Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection #209 (6/6/2026): TONY AWARDS 2026
This Rabbinical Reflection first aired June 3, 2026 as part of the 21st annual Broadway special edition of the Dave’s Gone By video podcast.
Rabbi Sol’s Rabbinical Reflections air on the long-running Dave’s Gone By program (davesgoneby.com) and are also archived on the Rebbe’s blog, Shalomdammit.com.
Rabbi Sol is also the creator of the stage shows, “Shalom Dammit! An Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon” and “Hate Speech…With Love: Another Evening with Rabbi Sol Solomon.”
© 2026 TotalTheater Productions. All Rights Reserved.
Shalom, Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon, with a Rabbinical Reflection for Tony Time 2026.
You’d think artsy and progressive people would be so busy hating on Israel this year, they wouldn’t have time to grease each other up and tell themselves how wonderful they are. But it’s still nice that every June Broadway makes time for a ceremony that honors quality work while advertising itself to the masses. The Tony Awards look back on the season’s 30-something productions with categories like Best Play, Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Best Carpentry Design by a Transgender Kinesiologist on a Thursday.
Obscure categories aside, Broadway can still be a magical place where art meets heart and the human condition is scrutinized through a kaleidoscope of perspectives and artistic techniques. I have no idea what the hell I just said, but I do know that the American theater has long been a home and haven for Jews, from the golden age of musicals up through Arthur Miller, Neil Simon, and, of course, me, with my own Shalom Dammit!
Therefore, I keep tabs on the Jewish quotient of a Broadway season. Are Jewish themes explored on Broadway, especially at a time when anti-Semitism is the new ice-bucket challenge? And are my people represented – I hope disproportionately!
We’re off to a good start with The Balusters, David Lindsay-Abaire’s Tony-nominated play about friction in a diverse neighborhood. One main character is Ruth Ackerman, a wisecracking Jewish broad in the best stereotypical tradition. She’s played by an Irish-Catholic actress but, hey, that’s diversity!
The Balusters is up against Giant, a corrosive takedown of Roald Dahl. He’s the genius of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory who, in later years, became a raving anti-Semite.
Although this twit is played by lovable John Lithgow, the actor and play make no effort to soften or excuse Dahl’s vileness. Now if we could only get the media to do that with Susan Sarandon, we’d be getting somewhere.
Also Tony-nominated is the very engaging and sometimes naked Liberation. Winner of this year’s Pulitzer Prize, Liberation was penned by partial Jewess, Bess Wohl (who’s raising her children Jewish!), and features a main character who’s a former Orthodox Jew turned radical lesbian feminist. She’s like a one-woman Shtisel.
One man is performing the Broadway show Every Brilliant Thing, and it’s Tony-nominated Daniel Radcliffe. Just like Harry Potter, Radcliffe’s a muggle – half-Irish, half-Jewish. And that’s okay; I’m only half-dressed. (Fakes rising) Made ya look.
Alas and alack, we’re many years past the time when Broadway musicals were a cottage industry for Yiddlach. That’d be okay if the goyim had supplanted those masterpieces with something better, but most recent tuners have been nothing to sing about. Only three Best Musical nominees this year have original scores, and the only Jewish thing about any of them is the name “Schmigadoon.” But, speaking of Jewish names, Shoshana Bean is Tony nominated for Featured Actress in The Lost Boys, and she’s up against Rachel Dratch for Rocky Horror.
Also compensating for the absence of Abrahams in musicals is the Tony-nommed revival of Ragtime. The composers are Jewish; so was E.L. Doctorow who wrote the novel. Since it’s based on turn-of-the-century New York, Ragtime is rife with Yidn: Houdini, Emma Goldman, and Tateh, a fictional immigrant who becomes a cinema mogul. (Now, in the Ragtime movie, Tateh was played by Mandy Patinkin, ptooi. If I see him and his hag wife in one more pop-up ad shilling for Gaza, I’m gonna vomit borscht. But we won’t hold that against the Broadway show – especially since Ben Levi Ross is a Tony nominee for Featured Actor, and Caissie Shira Levy is up for Lead Actress. Her competition, by the way, includes the star of Titanique, the proudly Jewish Marla Mindelle – born “Marla Mindelle Weiner.” (I guess in this non-binary age, she wouldn’t be the first girl to pull out her Weiner.)
We must also thank the Tonys for choosing so many Jews to honor this year with special and lifetime-achievement awards: James Lapine, who co-wrote Falsettos and Sunday in the Park with George. (Some Jews become jewelers; this guy makes jewels!) Speaking of jewels, Jules Fisher has been lighting shows since 1963, including the original Ragtime. (And Jesus Christ Superstar, but we won’t mention that.) And mazel tov to the creators of the 1/52 Project, which helped bring diversity to design. The project’s founders are Kenn Lubin, Loren Plotkin (a lawyer!), and Jake Bell. (Not sure if Bell is a landtsman, but if he’s not, he’s adjacent.)
Perhaps the most unexpected Hebraic happening of this year’s Tonys is that the ceremony will be hosted by pop star Pink. True, apart from two of her songs being in jukebox musicals, she has virtually nothing to do with theater. But who cares? Her mother’s maiden name was Kugel, which sounds pretty sweet to me!
So even in these strange times when Jews feel pressured to hold their peace – and wish they were holding a piece – it’s lovely that some Jews will be holding statuettes acknowledging beautiful creativity and craft. And that goes for all the nominees and anyone who contributed to the American theater this year. By entertaining people, you are doing the Lord’s work.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches, in Great Neck, New York. Hamasach oleh!
(c) 2026 TotalTheater. All rights reserved.
