Liberation collected five Tony Award nominations Tuesday morning: Best Play, Best Direction of a Play (Whitney White), Best Actress in a Play (Susannah Flood), Best Featured Actress (Betsy Aidem), and Best Costume Design (Qween Jean). [1] Bess Wohl's play closed at the James Earl Jones Theatre on February 1 — three months and four days before the morning of the nominations. [2]

The paper's May 6 standard on the prize cycle running without the run named the frame; today's brief tracks the people inside it. Today's lead 14 reads the Pulitzer-Tony double; this brief reads the actor-director arc that carries the slate. (See lead 14.)

White is now the first Black woman ever nominated twice for Best Direction of a Play — her 2024 nomination came for Jaja's African Hair Braiding. [1] Flood, whose Broadway credits before this were Birthday Candles and The Cherry Orchard, plays Lizzie, the consciousness-raising group's organizer in 1970s Ohio. The cast also held the Drama Desk Outstanding Ensemble award and the New York Drama Critics Circle Best Ensemble. [3]

The slate also names Liberation as the only off-Broadway-to-Broadway play transfer of the season. [1] Wohl, a 2020 nominee for Grand Horizons, has now collected the Pulitzer (Monday), the Outer Critics Circle Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play (last year), and a five-nomination Tony slate (Tuesday) — for a show that is no longer running.

The Tonys air June 7 at Radio City Music Hall, hosted by P!nk. [1] Whether Liberation wins is for the voters; what's already true is that the prestige market continues operating after the box office closed.

-- MAYA CALLOWAY, New York