Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban will host the 2018 Tony Awards

Finding the right host for the Tony Awards can be tricky. On one hand, you want someone with real theater credentials to anchor Broadway's biggest night; on the other hand, you want someone that people outside the theater world might actually have heard of. Find the right balance, and the results can be magical: Hugh Jackman, Neil Patrick Harris and Angela Lansbury all had memorable stints as hosts, and each returned for several years in a row. This year, the awards ceremony—which will be held at Radio City Music Hall on June 10, and broadcast nationally on CBS—is turning to stars from the arena of popular music: singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles and semiclassical vocalist Josh Groban. 

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Both artists have stage chops in addition to their chart hits, and are well-known and well-liked within the Broadway community. Bareilles wrote the score for the 2016 musical Waitress, and has played the leading role in that show for limited runs twice so far; Groban earned a 2017 Tony nomination for his touching turn as the melancholic Russian aristocrat Pierre in Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812. Producers of this year's Tonys, for reasons they did not specify, opted against a return engagement for last year's host, Kevin Spacey.

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