J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell make history as first openly nonbinary winners of Tonys for acting

J. Harrison Ghee accepts the award for best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical for 'Some Like It Hot' at the 76th annual Tony Awards on June 11, 2023. (Charles Sykes / Invision / AP)

NEW YORK — Tony Awards history was made Sunday when Alex Newell and J. Harrison Ghee became the first nonbinary people to win Tonys for acting as the Broadway community seized the moment amid a Hollywood writers' strike that left theatre's biggest night without a script.

"Thank you for the humanity. Thank you for my incredible company who raised me up every single day," said leading actor in a musical winner Ghee, who stars in "Some Like It Hot," the adaptation of the classic cross-dressing comedy film.

The soulful Ghee stunned audiences with their voice and dance skills, playing a Chicago musician, on the run from gangsters, who tries on a dress and is transformed.

Newell, who plays Lulu -- an independent, don't-need-no-man whiskey distiller in "Shucked" -- has been blowing audiences away with their signature number, "Independently Owned."

"Thank you for seeing me, Broadway. I should not be up here as a queer, nonbinary, fat, Black little baby from Massachusetts. And to anyone that thinks that they can't do it, I'm going to look you dead in your face that you can do anything you put your mind to," Newell said to an ovation upon winning best featured actor in a musical.

Tony Awards host Ariana DeBose opened a blank script backstage before dancing and leaping her way to open the main show with a hectic opening number that gave a jolt of electricity to what is usually an upbeat, safe and chummy night. The writers strike has left the storied awards show honoring the best of musical theatre and plays to rely on spontaneity in a new venue far from the theatre district.

Before the pre-show began, DeBose revealed to the audience the only words that will be seen on the teleprompter: "Please wrap up." Later in the evening, virtually out of breath after her wordless performance, she thanked the labor organizers for allowing a compromise.

"I'm live and unscripted. You're welcome," she said. "So to anyone who may have thought that last year was a bit unhinged, to them, I say, `Darlings, buckle up."'

Winners demonstrated their support for the striking writers either at the podium or on the red carpet with pins. Miriam Silverman, who won the Tony for best featured actress in a play for "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window," ended her speech with: "My parents raised me to believe in the power of labor and workers being compensated and treated fairly. We stand with the WGA in solidarity!"

A total of 26 Tony Awards will be handed out Sunday for a season that had 40 new productions -- 15 musicals, 24 plays and one special engagement during the first post-pandemic full season.

Suzan-Lori Parks' "Topdog/Underdog," a Pulitzer Prize winning play about sibling rivalry, inequality and society's false promises, won the Tony for best play revival. She thanked director Kenny Leon and stars Corey Hawkins and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II: "They showed up to be large in a world that often does not much want the likes of us living at all."

Bonnie Milligan, who won for best featured actress in a musical for "Kimberly Akimbo," had a message to the audience: "I want to tell everybody that doesn't maybe look like what the world is telling you what you should look like -- whether you're not pretty enough, you're not fit enough, your identity is not right, who you love isn't right -- that doesn't matter."

"'Cause just guess what?" she continued, brandishing her award. "It's right, and you belong."

Many of the technical awards -- for things like costumes, sound, lighting and scenic design -- were handed out at a breakneck pace on a Pluto TV pre-show hosted by Skylar Astin and Julianne Hough, allowing winners plenty of airtime for acceptance speeches but little humor.

The pre-show featured some awkwardly composed shots and some presenters slipped up on certain words. The tempo was so rapid, the Pluto telecast ended more than 10 minutes before the CBS broadcast was slated to start.

John Kander, the 96-year-old composer behind such landmark shows as "Chicago," "Cabaret" and "The Scottsboro Boys," was honored with a special lifetime award during it.

"This is a very big deal," he said. "When your own community honors you, it's very humbling and a little bit scary."

He thanked his parents; his husband, Albert Stephenson; and music, which "has stayed my friend through my entire life and has promised to stick with me until the end."

Jennifer Grey handed her father, "Cabaret" star Joel Grey, the other lifetime achievement Tony.

"Being recognized by the theatre community is such a gift because it's always been, next to my children, my greatest, most enduring love," the actor said.

Director Jerry Mitchell won the Isabelle Stevenson Award in recognition of his dedication and contributions to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Tom Stoppard's "Leopoldstadt," which explores Jewish identity with an intergenerational story, leapt ahead of its play rivals with wins for director Patrick Marber, best featured actor for Brandon Uranowitz and Brigitte Reiffenstuel's costumes.

"Parade" -- a doomed musical love story set against the real backdrop of a murder and lynching in Georgia in pre-World War I that won Tonys as a new musical in 1999 -- won for best musical revival on Sunday, with Michael Arden winning for best director of a musical.

"'Parade' tells the story of a life that was cut short at the hands of the belief that one group of people is more valuable than another and that they might be more deserving of justice," Arden said. "This is a belief that is the core of antisemitism, white supremacy, homophobia and transphobia and intolerance of any kind. We must come together. We must battle this."

Performances from all the nominated musicals were on tap and Will Swenson -- starring on Broadway in a Neil Diamond musical -- led the audience in a vigorous rendition of "Sweet Caroline."

It's all taking place at the United Palace Theatre, in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan -- a new venue for the ceremony, many miles from Times Square and the theatre district.

"Thank you all for coming uptown. Never in my wildest dreams, truly," Lin-Manuel Miranda joked onstage. He, of course, wrote the musical "In the Heights," set in Washington Heights.

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AP National Writer Jocelyn Noveck contributed to this report.