BU Alums in the Running for Tony Awards
Nominated for Broadway’s highest honor in acting, sound design, costume design, and producing
BU Alums in the Running for Tony Awards
Nominated for Broadway’s highest honor in acting, sound design, costume design, and producing
Sara Chase (CFA’05) (center in pink shirt) as Melissa Gimble in a scene from Schmigadoon! Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
This article was originally published in BU Today on June 4, 2026. By John O’Rourke
EXCERPT
Sara Chase grew up listening to recordings of musicals written during Broadway’s heyday—shows like Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun and the Rodgers and Hammerstein canon. “I was obsessed with The Sound of Music,” says Chase (CFA’05). “I still believe the most beautiful melodies and lyrics come from this era, and that is why they endure. They are timeless and poetic.”
So it seems fitting that Chase is starring in this year’s Broadway hit musical Schmigadoon!, a send-up of those very musicals she loved as a child. The show is based on the popular Apple TV+ series of the same name that ran from 2021 to 2023.
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For her performance, Chase has been nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical. The Tonys—the American theater’s highest honor—will be handed out Sunday night in a televised ceremony airing live on CBS.
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Walter Trarbach (CFA’02) has also earned a Tony nomination for his work on Schmigadoon!, in the category of Best Sound Design of a Musical. (Trarbach was nominated for SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical in 2018).
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This year is also the second nomination for David Reynoso (CFA’03). He was previously nominated for Best Costume Design of a Musical for his first Broadway show, Water for Elephants, in 2024. This year, he is nominated in the same category for his second Broadway outing, Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show, based on the 1975 cult film. [Amber Gray (CFA’04) stars as Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Show].
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In addition to Chase, Trarbach, and Reynoso, producers Stewart Lane (CFA’73) and Jay Marcus (COM’07) have been nominated for a Tony Award for Best Musical for The Lost Boys, an adaptation of the 1987 comedic horror film starring Kiefer Sutherland, Corey Haim, and Jason Patric. This marks Lane’s 17th Tony nomination (he’s the recipient of six Tonys to date) and the fourth for Marcus, who is also nominated this year as a producer in the Best Revival of a Musical category for Cats: The Jellicle Ball (his production of Sunset Boulevard won that award in 2025).
Also nominated is producer Sue Wagner (CFA’97) for a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play for Oedipus, and producer James L. Nederlander (CGS’80) is nominated for five Tony Awards: Best Musical for Lost Boys, Schmigadoon!, Titanique, and Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York); and for Best Play for Giant.
