Ariana DeBose Will Host the Tonys for a Second Year in a Row
Doing the Thing
Awards show will air this summer
Ariana DeBose will do the thing again this summer, hosting the Tony Awards for a second year in a row. The ceremony will air live on CBS from New York City’s United Palace at 8 p.m. ET on June 11.
“I was honored to serve as host last year and even more so to be asked back,” DeBose said in a statement. “So looking forward to celebrating this incredible season and the people who make the work happen. Here’s to adding some uptown flavor to the magic of the Tony Awards!”
DeBose won acclaim and several trophies, including an Oscar, a BAFTA, and a SAG Award a couple of years back for her performance of Anita in Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of West Side Story. She previously earned a Tony Award nomination for playing Disco Donna in Summer: The Donna Summer Musical and was in the original cast for Hamilton.
In addition to hosting the Tonys, her escalating celebrity has earned her a spot on several awards shows in the past few months, both as a presenter and performer. At the BAFTAs in February, DeBose performed a rap praising the evening’s female nominees and earned some cringy notoriety for the line, “Angela Bassett did the thing,” which spread virally online. Despite people calling the moment corny, several people came to her defense; Lizzo shouted out the line at an Amsterdam gig, and Bassett told an interviewer she thought “it was beautiful.” Nevertheless, Jimmy Fallon saw it as an opportunity to revive his Neil Young impersonation to turn the lyric into a folk song.
Meanwhile, as the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing announce DeBose as the Tonys host, they’re still reviewing possible nominees for the 2023 show. The eligibility cutoff date for this year’s ceremony is April 27. They’ll announce the nominees on May 2.
