NEW YORK — “Purpose,” a drama by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins that was commissioned and first produced by Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company, has won the Tony Award for best play at the awards ceremony at Radio City Musical Hall.
The play, with a stort loosely based on the family of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, was nominated alongside “The Hills of California,” “John Proctor Is the Villain” and “Oh, Mary!”
The win is a major victory for the famed Chicago company that last wowed New York theater with Tracy Letts’ “August: Osage County” in 2008. Actress Kara Young, who was added to the Chicago cast of “Purpose” for the Broadway production, also won a Tony for best featured actress in a play.
In accepting the award, Glenn Davis, Steppenwolf’s co-artistic director and a cast member and Tony nominee himself, had the chance to remind New York and the television audience of Steppenwolf’s accomplishments over the years. Playwright Jacobs-Jenkins thanked “the city of Chicago for making this show what it was.” He also said Chicago had “the best actors in America.”
The 2025 Tony Awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and Broadway League in a ceremony Sunday at Radio City Music Hall in New York, hosted by “Wicked” star Cynthia Erivo and broadcast on CBS and streamed on Paramount+.
This story is updating.
