Tony Awards gingerly approach real progress by nominating two nonbinary actors

It seems like just a matter of time before major awards shows either completely ditch gendered acting categories or come up with some alternative that is more inclusive, and while the Tony Awards haven’t made that move yet, the organization has at least made a step toward it. This morning, the Tony Awards announcements came out, and they included a pair of history-making names with nonbinary actors J. Harrison Ghee (from Some Like It Hot) and Alex Newell (from Shucked) getting nominated for Best Performance By An Actor In A Leading Role In A Musical and Best Performance By An Actor In A Featured Role In A Musical (respectively)—making them the first two openly nonbinary actors to be nominated for Tony Awards.

In a statement shared by The Hollywood Reporter, Newell said that this is “a step in the right direction” and that there are “so many gender non-conforming and nonbinary performers that might not ever get to shine because of these gendered categories.” On a related note, this comes after several actors have withdrawn from the Tony Awards altogether due to gendered categories in the last couple of years, including & Juliet’s Justin David Sullivan and Macbeth’s Asia Kate Dillon. The Emmys, meanwhile, have been going through similar conversations.

THR also notes that both performers chose to submit themselves as actors despite not necessarily wholly identifying with that term. Ghee noted that they’re not affected by someone else’s “compartmentalization” of who they are, and Newell argued that “actor” is accepted as the more gender-neutral term (they also pointed out that “doctor,” for example, isn’t gendered). Newell also hopes that the Tony Awards land on something more nuanced than eliminating categories altogether, saying that cis white men will “dominate the field”—which, unfortunately, does seem likely.

The 2023 Tony Awards will be held on June 11.