to ring

Read the entry in The Physical Dictionary by Stephen Blankaart, from 1693, where the word first appeared in English.

The origin of the sport's name is disputed

How pickleball got its name has been a point of contention for decades. The McCallums claim the family dog, Pickles, used to snatch the balls as they played and named it for him. Joan Pritchard, though, says Pickles didn’t join the family until after the game was invented.

One baker is likely responsible for several of New York's earliest pizzerias

Filippo Milone established at least six pizzerias in New York, including one that would later be called Lombardi's, widely considered to be the city's (and the country's) first pizza establishment. Milone died in 1924, leaving no children to tell his story. Researcher Peter Regas unearthed a 1903 advertisement, pictured below, from an Italian-language New York newspaper.

'Organize, agitate, educate, must be our war cry.'

- Suffragist Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)

A New Mexican town named itself after the quiz show 'Truth or Consequences'

If you've ever driven through southern New Mexico, you might've been struck by one particular town name: Truth or Consequences. Originally called Hot Springs, the town was renamed after the popular game show in 1950, which offered to broadcast from the first town to change its name to match the show's. Although the town originally planned on changing it back, the name stuck.

Jane Austen's books were published anonymously during her life

In 19th-century England, novel-writing was considered unseemly, especially for women. Considering that, Austen's father and brother dealt directly with Jane's publishers. The author's name, meanwhile, was not attached to her books: "Sense and Sensibility," her first published novel, was simply labeled as being "By a Lady."

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

Brian Wilson wrote the Beach Boys' 'Don't Worry Baby' for the Ronettes, but the legendary girl group rejected it.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

The distributor behind 'Rocky Horror' pulled the film from its scheduled national release, believing it would be a failure, though it eventually amassed a dedicated fanbase through midnight showings, a trend that continues over 50 years later.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

The concept of phantom limbs, the perception that amputated limbs are still present, dates back to a French military surgeon in the 16th century.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

Trace how the Bill of Rights, inspired by centuries of political theory, took shape between 1774 and 1789.

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

El Niño, Spanish for 'the boy,' was named after Jesus Christ because the phenomenon resembled the weather changes observed around Christmastime.