1956 Tony Awards results (10th) – Winners & Nominees

This page lists the winners from the 10th Tony Awards, held on April 1, 1956. The 1956 Tony Award for Best Musical went to “Damn Yankees.”

Best Musical

• Damn Yankees

• Pipe Dream

Best Play

• The Diary of Anne Frank

• Bus Stop
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
• Tiger at the Gates
• The Chalk Garden

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play

• Paul Muni (Inherit the Wind)

• Ben Gazzara (A Hatful of Rain)
• Boris Karloff (The Lark)
• Michael Redgrave (Tiger at the Gates)
• Edward G. Robinson (Middle of the Night)

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play

• Julie Harris (The Lark)

• Barbara Bel Geddes (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)
• Gladys Cooper (The Chalk Garden)
• Ruth Gordon (The Matchmaker)
• Siobhán McKenna (The Chalk Garden)
• Susan Strasberg (The Diary of Anne Frank)

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical

• Ray Walston (Damn Yankees)

• Stephen Douglass (Damn Yankees)
• William Johnson (Pipe Dream)

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical

• Gwen Verdon (Damn Yankees)

• Carol Channing (The Vamp)
• Nancy Walker (Phoenix ’55)

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play

• Ed Begley (Inherit the Wind)

• Anthony Franciosa (A Hatful of Rain)
• Andy Griffith (No Time for Sergeants)
• Anthony Quayle (Tamburlaine the Great)
• Fritz Weaver (The Chalk Garden)

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play

• Una Merkel (The Ponder Heart)

• Diane Cilento (Tiger at the Gates)
• Anne Jackson (Middle of the Night)
• Elaine Stritch (Bus Stop)

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical

• Russ Brown (Damn Yankees)

• Mike Kellin (Pipe Dream)
• Will Mahoney (Finian’s Rainbow)
• Scott Merrill (The Threepenny Opera)

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical

• Lotte Lenya (The Threepenny Opera)

• Rae Allen (Damn Yankees)
• Pat Carroll (Catch a Star!)
• Judy Tyler (Pipe Dream)

Best Scenic Design (Play)

• Peter Larkin (Inherit the Wind; No Time for Sergeants)

• Boris Aronson (The Diary of Anne Frank; Bus Stop; Once More with Feeling; A View from the Bridge)
• Ben Edwards (The Ponder Heart; Someone Waiting; The Honeys)
• Jo Mielziner (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; The Lark; Middle of the Night; Pipe Dream)
• Raymond Sovey (The Great Sebastians)

Best Costume Design (Play)

• Alvin Colt (Pipe Dream)

• Mainbocher (The Great Sebastians)
• Hélène Pons (The Diary of Anne Frank; The Heavenly Twins; A View from the Bridge)

Stage Technician Award

• Harry Green (Middle of the Night; Damn Yankees)

• Larry Bland (Middle of the Night; The Ponder Heart; Porgy and Bess)

Best Direction of a Play

• Tyrone Guthrie (The Matchmaker; Six Characters in Search of an Author; Tamburlaine the Great)

• Joseph Anthony (The Lark)
• Harold Clurman (Bus Stop; Pipe Dream; Tiger at the Gates)
• Garson Kanin (The Diary of Anne Frank)
• Elia Kazan (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)
• Albert Marre (The Chalk Garden)
• Herman Shumlin (Inherit the Wind)

Best Direction of a Musical

• Hal Hastings (Damn Yankees)

• Salvatore Dell’Isola (Pipe Dream)
• Milton Rosenstock (The Vamp)

Best Choreography

• Bob Fosse (Damn Yankees)

• Robert Alton (The Vamp)
• Boris Runanin (Phoenix ’55; Pipe Dream)
• Anna Sokolow (Red Roses for Me)

Special Tony Award

• City Center
• Fourth Street Chekhov Theatre
• The Shakespearewrights
• The Threepenny Opera
• The Theatre Collection of the N.Y. Public Library on its twenty-fifth anniversary

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