Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play

Tony Award for
Best Actress in a Play
Tony Award for; Best Actress in a Play
	2024 Recipient: Sarah Paulson
Awarded for	Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play
Location	New York City
Presented by	American Theatre Wing, The Broadway League
Currently held by	Sarah Paulson for Appropriate (2024)
Website	TonyAwards.com

The Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play is an honor presented at the Tony Awards, a ceremony established in 1947 as the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, to actresses for quality leading roles in a Broadway play. The awards are named after Antoinette Perry, an American actress who died in 1946.

Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the Tony Award Productions, a joint venture of The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, to "honor the best performances and stage productions of the previous year."^[1]^[2]

The award was originally called the Tony Award for Actress—Play. It was first presented to Ingrid Bergman and Helen Hayes at the 1st Tony Awards for their portrayals of Mary Grey / Joan of Arc and Addie Bemis in Joan of Lorraine and Happy Birthday, respectively. Before 1956, nominees' names were not made public;^[3] the change was made by the awards committee to "have a greater impact on theatregoers".^[4]

There have been two ties and one three-way tie in this category. Julie Harris holds the record for having the most wins and nominations in this category, with a total of five wins from nine nominations. Medea in the play of the same name is the character to take the award the most times, winning three times.

^ Kirkley, Donald (April 21, 1968). "Operation Frenzy Before the Tony Awards". The Baltimore Sun. p. T2. Retrieved December 24, 2011. (subscription required)
^ Gans, Andrew (December 18, 2007). "League of American Theatres and Producers Announces Name Change". Playbill. Archived from the original on December 21, 2007. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
^ Simons, Linda Keir (1994). The Performing Arts: a Guide to the Reference Literature. ABC-CLIO. p. 137. ISBN 978-0-87287-982-9. Archived from the original on 2013-06-22. Retrieved 2012-01-14.
^ Gelb, Arthur (April 1, 1956). "Popularizing the Tony Awards". The New York Times. Retrieved January 14, 2011. (subscription required)

[Intro-1] Kirkley, Donald (April 21, 1968). "Operation Frenzy Before the Tony Awards". The Baltimore Sun. p. T2. Retrieved December 24, 2011. (subscription required)

[2] Gans, Andrew (December 18, 2007). "League of American Theatres and Producers Announces Name Change". Playbill. Archived from the original on December 21, 2007. Retrieved September 13, 2013.

[3] Simons, Linda Keir (1994). The Performing Arts: a Guide to the Reference Literature. ABC-CLIO. p. 137. ISBN 978-0-87287-982-9. Archived from the original on 2013-06-22. Retrieved 2012-01-14.

[4] Gelb, Arthur (April 1, 1956). "Popularizing the Tony Awards". The New York Times. Retrieved January 14, 2011. (subscription required)

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