Theatre director Michael Arden made a memorable speech at the Tony Awards earlier today.

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Broadway’s night of nights saw Arden win the trophy for Best Director of a Musical for Parade, with the show also picking up the award for Best Musical Revival.

Arden, who grew up in Texas, recalled his childhood as he accepted his award.

‘Growing up, I was called the F-word more times than I can remember,’ he said. “Now I’m a f****t with a Tony!”

Television audiences didn’t get to hear his statement though as the broadcaster beeped out not just his use of the gay slur, but a large chunk of his speech.

Arden went on to voice his support for all members of the LGBTIQA+ communities.

“And to our beautiful trans, nonbinary, queer youth, know that your queerness is what makes you beautiful and powerful,” he said “Everyone in this room sees you and needs you and will fight alongside you and we will win.”

Speaking to the media after his win Arden said it was “pretty wild” to have had the career that has taken him from dreaming about making theatre and musicals to finding success on Broadway.

Arden made his debut as an actor on Broadway in 2003 and over the last 20 years has appeared both in New York and in London’s West End. Over the years he appeared in many musicals including Aspects of Love, Pippin, Big River, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and West Side Story. 

He garnered acclaim for his direction of the revival Broadway production of Spring Awakening in 2016, he has since directed productions of Annie, My Fair Lady, Once on This Island, and Merrily We Roll Along. 

His production of Parade has been praised as timely and relevant to American society in 2023. The musical written by Jason Robert Brown was first performed in 1998.

It tells the historical story of the trial of Jewish factory manager Leo Frank who was charged with the rape and murder of 13-year-old employee Mary Phagan in 1913.

The trial was sensationalised in the media and aroused antisemitic tensions in Georgia. Frank was found guilty and sentenced to death, but two years later a retiring Governor commuted his sentence to life imprisonment.

When Frank was moved to a different prison he was kidnapped and taken to Phagan hometown where he was lynched and hung from an oak tree. The rise of tensions around the case is credited with the revival of the Klu Klux Klan, but also the formation of the Jewish civil rights organisation the Anti-Defamation League.

The play concludes that the real culprit of the crime was the factory’s janitor who testified against Frank, he serves as the musical’s narrator.

Speaking to the media after his win Arden said there was a lot to be learned from the musical and the story it shares.

“We’re seeing crime and people being hurt because of the reason of hate.” Arden said of his timely musical. “White supremacy, antisemitism, transphobia, homophobia, these things are happening all around us, and I knew this was an important story to tell so that we might look to our past for how we forge our way to our future.”

Arden was accompanied by his husband, actor Andy Mientus who starred in the TV series Smash. 

Will and Grace star Sean Hayes was also a big winner at the awards, picking up the Best Actor in a Play award for his performance in Good Night, Oscar. 

In the play Hayes portrays actor Oscar Lavant, the whole show is set during an episode of The Tonight Show in 1958. Levant was well known for his performances in films including An American in Paris, Rhapsody in Blue and two films he made with Fred Astaire The Barkleys of Broadway and The Bandwagon. 

Kimberly Akimbo was named the Best Musical, while Tom Stoppard’s latest work Leopoldstad won Best Play. Suzan-Lori Park’s Topdog/Underdog was named the Best Play Revival.

Jodie Comer won the Best Actress in a play for Prima Facie, a one-woman show about defense attorney preparing for a sexual assault case, her characters convictions are shaken when she experiences the same crime.

J.Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell made history as the first non-binary actors to win Tony awards. Ghee was named Best Actor in a Musical for a revival of Some Like It Hot, while Newell took home the trophy for Best Actor in a Featured Performance in a Musical for Shucked. 

OIP Staff, Images: Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions

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