The Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre is a non-competitive award created by the

American Theatre Wing The American Theatre Wing (the Wing for short) is a New York City–based non-profit organization "dedicated to supporting excellence and education in theatre", according to its mission statement. Originally known as the Stage Women's War Relief ...

in 1990. They are presented to institutions, individuals and/or organizations that have demonstrated extraordinary achievement in theatre, but are not eligible to compete in any of the established

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cer ...

categories. The Tony Honors "are announced in the autumn. They are bestowed at a separate ceremony that affords recipients a special moment in the spotlight." As explained in ''

Playbill ''Playbill'' is an American monthly magazine for theatergoers. Although there is a subscription issue available for home delivery, most copies of ''Playbill'' are printed for particular productions and distributed at the door as the show's pr ...

'', "In 2003, a new tradition began for the Tony Honors, which were previously announced during the Tony Awards broadcast. Last year, however, the Honors were presented in the fall..." The first recipient was

Alfred Drake Alfred Drake (October 7, 1914 – July 25, 1992) was an American actor and singer. Biography Born as Alfred Capurro in New York City, the son of parents emigrated from Recco, Genoa, Drake began his Broadway career while still a student at Broo ...

, who was recognized for his lengthy career in

musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movemen ...

Recipients

*1990: Alfred Drake *1991: Father George Moore, pastor of St. Malachy's Church (known as The Actors’ Chapel) "for his service and commitment to the needy and elderly of the theater district and improving conditions in the Times Square area." *1992: Tom Jones and

Harvey Schmidt Harvey Lester Schmidt (September 12, 1929 – February 28, 2018) was an American composer for musical theatre and illustrator. He was best known for composing the music for the longest running musical in history, '' The Fantasticks'', which ran of ...

for ''The Fantasticks'', now in its 33rd year Off-Broadway. *1993:

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada, known as simply the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE or ...

, "a labor union of professional craftspeople in 900 locals who work behind the scenes in the entertainment industry";Gerard, Jeremy. "Tonys Go To 'Kiss,' 'Angels'" ''Daily Variety'', June 7, 1993, p. 1

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA) is an American nonprofit organization that raises funds for AIDS-related causes across the United States, headquartered in New York City. It is the theatre community's response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. ...

. The entertainment industry's most active charity addressing the challenges of AIDS. *1995:

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

*1998: The International Theatre Institute of the United States *2000:

Eileen Heckart Anna Eileen Heckart ( Herbert; March 29, 1919 – December 31, 2001) was an American stage and screen actress whose career spanned nearly 60 years. Early life Heckart was born Anna Eileen Herbert in Columbus, Ohio. The daughter of Esther (), w ...

; General Manager/Producer Sylvia Herscher; City Center ''Encores!'' *2001: Betty Corwin, founder and director of the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive of the

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Metro ...

; New Dramatists; ''

Theatre World ''Theatre World'' is an annual American theatre pictorial and statistical print publication. It includes Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, and regional theatre, national theatrical awards, and obituaries. Theatre World "In 1944, three ...

'' *2003: The principal ensemble of

Baz Luhrmann Mark Anthony Luhrmann (born 17 September 1962), known professionally as Baz Luhrmann, is an Australian film director, producer, writer and actor. With projects spanning film, television, opera, theatre, music and recording industries, he is re ...

's ''

La Bohème ''La bohème'' (; ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions ''quadri'', ''tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe G ...

''; wig and hair stylist Paul Huntley; Johnson-Liff Casting Associates;

The Acting Company The Acting Company is a professional theater company that tours the United States annually, staging and performing one or two plays in as many as fifty cities, often with runs of only one or two nights. Drama critic Mel Gussow has called it "the ma ...

. *2004: The cast of the 2003 Broadway production of '' Big River''; Nancy Coyne, chief executive of the theater advertising agency Serino Coyne; restaurateurs Frances and Harry Edelstein of Cafe Edison and

Vincent Sardi, Jr. Vincent Sardi Jr. (July 23, 1915 – January 4, 2007) was an American restaurateur who owned and operated Sardi's restaurant, which was founded by his father Vincent Sardi Sr., for more than 50 years. He was dubbed as the "unofficial mayor of Broa ...

Sardi's Sardi's is a Continental food, continental restaurant located at 234 West 44th Street, between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eighth Avenue, in the Theater District, Manhattan, Theater District of Manhattan, New Yo ...

; photographer

Martha Swope Martha Joan Swope (February 22, 1928 – January 12, 2017) was an American photographer of theatre and dance. Early life and education Born in Tyler, Texas, she studied at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, before becoming a student at the Schoo ...

Simonson, Robert Robert Simonson (born September 11, 1964) is an American journalist and author. Personal life Robert Simonson was born in Wisconsin; he has lived in Brooklyn since 1988. Career Robert Simonson began writing about cocktails, spirits and bars for ...

"Theatre Community Turns Out to Salute Special Tony Honorees"
playbill.com, October 27, 2004 *2005: Producer Peter Neufeld;

Theatre Communications Group Theatre Communications Group (TCG) is a non-profit service organization headquartered in New York City that promotes professional non-profit theatre in the United States. The organization also publishes ''American Theatre'' magazine and ''ARTSEA ...

. *2006:

BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) is a performance rights organization in the United States. It collects blanket license fees from businesses that use music, entitling those businesses to play or sync any songs from BMI's repertoire of over 20.6 milli ...

; ''

Forbidden Broadway ''Forbidden Broadway'' is an Off-Broadway revue parodying musical theatre, particularly Broadway musicals. It was conceived, written and directed by Gerard Alessandrini. The original version of the revue opened on January 15, 1982, at Palsson's S ...

'' and its creator,

Gerard Alessandrini Gerard Alessandrini (born November 27, 1953) is an American playwright, parodist, actor and theatre director best known for creating the award-winning off-Broadway musical theatre parody revue ''Forbidden Broadway''. He is the recipient of T ...

;

William Morris Agency The William Morris Agency (WMA) was a Hollywood-based talent agency. It represented some of the best known 20th-century entertainers in film, television, and music. During its 109-year tenure it came to be regarded as the "first great talent a ...

Senior VP Samuel Liff;

Ellen Stewart Ellen Stewart (November 7, 1919 – January 13, 2011) was an American theatre director and producer and the founder of La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club. During the 1950s she worked as a fashion designer for Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodm ...

. *2007:

Gemze de Lappe Gemze de Lappe (February 28, 1922, Portsmouth, Virginia – November 11, 2017 Manhattan) was an American dancer who worked very closely with Agnes de Mille and was frequently partnered by de Mille's favorite male dancer, James Mitchell. Born to ...

; wardrobe supervisor Alyce Gilbert; CEO of Hudson Scenic Studios Neil Mazzella; musician and musical contractor Seymour "Red" Press. *2009: Press agent Shirley Herz. *2010: The Alliance of Resident Theatres New York;

B.H. Barry BH, Bh or bh may refer to: Medicine * Bernard-Horner syndrome, a combination of symptoms that arises when a group of nerves known as the sympathetic trunk is damaged * Borderline hypertensive, an American medical classification for cases wher ...

(teacher); Tom Viola ( BC/EFA executive director). *2011: William Berloni (animal trainer); The Drama Book Shop (West 40th Street, Manhattan); Sharon Jensen and Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts. *2012: entertainment attorney Freddie Gershon; Artie Siccardi; the TDF Open Doors Program *2013: NYC Mayor

Michael Bloomberg Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ca ...

Career Transition For Dancers Career Transition For Dancers is a nonprofit organization with offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago that helps dancers establish new careers when they have retired from their performing careers. Founded in 1985, the organization has 4,60 ...

; William "Bill" Craver; Peter Lawrence (Production Stage Manager); ''The Lost Colony'' (

Roanoke Island Roanoke Island () is an island in Dare County, North Carolina, Dare County, bordered by the Outer Banks of North Carolina, United States. It was named after the historical Roanoke (tribe), Roanoke, a Carolina Algonquian people who inhabited the ar ...

, in Manteo, North Carolina); jointly to Sophia Gennusa, Oona Laurence, Bailey Ryon and Milly Shapiro, the four actresses who share the lead in ''

Matilda the Musical ''Roald Dahl's Matilda'', simply known as ''Matilda'' or ''Matilda the Musical'', is a stage musical with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin and a book by Dennis Kelly, based on the 1988 novel ''Matilda'' by Roald Dahl. The musical's narrative c ...

''. *2014:

Actors Fund of America The Entertainment Community Fund, formerly The Actors Fund, is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that supports performers and behind-the-scenes workers in performing arts and entertainment, helping more than 17,000 people directly each year. Ser ...

President Joseph P. Benincasa; photographer Joan Marcus; general manager Charlotte Wilcox. *2015: Scenery designer Arnold Abramson; public relations consultant Adrian Bryan-Brown; theatre technician Gene O'Donovan. *2016: Entertainment attorney Seth Gelblum; vocal coach Joan Lader; costume shop proprietor Sally Ann Parsons. *2017: General managers Nina Lannan and Alan Wasser. *2018:

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

photographer Sara Krulwich, costume beader Bessie Nelson, and Ernest Winzer Cleaners. *2019
Broadway Inspirational Voices
founded by Tony and Grammy Awards nominee Michael McElroy, Chair Emeritus, Tony Award winner and Emmy nominee

Phylicia Rashad Phylicia Rashad ( ) (née Ayers-Allen; born June 19, 1948) is an American actress, singer and director who is dean of the College of Fine Arts at Howard University. She is best known for her role as Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom ''The Cosby S ...

*2020: President of PRG Scenic Technologies Fred Gallo, press agent Irene Gandy, stage manager Beverly Jenkins, and the

New Federal Theatre The New Federal Theatre is a theatre company named after the African-American branch of the Federal Theatre Project, which was created in the United States during the Great Depression to provide resources for theatre and other artistic programs. ...

*2022: Asian American Performers Action Coalition, Broadway for All, music copyist Emily Grishman,

Feinstein's/54 Below 54 Below is a cabaret and restaurant in the basement of Studio 54 in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Owned by Broadway producers Steve Baruch, Richard Frankel, Marc Routh and Tom Viertel, 54 Below has hosted shows by such performers as Patt ...

, and

United Scenic Artists United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829, formerly known as United Scenic Artists of America (USAA), is an American labor union. It is a nationwide autonomous Local of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. It organizes designer ...

(Local USA 829,

IATSE The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada, known as simply the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE or ...

References

External links

Official Tony Awards website
{{Tony Awards American theater awards Tony Awards Culture of New York City Awards established in 1990 1990 establishments in New York City