Laura Benanti and Tituss Burgess to Host Tony Awards: Act One Pre-Show

Broadway’s biggest night has locked in its opening act.

Laura Benanti and Tituss Burgess will host “The Tony Awards: Act One,” the official live pre-show ahead of the 79th Annual Tony Awards, announced by the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League. The free streaming telecast will air on Pluto TV on Sunday, June 7 from 6:35 to 8 p.m. ET with the duo presenting the first round of competitive awards. Immediately following the pre-show, the main ceremony will broadcast live coast-to-coast.

Benanti is a Tony winner and five-time nominee whose credits include “Gypsy,” “Into the Woods,” “She Loves Me,” “My Fair Lady” and Steve Martin’s “Meteor Shower.” On the screen side, she currently stars as Cindy opposite Jeremy Renner on Paramount+’s “Mayor of Kingstown” and co-starred in films such as “No Hard Feelings” with Jennifer Lawrence and Matthew Broderick. Her solo comedy show “Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares,” recorded by Audible, heads back to London this summer ahead of a U.S. tour.

Burgess is a six-time Emmy and SAG nominee, who broke through as Titus Andromedon on Netflix’s hit comedy “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and stepped. He stepped into Broadway’s most talked-about comedy last year as Mary Todd Lincoln in a limited run of Cole Escola’s hilarious play “Oh, Mary!” His upcoming slate includes a voice role in Warner Bros.’ “The Cat in the Hat,” due in theaters in Nov. 2026, and Paramount+’s “The Elephant & Piggie Show!” opposite Ellie Kemper. He also debuted his own musical adaptation of “The Preacher’s Wife” at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre in 2024.

This year’s 79th Tony Awards nominations were dominated by the musicals “The Lost Boys” and “Schmigadoon!” with 12 nods each, followed closely by the critically acclaimed revival of “Ragtime” with 11. “Death of a Salesman,” a radical reimagining of Arthur Miller’s look at capitalism’s corrosive influence, was the top play, earning nine nominations.

Raj Kapoor, Sarah Levine Hall and Jack Sussman serve as executive producers of this year’s show, with Kapoor and Levine Hall doubling as co-showrunners. The ceremony is produced in collaboration with Tony Award Productions, a joint venture of the American Theatre Wing and the Broadway League.

The 79th Tony Awards will be hosted by music superstar Pink, and broadcast live coast-to-coast June 7 on CBS and stream on Paramount+ beginning at 8 p.m. ET.