1969 Tony Awards results (23rd) – Winners & nominees

This page lists the winners from the 23rd Tony Awards, held on April 20, 1969. The 1969 Tony Award for Best Musical went to “1776.”

Best musical

• 1776

• Hair
• Promises, Promises
• Zorba

Best play

• The Great White Hope

• Hadrian VII
• Lovers
• The Man in the Glass Booth

Best performance by a leading actor in a play

• James Earl Jones (The Great White Hope)

• Art Carney (Lovers)
• Alec McCowen (Hadrian VII)
• Donald Pleasence (The Man in the Glass Booth)

Best performance by a leading actress in a play

• Julie Harris (Forty Carats)

• Estelle Parsons (The Seven Descents of Myrtle)
• Charlotte Rae (The Incomparable Max)
• Brenda Vaccaro (The Goodbye People)

Best performance by a leading actor in a musical

• Jerry Orbach (Promises, Promises)

• Herschel Bernardi (Zorba)
• Jack Cassidy (Maggie Flynn)
• Joel Grey (George M!)

Best performance by a leading actress in a musical

• Angela Lansbury (Dear World)

• Maria Karnilova (Zorba)
• Dorothy Loudon (The Fig Leaves Are Falling)
• Jill O’Hara (Promises, Promises)

Best performance by a featured actor in a play

• Al Pacino (Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?)

• Richard Castellano (Lovers and Other Strangers)
• Tony Roberts (Play It Again, Sam)
• Louis Zorich (Hadrian VII)

Best performance by a featured actress in a play

• Jane Alexander (The Great White Hope)

• Diane Keaton (Play It Again, Sam)
• Lauren Jones (Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?)
• Anna Manahan (Lovers)

Best performance by a featured actor in a musical

• Ronald Holgate (1776)

• A. Larry Haines (Promises, Promises)
• Edward Winter (Promises, Promises)

Best performance by a featured actress in a musical

• Marian Mercer (Promises, Promises)

• Sandy Duncan (Canterbury Tales)
• Lorraine Serabian (Zorba)
• Virginia Vestoff (1776)

Best scenic design in a musical

• Boris Aronson (Zorba)

• Derek Cousins (Canterbury Tales)
• Jo Mielziner (1776)
• Oliver Smith (Dear World)

Best costume design in a play

• Loudon Sainthill (Canterbury Tales)

• Michael Annals (The Incomparable Max)
• Robert Fletcher (Hadrian VII)
• Patricia Zipprodt (Zorba)

Best direction of a play

• Peter Dews (Hadrian VII)

• Joseph Hardy (Play It Again, Sam)
• Harold Pinter (The Man in the Glass Booth)
• Michael A. Schultz (Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?)

Best direction of a musical

• Peter Hunt (1776)

• Robert Moore (Promises, Promises)
• Tom O’Horgan (Hair)
• Harold Prince (Zorba)

Best choreography

• Joe Layton (George M!)

• Sammy Bayes (Canterbury Tales)
• Ronald Field (Zorba)
• Michael Bennett (Promises, Promises)

Special Tony Award

• The National Theatre Company of Great Britain
• The Negro Ensemble Company
• Rex Harrison
• Leonard Bernstein
• Carol Burnett

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