Media Release: Monday June 5, 2017

THE 71st ANNUAL TONY AWARDS
Stars from stage and screen join host Kevin Spacey

LIVE AND ONLY ON FOXTEL ARTS
NEXT MONDAY JUNE 12 AT 10AM
Or stream it on Foxtel Play

Foxtel Arts channel will broadcast Broadway’s ultimate night of nights the 71st Annual Tony® Awards live and exclusive from Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Monday June 12 from 10am.

Marking 71 years of excellence on Broadway, The Tony Awards honour theatre professionals for distinguished achievement on Broadway and has been broadcast on CBS since 1978 and are presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing.

For the first time, Tony and Academy Award winning actor Kevin Spacey will host the Tonys and will be joined by some of the biggest stars from theatre, television, film and music who will take to the stage at the 71st Annual Tony Awards.

Broadway’s biggest night will feature appearances by Orlando Bloom, Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Josh Gad, Taraji P. Henson, Scarlett Johansson, Anna Kendrick, Keegan-Michael Key, Olivia Wilde, and 2017 Tony Nominees Josh Groban, Bette Midler and Ben Platt.

Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, an offbeat pop opera based on a slice of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”, which stars Josh Groban leads with 12 nominations, including the category for Best Musical alongside Come From Away, about a Canadian town that sheltered travellers after the terrorist attacks of 2001, Dear Evan Hansen, about an anxiety-ridden adolescent who insinuates himself into the life of a grieving family and Groundhog Day The Musical, an adaptation of the Bill Murray Film.

Hello, Dolly! scored 10 nominations, including for its stars Bette Midler and David Hyde Pierce and for Best Revival of a Musical, against Falsettos and Miss Saigon.

In addition to Bette Midler and David Hyde Pierce, Tony Awards nominations were announced for other known performers including our very own Cate Blanchett for The Play “The Present”, Josh Groban for “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812”, Kevin Kline for the Play “Present Laughter”, Laurie Metcalf for the Play “A Doll’s House”, as well as Sally Field for the Play “The Glass Menagerie”, Danny De Vito for the Play “The Price”, Nathan Lane for the Play “The Front Page” and Laura Linney and Cynthia Nixon for the play “Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes”.

Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre will be awarded to two-time Tony Award winner and stage and screen icon James Earl Jones’s whose voice is known by people of all ages and walks of life, from Star Wars fans who have long recognized him as the voice of Darth Vader, to children for whom he is Mufasa from Disney’s The Lion King.

Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre will be awarded to Nina Lannan and Alan Wasser.

-Brad