Tony Awards 2026 Salutes Chicago With Pink Leading a Star-Packed Tribute to the Broadway Revival Fans Know by Heart

NEW YORK, NY — The 79th Annual Tony Awards turned into a love letter to Chicago on June 7, as the ceremony celebrated the 30th anniversary of the show’s record-setting Broadway revival. Broadcast live from Radio City Music Hall on CBS and streamed on Paramount+, the tribute brought together a mix of stage and screen names for a high-energy salute to one of Broadway’s longest-running hits.

Queen Latifah opened the segment and introduced the celebration, while Tony host Pink joined the lineup alongside Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Alex Newell, Adrienne Warren, Julianne Hough, Whitney Leavitt, and Dylan Mulvaney. The performance spotlighted some of the musical’s best-known numbers, including Newell’s take on “When You’re Good to Mama,” a version of “Cell Block Tango,” and Pink’s performance of “All That Jazz.”

A Broadway revival that never stopped drawing crowds

The tribute also underscored just how durable Chicago has been since its 1996 revival debut. What began as one of City Center’s Encores! presentations opened on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in November 1996, later moved to the Shubert Theatre, and then reopened at the Ambassador Theatre in 2003, where it is still running.

Since that debut, the production has played in 36 countries and reached 33 million people worldwide. It is now the second-longest running show in Broadway history, trailing only the now-closed The Phantom of the Opera.

Why the revival remains such a defining Broadway brand

Chicago has stayed popular because its behind-the-scenes pedigree is as famous as the show itself. The musical features a book by the late Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander, and lyrics by Ebb, with direction by Walter Bobbie and choreography by the late Ann Reinking.

Its current Broadway production is produced by Barry and Fran Weissler, and the revival won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical in 1997. The production also earned honors for Bebe Neuwirth, James Naughton, Bobbie, Billington, and Reinking, reinforcing its status as a model for how a revival can become a long-running institution.

What fans can expect from Chicago after the Tony spotlight

The Tony Awards tribute offered a fresh reminder that Chicago still works as both a nostalgia act and a living Broadway draw. With performers tied to the show’s legacy sharing the stage, the segment connected the original revival’s history to the musical’s current run at the Ambassador Theatre.

For fans, the performance was another chance to revisit the show’s sharp, cynical world of celebrity, crime, and show business, this time through a Tony-night spectacle designed to keep the revival in the spotlight. The production’s executive producer is Alecia Parker.

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