Jennifer Hudson Became The 17th EGOT When “A Strange Loop” Won The Tony For Best Musical

When A Strange Loop took home the Tony award for Best Musical at last night’s Tony Awards, Jennifer Hudson became the 17th quadruple threat to earn the highly coveted PMTAOEE, better known as the Philip Michael Thomas Award for Overall Excellence in Entertainment, even better known as the EGOT. And she didn’t even have to break a sweat or unhinge her jaw for it! Jennifer won her Tony as a producer of the Pulitzer Prize-winning show and shares the Tony with RuPaul Charles, Don Cheadle, Alan Cumming, Ilana Glazer, Mindy Kaling, and Billy Porter among others. But thanks to her 2021 Daytime Emmy for an animated short called Baba Yaga, she was able to close the loop and put a PeriodT! On her EGO status.

The last person to EGOT was Alan Menken in 2020. Before him, there was a three-way EGOT when John Legend, Tim Rice, and Andrew Lloyd Webber came together on Jesus Christ Superstar. Live in Concert no less! Accordion to People:

Jennifer Hudson has officially achieved EGOT status!

The actress and singer clinched her first-ever Tony Award on Sunday evening, when A Strange Loop won best musical. (Hudson, 40, serves as a producer on the show.)

It was the final trophy she needed to complete the EGOT quartet of having won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.

Hudson won her first of the big four awards, an Oscar, for her role in 2007’s Dreamgirls. She is a two-time Grammy winner, having nabbed her first one for her 2009 self-titled album.

Here she is fracking her neck back and forth with fellow Tony winner Ru Paul.

still thinking about how @IAMJHUD became an EGOT last night at the #TonyAwards 🏆✨ pic.twitter.com/7USaFzRNse

— GIPHY Pop (@GiphyPop) June 13, 2022

CAN YOU BELIEVE WE GOT @IAMJHUD HER EGOT !?! pic.twitter.com/40Wb0zy874

— A Strange Loop on Broadway (@StrangeLoopBway) June 13, 2022

A Strange Loop’s creator, Michael R. Jackson also won a Tony for Best Book of a Musical but the show’s star Jaquel Spivey lost Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical to Myles Frost who plays the OTHER Michael Jackson in MJ: The Musical. Joaquina Kalukango won Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for Paradise Square. Now, just so we don’t get our wires crossed here, indulge me if you will — JHud is an EGOT who won her Tony in a show written by an MJ that beat a show about a different MJ and whose most buzzed-about role to date was in Cats written by a fellow EGOT whose latest show was a flop and whose arch-nemesis Patti Lupone won her third Tony last night for her role in Stephen Sondheim’s Company which won Best Revival of a Musical and used the opportunity to remind everybody who it is that pays her motherfuckig salary. As they say in the biz, now that’s entertainment!

SECOND CHRIS HARPER PAYS MY SALARY REFERENCE OF THE NIGHT #TonyAwards2022 pic.twitter.com/Nacm9c9V4Z

— Vulture (@vulture) June 13, 2022

Company also brought Matt Doyle a win for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical as Jamie, a gender-swapped role Bridgerton’s Johnathan Bailey originated on the West End. And Company director Marianne Elliott won Best Direction of a Musical. Now, of course the Tony’s aren’t just about musicals. They also honor the work of those who create and perform in plays, which are kind of like musicals but without the songs, if that makes any sense. No? Think about it this way, when they talk it’s just words like in a normal conversation, the actors don’t sing or dance. Look, I don’t get it either but some people actually prefer them. Best Play went to a talkie (I don’t know what else to call them!) called The Lehman Trilogy which is about people talking about stocks and bonds. The Lehman Trilogy also saw wins for its star Simon Russell Beale who won Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play and Sam Mendes who won for Best Director.

Congrats to @LehmanTrilogyUS, #TonyAwards-winner for Best Play. Bravo! #75YearsofTonys pic.twitter.com/a9L73VOFMd

— The Tony Awards (@TheTonyAwards) June 13, 2022

Keep in mind, these guys are not singing! They are just standing like that for financial reasons. Is this how one manifests a fortune? AFAF. The baseball talkie Take Me Out won for best revival of a play which is about 9 inches according to star Jesse Williams, who lost Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Play to his TMO cast-mate Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Deirdre O’Connell won Best Actress in a Leading Role for Dana H. and Phylicia Rashad won Best Actress in a Featured Role for Skeleton Crew which, to my disappointment, is not a two-woman show in the style of Waiting for Godot where she just sits on stage for 3 hours waiting for someone else to show up for her Cosby is Innocent meeting co-starring Camille Cosby.

Here are all the winners, via Playbill:

Best Musical
Girl From The North Country
MJ
Mr. Saturday Night
Paradise Square
SIX: The Musical
*A Strange Loop

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical
Sharon D Clarke, Caroline, or Change
Carmen Cusack, Flying Over Sunset
Sutton Foster, The Music Man
*Joaquina Kalukango, Paradise Square
Mare Winningham, Girl From The North Country

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical
Billy Crystal, Mr. Saturday Night
*Myles Frost, MJ
Hugh Jackman, The Music Man
Rob McClure, Mrs. Doubtfire
Jaquel Spivey, A Strange Loop

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play
Gabby Beans, The Skin of Our Teeth
LaChanze, Trouble in Mind
Ruth Negga, Macbeth
*Deirdre O’Connell, Dana H.
Mary-Louise Parker, How I Learned to Drive

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play
*Simon Russell Beale, The Lehman Trilogy
Adam Godley, The Lehman Trilogy
Adrian Lester, The Lehman Trilogy
David Morse, How I Learned to Drive
Sam Rockwell, American Buffalo
Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Lackawanna Blues
David Threlfall, Hangmen

Best Play
Clyde’s, by Lynn Nottage
Hangmen, by Martin McDonagh
*The Lehman Trilogy, by Stefano Massini and Ben Power
The Minutes, by Tracy Letts
Skeleton Crew, by Dominique Morisseau

Best Revival of a Musical
Caroline, or Change
*Company
The Music Man

Best Book of a Musical
Girl From The North Country, Conor McPherson
MJ, Lynn Nottage
Mr. Saturday Night, Billy Crystal, Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel
Paradise Square, Christina Anderson, Craig Lucas & Larry Kirwan
*A Strange Loop, Michael R. Jackson

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical
*Matt Doyle, Company
Sidney DuPont, Paradise Square
Jared Grimes, Funny Girl
John-Andrew Morrison, A Strange Loop
A.J. Shively, Paradise Square

Best Revival of a Play
American Buffalo
for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf
How I Learned to Drive
*Take Me Out
Trouble in Mind

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play
Uzo Aduba, Clyde’s
Rachel Dratch, POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive
Kenita R. Miller, for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf
*Phylicia Rashad, Skeleton Crew
Julie White, POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive
Kara Young, Clyde’s

Best Direction of a Musical
Stephen Brackett, A Strange Loop
*Marianne Elliott, Company
Conor McPherson, Girl From The North Country
Lucy Moss & Jamie Armitage, SIX: The Musical
Christopher Wheeldon, MJ

Best Direction of a Play
Lileana Blain-Cruz, The Skin of Our Teeth
Camille A. Brown, for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf
*Sam Mendes, The Lehman Trilogy
Neil Pepe, American Buffalo
Les Waters, Dana H.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical
Jeannette Bayardelle, Girl From The North Country
Shoshana Bean, Mr. Saturday Night
Jayne Houdyshell, The Music Man
L Morgan Lee, A Strange Loop
*Patti LuPone, Company
Jennifer Simard, Company

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play
Alfie Allen, Hangmen
Chuck Cooper, Trouble in Mind
*Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Take Me Out
Ron Cephas Jones, Clyde’s
Michael Oberholtzer, Take Me Out
Jesse Williams, Take Me Out

Best Choreography
Camille A. Brown, for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf
Warren Carlyle, The Music Man
Carrie-Anne Ingrouille, SIX: The Musical
Bill T. Jones, Paradise Square
*Christopher Wheeldon, MJ

Best Orchestrations
David Cullen, Company
Tom Curran, SIX: The Musical
*Simon Hale, Girl From The North Country
Jason Michael Webb and David Holcenberg, MJ
Charlie Rosen, A Strange Loop

Best Sound Design of a Musical
Simon Baker, Girl From The North Country
Paul Gatehouse, SIX: The Musical
Ian Dickinson for Autograph, Company
Drew Levy, A Strange Loop
*Gareth Owen, MJ

Best Sound Design of a Play
Justin Ellington, for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf
*Mikhail Fiksel, Dana H.
Palmer Hefferan, The Skin of Our Teeth
Nick Powell and Dominic Bilkey, The Lehman Trilogy
Mikaal Sulaiman, Macbeth

Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Neil Austin, Company
Tim Deiling, SIX: The Musical
Donald Holder, Paradise Square
*Natasha Katz, MJ
Bradley King, Flying Over Sunset
Jen Schriever, A Strange Loop

Best Lighting Design of a Play
Joshua Carr, Hangmen
Jiyoun Chang, for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf
*Jon Clark, The Lehman Trilogy
Jane Cox, Macbeth
Yi Zhao, The Skin of Our Teeth

Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Beowulf Boritt and 59 Productions, Flying Over Sunset
*Bunny Christie, Company
Arnulfo Maldonado, A Strange Loop
Derek McLane and Peter Nigrini, MJ
Allen Moyer, Paradise Square

Best Scenic Design of a Play
Beowulf Boritt, POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive
Michael Carnahan and Nicholas Hussong, Skeleton Crew
*Es Devlin, The Lehman Trilogy
Anna Fleischle, Hangmen
Scott Pask, American Buffalo
Adam Rigg, The Skin of Our Teeth

Best Costume Design of a Musical
Fly Davis, Caroline, or Change
Toni-Leslie James, Paradise Square
William Ivey Long, Diana, The Musical
Santo Loquasto, The Music Man
*Gabriella Slade, SIX: The Musical
Paul Tazewell, MJ

Best Costume Design of a Play
*Montana Levi Blanco, The Skin of Our Teeth
Sarafina Bush, for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf
Emilio Sosa, Trouble in Mind
Jane Greenwood, Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite
Jennifer Moeller, Clyde’s

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
Flying Over Sunset; Music by Tom Kitt, Lyrics by Michael Korie
Mr. Saturday Night; Music by Jason Robert Brown, Lyrics by Amanda Green
Paradise Square; Music by Jason Howland, Lyrics by Nathan Tysen and Masi Asare
*SIX: The Musical, Music and Lyrics by Toby Marlow & Lucy Moss
A Strange Loop, Music and Lyrics by Michael R. Jackson

Pic: John Nacion/Startraksphoto