The Tony Awards have already made history with the 2026 nominees. At 96 years old, June Squibb has already made history as the oldest person ever to be nominated for an acting Tony. As of this year’s Tonys, her “Marjorie Prime” co-star Danny Burstein is now the most-nominated male performer of all time, with nine nods across his career. In addition, a remarkable number of creatives are nominated for their Broadway debuts this year, including all the nominees in the Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre categories.
But depending on how everything plays out during the 79th annual Tony Awards on June 7, history could be made in several categories. Here are multiple ways this year’s Tony winners could break records and set new milestones.
Age milestones
At 96, if June Squibb wins Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play for her titular role in “Marjorie Prime,” she’ll also be the oldest person to win a Tony for acting, breaking the current record held by Lois Smith. Smith won in the same category at the age of 90 for her role in “The Inheritance.”
At 80, André De Shields would be the oldest person ever to win Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical if he takes home the Tony for his role as Old Deuteronomy in “Cats: The Jellicle Ball.” Interestingly, De Shields is already the second-oldest person ever to have won in the category. He received a Tony for his turn as Hermes in “Hadestown” at 73, but the current record-holder, the late Dick Latessa, was just four months older when he won his Tony for “Hairspray” in 2003. If he wins this year, De Shields would also be the oldest man to win a Tony for acting in any category (a record currently held by Frank Langella, who won for 2016’s “The Father” at 78) — unless John Lithgow, who is 80, wins his category.
