Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play

Tony Award for
Best Featured Actress in a Play
DescriptionBest Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play
LocationUnited States New York City
Presented byAmerican Theatre Wing, The Broadway League
Currently held byKara Young for Purlie Victorious (A Non-Confederate Romp through the Cotton Patch) (2024)
WebsiteTonyAwards.com

The Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play is an honor presented at the Tony Awards, a ceremony established in 1947 as the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, to actresses for quality supporting roles in a Broadway play. The awards are named after Antoinette Perry, an American actress who died in 1946. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the Tony Award Productions, a joint venture of The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, to "honor the best performances and stage productions of the previous year."[1]

The award was originally called the Tony Award for Actress, Supporting or Featured (Dramatic). Patricia Neal won the first such award for her portrayal of Regina Hubbard in Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest. Before 1956, nominees' names were not made public:[2] the change was made by the awards committee to "have a greater impact on theatregoers".[3] The award was renamed in 1976, when Shirley Knight became the first winner under the new title for her role as Carla in Robert Patrick's Kennedy's Children. Its most recent recipient is Miriam Silverman for the role of Mavis Parodus Bryson, in The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window.

Six actresses (Christine Baranski, Judith Ivey, Judith Light, Swoosie Kurtz, Audra McDonald, and Frances Sternhagen) hold the record for most awards in this category, each with two total. Portrayals of Ruth Younger in A Raisin in the Sun and Mavis Parodus Bryson in The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window have won twice.

  1. ^ Kirkley, Donald (April 21, 1968). "Operation Frenzy Before the Tony Awards". The Baltimore Sun. p. T2. Archived from the original on January 11, 2012. Retrieved December 24, 2011.(subscription required)
  2. ^ Simons, Linda Keir (1994). The Performing Arts: a Guide to the Reference Literature. ABC-CLIO. p. 137. ISBN 978-0-87287-982-9. Archived from the original on 2013-06-22. Retrieved 2012-03-01.
  3. ^ Gelb, Arthur (April 1, 1956). "Popularizing the Tony Awards". The New York Times. Retrieved January 14, 2011. (subscription required)