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Broadway's unusually rich 2024–25 season comes to an end on Sunday, June 8, when the 2025 Tony Awards get handed out at Radio City Music Hall. The nominations have been made, the in-depth profiles of nominees have been written, our predictions have been nervously lodged. Now there's nothing left but the cheering—and, of course, the singing and dancing.
The CBS broadcast on Sunday night will include musical performances by nine of this year's contenders: Best Musical nominees Dead Outlaw, Death Becomes Her, Maybe Happy Ending, Operation Mincemeat and Buena Vista Social Club; and Best Musical Revival nominees Gypsy, Sunset Blvd., Floyd Collins and Pirates! The Penzance Musical. If that's not enough to sate your hunger for Broadway, there will also be numbers from Real Women Have Curves and Just in Time. But wait, there's more! The original cast of Hamilton is scheduled to take to the stage to commemorate the show's tenth anniversary on Broadway. The show is also sure to include some original numbers—including, we assume, at least one for this year's host, the wickedly talented Cynthia Erivo.
RECOMMENDED: A complete guide to the 2025 Tony Awards
Here are six tips for watching the Tony Awards this year.
1. The Tony Awards will air live from coast to coast
Theater is all about the thrill of the live moment. But until recently, viewers who weren't in the Eastern Time Zone watched the Tony telecast hours after happened. In the age of social media, that kind of delay is increasingly old-fashioned. So CBS now broadcasts the three-hour main portion of the awards ceremony live and simultaneously from coast to coast, starting at 8pm ET, 7pm CT, 6pm MT and 5pm PT. The Tonys will also stream live and on demand on Paramount+. If you're recording it on DVR to watch later, remember that the telecast sometimes runs long.
2. The Tonys will be in two parts—and the first will not be on CBS
As has been the case for decades, not all of the 26 races will be included in the televised portion of the Tony ceremony. Many of the prizes will be handed out in the 80 minutes before the CBS telecast begins, including all eight design awards and probably those for book, choreography and orchestrations. The practice of splitting the Tonys into two parts always engenders a certain amount of grumbling from Broadway fans who consider it a slight to the categories in the non-CBS portion. In fact, though, this division is what permits the existence of most of those categories to begin with. (When the telecast included every award, there were only three categories for designers and orchestrators; now there are nine.)
3. …But you can stream the first 80 minutes live on Pluto TV (and you should!)
That first section of the Tony ceremony, called The Tony Awards: Act One, will be streamed live throughout the country in the "Pluto TV Celebrity" section of the free streaming service Pluto TV starting at 6:40pm ET/3:40pm PT. This part of the ceremony will be co-hosted by 2025 nominee Darren Criss and past winner Renée Elise Goldsberry. You'll want to make sure that you have Pluto TV installed in advance, because if you're a true theater lover, Act One is definitely worth watching. In addition to its competitive awards, it may include some of the honorary ones (such as the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement that is being given to Harvey Fierstein this year).
4. Watch it in a group if you can
Theater, even theater on TV or a streaming service, is best experienced as part of a crowd. Host a viewing party with friends so you can participate in the collective experience, or find a venue near you that is hosting a Tonys-themed event. If you want to combine viewing with charity, consider the watch parties at 54 Below (a fundraiser for the venue's valuable ticket subsidy program) or at Jack Doyle's (a benefit for Theater Resources Unlimited). Less expensive options include the annual watch party at the West Village's Stonewall Inn, hosted by Anthony Fett and Lavinia Draper, a Tony celebration at Brooklyn Art Haus and a rooftop party at 230 Fifth.
5. Follow along on social media
If you can't be part of an in-person audience, you can still be part of a virtual one. Theater Twitter goes nuts on Tony night, and tracking the community's reactions in real-time—the joy, the pain, the snark—can be part of the fun of the night. I'll be live-tweeting throughout the show from my own X account as well as from Time Out New York's main account. Join the party!
6. Brush up on the races before you watch
The musical numbers do their own work, but the parts of the ceremony devoted to actually giving out the awards is a lot more suspenseful—and thus a lot more entertaining—if you know who the main players are. Our complete list of Tony predictions includes thumbnail sketches of the races in every category.
7. Get into the spirit by watching the all-time best past Tony performances
The Tonys play an essential role in preserving Broadway history for future theater lovers to enjoy. Take advantage of that by luxuriating in our list of the 35 best Tony Awards performances of all time. Will any of this year's performances earn a place in this exalted company? We'll all find out together on Sunday. (And if you have a little extra time on your hands, check out this our auxiliary collection of quirkier clips.)
