Who has hosted the Tonys the most times? List of hosts

Later this evening the top live Broadway theater performances during the 2023-24 season will be celebrated and recognized at the annual Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre - the Tonys. The Tonys has been an important part of the Broadway community since its inception in 1947. Winning a Tony is considered one of the highest honors in the theater industry.

Who was the first to host the Tonys?

Many of Hollywood’s big name artists and producers have hosted the event over the years. The first was theater director and producer Brock Pemberton, the professional partner of Antoinette Perry, co-founder and secretary of the American Theatre Wing. It was Pemberton who also gave the awards the catchy nickname by which it is known today. He hosted the first edition of the Tonys which was held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in midtown Manhattan on 6 April 1947.

Pemberton was the first to host the ceremony twice and co-hosted the third edition with fellow Wing member James E. Sauter, who would become the first person to host the event multiple times. Sauter, who was also in charge of organizing the evening’s entertainment, presented the 1951 and 1954 ceremonies. Since then, several people have hosted the Tonys on at least three occasions.

Bud Collyer invited back to host the Tonys

Radio presenter, voiceover artist and Beat the Clock game show host Bud Collyer was the first to host three consecutive editions of the Tonys. He was at the mic from 1957 to 1959. Others who have appeared at least three times as hosts include Robert Preston, Julie Andrews, Angela Lansbury, Nathan Lane, Neil Patrick Harris and Hugh Jackman. Ariana DeBose will join them when she presents the 77th edition of the Tony’s from New York’s the Lincoln Center later tonight - the third year running that she has hosted the event.

Film actor and singer Robert Preston became the first person to host four editions of the Tonys when he joined Julie Andrews on stage at the Gershwin Theatre for the 38th Tonys awards in June 1984. The Boston-born actor won two Tony awards during his professional career for his roles in Meredith Willson’s musical The Music Man (1958) and I Do! I Do! (1967).

Who has host the most editions of the Tonys?

Five years later Angela Lansbury set a new record, by hosting her fifth Tonys - a feat which has never been matched. Born in London, Lansbury emigrated to the United States in 1940 to escape the Blitz. Her first film roles were in Gaslight (1944), National Velvet (1944), and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945). She was nominated for three Academy Awards, finally gaining recognition with her first and only Oscar, an Academy Honorary Award, in 2013.

Lansbury first hosted the Tonys in 1968 and was asked back in 1971, 1987, 1988 and 1989 - there is a clip of her performing Everything’s Coming Up Roses from the Broadway smash Gypsy in her last appearance. “That’s what the theater does - it provides both us, who are lucky enough to work in it, and the audience, a chance to share and hold a moment that belongs to no one else. Those moments live on in time and in our memories,” she told the audience from the stage at Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.

In recent years, both How I Met Your Mother actor Neil Patrick Harris and Australian actor Hugh Jackman have both hosted four editions of the Tonys. Harris opened the show in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013. In his debut appearance, Billy Elliot the Musical swept the board with a record 15 nominations - winning 10 of them, on a night when Angela Lansbury collected the Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play award, her fifth Tony.