Here’s to some real-life New Directions! In one of the earliest awards handed out in the 76th Tony Awards telecast on CBS and Paramount+, history was made as Alex Newell became the first-ever openly non-binary actor to win a Tony award, in the Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical category, for their showstopping role as cornpone character Lulu in the musical comedy “Shucked.”
Newell burst onto TV screens as the vivacious Wade “Unique” Adams in the Fox smash “Glee,” a role they won after becoming a runner-up on the casting series “The Glee Project.” The Broadway revival of “Once on This Island” (which won the 2018 Best Musical Revival Tony) won Newell more acclaim, which led to a major featured role on NBC’s “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist,” in which Newell could strut their stuff to the likes of tunes by Andra Day, Kelly Clarkson and Mary J. Blige among many.
Newell’s big “Shucked” number “Independently Owned” recently became the first Broadway number ever to be performed live on NBC’s “The Voice.”
Newell was the favorite to win this category, and in a fortuitous coincidence, Newell could actually become one of two non-binary actors to win Tony Awards on the very same night, as “Some Like It Hot” leading actor J. Harrison Ghee is also widely favored to win the Leading Actor in a Musical category.
