J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell made history as the first non-binary person to win the acting Tonys

Tony Awards history was made Sunday when Alex Newell and J Harrison G became the first non-binary people to win a Tony for representing the Broadway community on its way forward despite a Hollywood writers’ strike that left the theater’s biggest night without a script.

“Thank you for the humanity. Thank you for my amazing company that raised me every single day,” said Gee, winner of the Leading Actor in a Musical for “Some Like It Hot,” the adaptation of the comedy classic.

The energetic Ghee stunned audiences with their voice and dance skills, as they played a Chicago musician, on the run from gangsters, who try on and change into a dress.

Newell, who plays Lulu—an independent whiskey distiller who doesn’t need a man in “Shucked”—has wowed audiences with their signature number, “Independently Owned.”

“Thanks for seeing me, Broadway. I shouldn’t be here as a geeky, non-binary, fat, little black kid from Massachusetts. And to anyone who thinks they can’t do it, I’m going to look you dead in the face that you can do anything you put your mind to.” Newell gave an ovation when winning the award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.

total 26 Tony Awards It was syndicated Sunday for a season that featured 40 new performances — 15 musicals, 24 plays and special engagements during its first full post-pandemic season.

An intimate, funny, and wistful musical, “Kimberly Akimbo” eliminated the grittier competitors Sunday to win Best Musical.

Victoria Clarke, as the show’s hero, has added a second Tony to her trophy bag, having won one in 2005 for “The Light in the Piazza”.

Tom Stoppard’s film “Leopoldstadt,” which explores Jewish identity through a cross-generational story, won best play, and also took home awards for director Patrick Marber, featured actor Brandon Uranowitz and costumes by Brigitte Riefenstwill.

Stoppard, the Czech-British playwright who now has a top five Tony, joked that he won his first play in 1968 and said that playwrights are “gradually lower down the food chain” despite being “the sharp ends of the inverted pyramid”.

Host Ariana DeBose opened with a blank script backstage before dancing and jumping her way to opening the main show with a frantic opening number that delivered an electric jolt to what is usually an exhilarating, safe, and wonderful night. The writers’ strike has led the acclaimed award show honors for best musicals and plays to rely on spontaneity in a new setting far from the theater district.

Before the pre-show began, DeBose revealed to the audience the only words visible on the teleprompter screen: “Please end the show”. Later in the evening, almost out of breath after her silent performance, she thanked the organizers for allowing them to compromise.

The winners showed their solidarity with the amazing writers both on stage and on the red carpet with pins. Miriam Silverman, who won a Tony Award for Best Actress in “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” concluded, “My parents raised me to believe in the power of work and to compensate workers and treat them fairly. We stand with the WGA in solidarity!”

Three-time Emmy-nominated star of Killing Eve Jodie Comer won the lead actress in her Broadway debut, the one-man show “Prima Facie,” which shows how terribly current laws fail when it comes to sex. assault cases.

Sean Hayes won a lead actor in the play “Good Night, Oscar,” which depicts a night-long journey into the psyche of the late pianist Oscar Levant, now an obscure but TV star.

“This must be the first time an Oscar has won a Tony,” Hayes cracked. (not like that).

The show took place at the United Palace Theatre, in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood – a new concert venue, many miles from Times Square and the theater district.