A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder (Best Musical). After picking up four Tony Awards last year, Gent's Guide recouped its $7.5 million investment after 17 months this past April. The musical continues its Broadway run and will launch a U.S. national tour this September.
Robert Schenkkan (Best Play, All The Way). With a Tony Award win under his belt, Schenkkan set to work on the HBO screen adaptation of his Lyndon B. Johnson Broadway bioplay that will feature Bryan Cranston returning to the Tony-winning presidential role. An air-date has not been announced. In addition, The Great Society, the next play in Schenkkan's works exploring the Johnson presidency premiered last summer at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where All The Way originated. Schenkken also collaborated with composer-lyricist Neil Berg on the new musical The 12, which centers on Jesus' apostles. It premiered at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts in March.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Best Revival of a Musical). After launching with Tony winner Neil Patrick Harris, Hedwig is still going strong. Among the stars to take on the central role of the transgender East German rocker are Andrew Rannells, Michael C. Hall, co-creator and originator John Cameron Mitchell, and most recently, "Glee" star Darren Criss. Up next is original Rent star Taye Diggs, who starts in mid-July.
Raisin in the Sun (Best Revival of a Play). The critical hit, which boasted Denzel Washington, Anika Noni Rose and Tony winner Sophie Okonedo, ended its hit Broadway run a week after taking Tonys top revival honor. In interviews, cast members said they hoped to take the production to London for a limited run if Hollywood and Broadway star Washington could be convinced to continue. U.K. audiences are still awaiting word on Raisin, and the cast has moved onto other projects.
Jessie Mueller (Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical). After winning the Tony for playing Carole King onstage, Mueller continued her acclaimed run through March of this past year. "The accolades and all that are wonderful and great, but it's not the stuff that really matters — and I don't say that in an ungrateful way, I just try to say that in a realistic way," Mueller told Playbill.com in a candid interview just days before departing Beautiful. "I never want to walk around like I'm somebody. I think that's the easiest way to just fall down."
Her next project is the Broadway-bound Sara Bareilles musical Waitress, which premieres at the American Repertory Theater later this summer. Mueller told Playbill.com, "I think people are going to be surprised. They're going to get introduced to these characters and be surprised by how much there's a little bit of themselves in everyone that appears in the play. It's just a really hearty, meaty story about life and choices and all the stuff we have to navigate as we go through life. And then, on top of it, there's just this gorgeous music that she's written that sounds like her, but it's so of the world that they've created for the piece."
Neil Patrick Harris (Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch). NPH has had a whirlwind year. After his Tony win, he went on to conclude his Hedwig run last August, find time to publish his choose-your-own-adventure autobiography, host the Academy Awards (with a full Broadway-style opening number) and begin prep for his new live variety show "Best Time Ever," which premieres this fall on NBC.
Kevin Adams (Best Lighting Design of a Musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch). Since winning for Hedwig (which marked Adams' fourth Tony), Adams has gone on to design the original musical Brooklynite for the Vineyard Theatre (reuniting him with Spring Awakening collaborator Michael Mayer), as well as Billy Porter's While I Yet Live and recreating his lighting designs for the Off-Broadway remounting of The 39 Steps, currently at the Union Square Theatre.
Natasha Katz (Best Lighting Design of a Play, The Glass Menagerie). After taking home her third Tony Award for Menagerie last year, Katz continues to dazzle with her work on Broadway and beyond. This season along she's represented with Skylight, Gigi and An American in Paris (nabbing nominations for Paris and Skylight), and will lend her work to Andrew Lloyd Webber's upcoming Broadway musical School of Rock, which begins in November at the Winter Garden Theatre.
Bryan Cranston (Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play, All The Way). In addition to his commitment to playing Lyndon B. Johnson in the HBO adaptation of All The Way, Cranston's upcoming screen projects include the starring role in the film of "Trumbo," and the new CBS drama "Sneaky Pete." Audra McDonald (Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill). After her record-breaking sixth Tony Award win, McDonald extended in Lady Day several times until finally hanging up the mic last October. She reprised her work as Billie Holiday an additional time, for the HBO live taping of the musical in New Orleans. An air-date has not been announced. McDonald has also been busy on the concert tour circuit and has lined up plans to return to Broadway in the new musical Shuffle Along based on one of the first all-black Broadway musical hits. She's currently filming Disney's live-action Beauty and the Beast, playing Garderobe, the singing wardrobe closet.
Jenny Tiramani (Best Costume Design of a Play, Twelfth Night). The English costume designer won for her first Tony Award nomination last season. Since her win, she created costumes for Andrea Chénier, directed by David McVicar, at the Royal Opera House.
Linda Cho (Best Costume Design of a Musical, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder). Since her win for the elaborate and sophisticated costumes of Gent's Guide, Cho has kept a busy schedule, designing the New York-aimed musical Somewhere in Time, in addition to Joe DiPietro's The Second Mrs. Wilson at Long Wharf and Ghosts of Versailles for Gent's director Darko Tresnjak at L.A. Opera.
Warren Carlyle (Best Choreography, After Midnight). Carlyle kept tapping his way across New York stages this past year, choreographing the revamped New York City Spring Spectacular, featuring the Rockettes at Radio City and the Broadway revival of On the Twentieth Century starring Kristin Chenoweth. He's also choreographing the Tony Awards specialty numbers for co-hosts Chenoweth and Alan Cumming.
Sophie Okonedo (Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play, A Raisin in the Sun). Following her powerful performance as Ruth Younger, Okonedo is slated to play Queen Margaret in the ongoing miniseries adaptation of Shakespeare's history plays "The Hollow Crown." The actress also hinted at a Broadway return this coming season in a classic play that may shock theatregoers with its casting.
James Monroe Iglehart (Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical, Aladdin). The unstoppable Iglehart is still going strong as the Genie in Disney's Aladdin. (He extended his run into 2016.) He also debuted his solo show How the Heck Did I Get Here? at 54 Below in May.
Kenny Leon (Best Direction of a Play, A Raisin in the Sun). During his Tony win, Leon was at the helm of the short-lived Tupac Shakur Broadway musical Holler If Ya Hear Me. He is also slated to direct the first-ever Broadway revival of Mark Medoff's Tony Award-winning play Children of a Lesser God (could this be the project Okonedo declined to talk about?) as part of the 2015-16 season, as well as NBC's live broadcast and subsequent Broadway revival of The Wiz.
Darko Tresnjak (Best Direction of a Musical, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder). Tresnjak, who is also the artistic director of Hartford Stage, went on to helm the L.A. Opera production of Ghosts of Versailles as well as workshop the new Ahrens and Flaherty stage adaptation of their animated musical Anastasia. The production, which will likely have a future New York life, will debut at Hartford Stage next spring. Robert L. Freedman (Best Book of a Musical, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder). Freedman and his Gent's Guide collaborator, composer/lyricist Steven Lutvak, are working on a new musical based on the award-winning Greg Mitchell book, "The Campaign of the Century." The project is in development with Gent's Guide director Tresnjak.
Lena Hall (Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch). After an acclaimed year-long run (which included co-starring with Hedwig co-creator John Cameron Mitchell), Hall departed the Broadway revival this past spring. She's appearing with her band The Deafening and her solo engagements at the Café Carlyle.
Mark Rylance (Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play, Twelfth Night). It's been a busy year for Rylance since his third Tony win. In addition to the BBC miniseries of "Wolf Hall," he co-starred with Tom Hanks in the spy thriller "Bridge of Spies" for Steven Spielberg and is also tapped to star as the title character in Spielberg's screen adaptation of the Roald Dahl children's novel "The BFG." After his upcoming London run in Farinelli and the King (written by his wife, Claire van Kampen), Rylance will return to the New York stage in Nice Fish at St. Ann's Warehouse in early 2015.
Christopher Barreca (Best Scenic Design of a Musical, Rocky). The award-winning designer's work can currently be seen in the Off-Broadway production of Athol Fugard's The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek at the Signature Theatre.
Beowulf Boritt (Best Scenic Design of a Play, Act One). After mesmerizing audiences with his revolving set for Act One, Borritt is back on Broadway this season with the Tony-nominated revival of On the Town and the Tony-nominated new play Hand to God. His Off-Broadway productions this past season have included Wiesenthal, David Ives' Lives of the Saints and Clinton The Musical!
Jason Robert Brown (Best Original Score/Best Orchestrations, The Bridges of Madison County). While Tony-viewers never saw or heard a note of Brown's score on the telecast, the talented composer-lyricist walked away with two Tony Awards last year for the short-lived, romantic musical The Bridges of Madison County. He followed up with the musical comedy Honeymoon in Vegas, which received strong critical reviews, but also ended its Broadway run early. This past year, Brown returned to conduct his Tony-winning musical Parade in concert at Avery Fisher Hall and also saw the release of the film adaptation of "The Last Five Years."
Steve Canyon Kennedy (Best Sound Design of a Play, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill). While the Tony category for sound design has been eliminated, Kennedy remains in demand, designing the recent Broadway musical Doctor Zhivago and the upcoming Gloria Estefan tuner On Your Feet!
Brian Ronan (Best Sound Design of a Musical, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical). After his second Tony win last season, Ronan's work was also heard in the Roundabout revival of Cabaret as well as the short-lived Sting musical The Last Ship. He'll be back on Broadway in the spring, working on the new musical Tuck Everlasting.
