By Roberto Leal
The 75th Annual Tony Awards will air on June 12 from Radio City Music Hall. The 2022 broadcast will be hosted by Latina superstar, Ariana Debose. The winner of this year’s Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, as well as a BAFTA, Critics Choice, and SAG Awards for her show-stopping performance as Anita in West Side Story. DeBose herself was nominated for a Tony Award in 2018 for her performance as Donna Summer in Summer The Donna Summer Musical.
Debose’s dynamic presence as host will surely add some Latino magic to the awards show that also includes four Latino Tony Award nominees for a Tony Award from all the numerous and varied categories for the highest honor for work on a professional stage. They include
LILIANA BLAIN-CRUZ
Blain-Cruz has garnered a nomination for Best Director for the play The Skin of Our Teeth. The play is a 1942 Pulitzer Prize winner by Thornton Wilder. The Skin of Our Teeth is an epic comedy-drama, a three-part allegory about the life of mankind, centering on the Antrobas family of the fictional town of Excelsior, New Jersey. Blain-Cruz is a recipient of a Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award and an Obie Award for Mary Seacole.
RUBEN SANTIAGO-HUDSON
Nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in Lackawanna Blues is the actor and playwright of Puerto Rican descent, Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Lackawanna Blues is the true story of Santiago Jr. growing up in Lackawanna, New York. The story celebrates all those strong women who raised him in this solo play. He has previously won a Tony Award for his performance in Seven Guitars.
EMILIO SOSA
Emilio Sosa is a Dominican costume designer and Chair of the American Theatre Wing Board of Trustees in New York City. Sosa has earned a nomination this year in the category of Best Costume Design in a Play for his work on Trouble in Mind, the play that focuses on sexism and racism within the American theater industry. Sosa was a contestant on season seven of Project Runway and became the first color designer for the Radio City Music Hall Spring Spectacular
ARNULFO MALDONADO
The New York city-based designer, Arnulfo Maldonado, is nominated for Best scenic design in a Musical. The musical, A Strange Loop is Michael R. Jackson‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning, a blisteringly funny masterwork that exposes the heart and soul of a young artist grappling with desires, identity, and instincts he both loves and loathes.
Maldonado has worked on dozens of Broadway and Off-Broadway shows. He is the winner of a Tony, Obie, and several Henry Hewes Design Awards. The 75th Tony Awards Show will be broadcast on June 12 (8:00 – 11:00 PM, Live ET/5:00 – 8:00 PM, Live PT), from Radio City Music Hall on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.