| Tony Award | |
|---|---|
| Current: 77th Tony Awards | |
 Tony Awards logo | |
| Awarded for | Excellence in Broadway theatre |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League |
| First awarded | April 6, 1947 by American Theatre Wing |
| Website | www |
 The Tony Award medallion designed by Herman Rosse in 1949 | |
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre,[1] more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League[2] at an annual ceremony in Manhattan. The ceremony is usually held in June.
The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances. One is also given for regional theatre. Several discretionary non-competitive awards are given as well, including a Special Tony Award, the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre, and the Isabelle Stevenson Award.[3]
The awards were founded by theatre producer and director Brock Pemberton and are named after Antoinette "Tony" Perry, an actress, producer and theatre director who was co-founder and secretary of the American Theatre Wing. The trophy consists of a spinnable medallion, with faces portraying an adaptation of the comedy and tragedy masks, mounted on a black base with a pewter swivel.
The rules for the Tony Awards are set forth in the official document "Rules and Regulations of The American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards", which applies for that season only.[4] The Tony Awards are the New York theatre industry's equivalent to the Emmy Awards for television, the Grammy Awards for music, and the Academy Awards (Oscars) for film, and a person who has won all four is said to have won the EGOT. The Tony Awards are the U.S. equivalent of the United Kingdom's Laurence Olivier Awards and France's Molière Awards.
- ^ American Theatre Wing. "2014 Rules for use of Tony Awards trademarks" Archived April 9, 2017, at the Wayback Machine tonyawards.com, April 8, 2017
- ^ Gans, Andrew (December 18, 2007). "League of American Theatres and Producers Announces Name Change" Archived December 21, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. Playbill. Retrieved September 13, 2013. The League of American Theatres and Producers was renamed "The Broadway League".
- ^ Staff (undated). "Who's Who" Archived December 23, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. tonyawards.com. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
- ^ "Tony Awards Rules and Regulations for 2013–14 season" Archived July 2, 2017, at the Wayback Machine tonyawards.com, accessed June 12, 2014