If you are sensing a frisson of excitement in the Manhattan area today, that may well be because the 2024 Tony nominees were announced this morning. (Installed at Sofitel New York on West 44th Street, Renée Elise Goldsberry and Jesse Tyler Ferguson made a deeply charming double-act as they read off the categories.) In a season filled with several thrilling debuts—as well as vaunted revivals, reunions, and other happy returns—the list of nominated actors, directors, playwrights, composers, and other theater-makers this year was filled with all manner of exciting names, from rising stars to Broadway veterans.
Of the former category: Jocelyn Bioh, who made her Broadway playwriting debut with Jaja’s African Hair Braiding last fall, was thrilled at her show’s five nominations (for best new play, best scenic design of a play, best costume design of a play, best sound design of a play, and best direction of a play). “This is a dream bigger than any I could have imagined sitting in the chair of a Harlem hair braiding shop as a kid,” Bioh said. “That little girl never thought a day like today was possible, but it is one I will never, ever forget.”
Television writer Bekah Brunstetter, who penned the book for Michael Greif and Schele Williams’s inventive musical adaptation of The Notebook, also received a nod for her debut Broadway production. “I’m back home in LA, so I was jolted awake early this morning by the BEST KIND OF EARTHQUAKE,” she enthused in an email. “Working with Ingrid [Michaelson, who wrote the music] on The Notebook has been such a true collaboration in every sense of the word; we built this together over the years, so I see this nomination as something the whole creative team gets to celebrate together as a family. I’m so grateful to be included in this bananas season of talent.”
Kristoffer Diaz, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2010, made his own Broadway debut this month with Alicia Keys’s Hell’s Kitchen. Reacting to his nomination, one of that show’s 13, he said, “In the mid-’90s I saw three shows that changed my life: Rent, Crazy for You, and John Leguizamo’s Spic-O-Rama. Somewhere in there I made up my mind that this was what I was going to do with my life. Broadway was always the goal. The Tonys were always the goal. And today, I get to celebrate my show that was directed by Michael Greif (Rent) in the Shubert Theater (Crazy for You), and John Leguizamo was the first person to text me congrats. It means the world to be recognized for this show alongside this company… and the best collaborator I’ve ever worked with (Alicia Keys!) and hopefully make New York City proud.”