Tony Awards 2026: 'Death of Salesman,' the prestige hit of the Broadway season, is showered with Tony love

The amusement that has had everyone clamoring for tickets this spring, Joe Mantello’s cobweb-clearing accumulation of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman,” won, arsenic expected, for champion revival.

Mantello, who received a Tony for his absorption (his 3rd specified award), swept distant the cliches that person accumulated astir this American classical to uncover a “Salesman” similar nary we’ve experienced before. The Loman household location isn’t depicted successful a literal manner but alternatively fluidly suggested successful a warehouse abstraction that allows the actors to determination unfetteredly betwixt past and present. (The carnal accumulation was honored with awards for Mikaal Sulaiman’s dependable design, Jack Knowles’ lighting and Chloe Lamford’s scenic design.)

Laurie Metcalf, confirming her lasting arsenic the First Lady of the American Theater, won for her portrayal of Linda Loman, a much formidable than accustomed mentation of Willy’s stalwart wife. Metcalf, who endowed her characterization with a sharp-edged autonomy and transfixing gravitas, added different Tony to her 2 erstwhile acting wins (“Three Tall Women,” “A Doll’s House, Part II”).

Joe Mantello wins the Tony for his absorption of “Death of a Salesman.”

(Evelyn Freja / For The Times)

Nathan Lane was successful a choky contention with John Lithgow, who won for his ruthlessly uncompromising portrayal of a wrathful and dyspeptic Roald Dahl successful Mark Rosenblatt’s “Giant.” Lane’s Willy leaves a lasting representation successful “Salesman,” but it would beryllium hard to ideate “Giant” having the aforesaid interaction without Lithgow, who provides a terrifying quality instauration to this explosive play astir a writer’s governmental commitments tipping implicit into toxic antisemitism. (The show slips into a sinkhole of animus successful the uncanny mode of 1 of Dahl’s recognizably terrifying, psychologically plausible stories.) In his astir but not rather valedictory acceptance speech, the 80-year-old Lithgow acknowledged that this Tony win, his third, comes 53 years aft his archetypal — and feels each spot arsenic satisfying.

Aya Cash and John Lithgow successful “Giant.”

(Joan Marcus)

Rather than a flimsy to Lane, Lithgow’s triumph is simply a motion of the melodramatic extent that characterized this different squirrely season. Indeed, Lithgow’s show was arsenic thrilling to acquisition arsenic that of British powerhouse Lesley Manville, who won for her portrayal of Jocasta successful Robert Icke’s modern reworking of “Oedipus.” The play was categorized by the Tony committee arsenic a revival, but it’s truly an archetypal play — 1 that gave emergence to 1 of the astir enthralling productions of the year.

In a play lifted up by Bess Wohl’s magnificent “Liberation” and capacious capable to see a first-rate “Salesman,” a searing “Oedipus” and a smartly contentious “Giant,” it should beryllium nary astonishment that determination were much large performances than statuettes to dole out.