Jonathan Groff Tearfully Wins First Tony Award for ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ ArticlePure

That faraway shore’s not looking too far for Jonathan Groff!

The Merrily We Roll Along star nabbed the award for best performance by a leading actor in a musical for his work in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s 1981 musical at the 2024 Tony Awards on Sunday, June 16.

After taking the stage to accept his first-ever Tony Award, Groff, 39, thanked his family for “always allowing my freak flag to fly without ever making me feel weird about it.”

Through tears, the actor also addressed his Merrily castmates Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez, saying, “You are more than old friends — you are soulmates. And I’m looking forward to watching each other change for the rest of our lives.”

Groff, whose previous credits include roles in Glee, the Frozen franchise and Mindhunter, has been nominated for two Tonys before — in 2007 for Spring Awakening and 2015 for his portrayal of King George III in the original Broadway run of Hamilton — but Sunday marked his first win.

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In Merrily We Roll Along, Pennsylvania native Groff plays musical composer Franklin Shepard who, with two lifelong friends and creative companions, chase their theatrical dreams.

The musical, which is set across nearly two decades and told in reverse chronological order, opens with Groff’s lead as an emotionally unfulfilled Broadway composer and tracks the career moves he makes to trade his idealism for vapid commercial success.

The revival first opened for a two-month Off-Broadway run in November 2022, with a star-studded billing that included the likes of Harry Potter’s Radcliffe, 34, and Tony winner Mendez, 41. In September 2023, the theater veterans took the show to the Broadway stage when the production was transferred to Hudson Theatre, where it will continue to play until July 7.

Earlier in the evening, Radcliffe also clinched his first-ever Tony Award for best performance by a featured actor in a musical, opposite Groff and Mendez, the latter of whom was nominated in the category of best performance by a featured actress in a musical.

In its first week of previews at the Hudson Theatre, Merrily grossed a stunning $1.3 million, breaking the venue’s six-performance house record, according to Deadline. The musical also garnered rave reviews, with The New York Times calling Groff’s performance “thrillingly fierce” and the production “the first convincing revival of the cult flop Sondheim musical.”

The show is helmed by first-time director Maria Friedman, a longtime friend of the late Sondheim, who died in November 2021. Friedman’s latest effort marks the first time the show has returned to Broadway since its inception over 40 years ago.

This year, Groff additionally stars in rom-com A Nice Indian Boy opposite comedian Karan Soni, which premiered at South by Southwest in March but does not yet have a wide release date. The actor also had a guest role in a recent episode of Doctor Who.

Tickets for Merrily We Roll Along are on sale now at merrilyonbroadway.com.

The 77th Tony Awards aired live on CBS and Paramount+.