The Writers Guild of America has asked Tony nominees who are WGA members not to attend the June 11 Tony Awards. The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
The WGA recently sent an email to Tony nominees, who are also members of the guild, stating that instead of attending, they can record acceptance speeches, in the event of a win, or be a non-member ask them to accept the award on their behalf, sources familiar with the matter said. The WGA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This comes after the Tony Awards Management Committee asked the WGA for a waiver and received a denial. The committee appealed again to the Writers Guild and was denied an exemption, but was promised on May 15 that the WGA would not pick up the event as long as the Tony Awards continued with an unscripted ceremony. As previously reported, a script for the ceremony had already been completed before the writers’ strike began.
“The responsibility for having to make changes to the format of the 2023 Tony Awards rests entirely on Paramount/CBS and their allies,” the WGA said in a statement on May 15. “They continue to refuse to negotiate a fair contract for the writers represented by the WGA.
“As they have stood by us, we stand with our colleagues on Broadway who have been impacted by our strike,” the statement continued.
Playwrights who were also WGA members lobbied the union to keep the Tony Awards going, according to a New York Times report. The union’s request not to attend the ceremony may have the greatest impact on the writing nominees, but would also impact guild members nominated in other categories, including Sara Bareilles, who was nominated in an acting category for her role in In the woods.
Lin-Manuel Miranda had been asked to write a song for the Tony Awards, but stopped writing it in solidarity with WGA. He is not a WGA member.
The Tony Awards will be held June 11 at the United Palace Theater in Washington Heights.
More to come…
