Aubrey Plaza and Christopher Abbott looked loved-up on Sunday when they made their red carpet debut at the 79th Annual Tony Awards at New York City’s iconic Radio City Music Hall.
The 41-year-old Parks and Recreation star and the 40-year-old actor put on an affectionate display as Plaza cradled her burgeoning baby bump.
She was supporting the Girls alumnus as he competes for best featured actor in a play for his turn as Willy Loman’s son Biff in Arthur Miller’s Death Of A Salesman.
Plaza and Abbott walked the red carpet for the first time as a couple after their fans were shocked in April by reports that she was expecting her first child with the actor.
The baby, whose gender has not been revealed, is due in the fall.
Plaza looked radiant in a black spaghetti-strap dress that hugged her midriff and was decorated with wide pinstripes.
Aubrey Plaza, 41, and Christopher Abbott, 40, looked love-up on Sunday when they made their red carpet debut at the 79th Annual Tony Awards at New York City’s iconic Radio City Music Hall
Plaza and Abbott walked the red carpet for the first time as a couple after their fans were shocked in April by reports that she was expecting her first child with the actor
The floor-length dress featured contrasting white triangles terminating at the slim straps.
Plaza paired her look with a set of open-toe shoes, and she kept her accessories to a minimum while wearing her brunette locks down.
Abbott was on the same page as his partner and similarly stylish.
He rocked a black velvet tuxedo with pants that were slightly cropped to show off his black boots.
The stage and screen star wore a slim black necktie and a tasteful white pocket square.
The couple, who previously starred on Broadway together before falling in love, were said to be feeling ‘very blessed’ after their baby news was revealed.
Plaza and Abbott, whose relationship had not been previously reported, first worked together in 2019 on the indie psychological drama Black Bear, in which both actors played dual roles as actors and directors trying to shoot a film in an eerie, isolated lake house.
The low-budget thriller premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2020 to critical acclaim, with several reviewers singling it out as one of Plaza’s best performances to date.
Plaza looked radiant in a black spaghetti-strap dress that hugged her midriff and was decorated with wide pinstripes
The White Lotus star cradled her burgeoning baby bump on the red carpet
Abbott was on the same page as his partner and similarly stylish. He rocked a black velvet tuxedo with pants that were slightly cropped to show off his black boots
She worked again with Abbott in 2023 – this time on stage – in the Off Broadway revival of John Patrick Shanley’s play Danny And The Deep Blue Sea, which ran until January 2024.
Plaza and her new partner were last seen together before the pregnancy news broke on February 14, when they attended Khaite’s Fall/Winter 2026 show as part of New York Fashion Week.
This year’s Tony Awards feature a bevy of stars in contention for theatrical awards, including Daniel Radcliffe, Rose Byrne, Nathan Lane, Laurie Metcalf, Stephanie Hsu, Carrie Coon, Lesley Manville, John Lithgow, Luke Evans, Rachel Dratch and June Squibb
Pink has been tapped to host the Tonys for the first time, a job she described as ‘the honor of an entire lifetime’ in a statement to People.
Hailing the Great White Way for having ‘the literal hardest working people in showbiz,’ she raved: ‘Broadway has shaped my life and how I put my own shows together. It is a community that is supportive, and inclusive, and full of talent and love.’
Although she has never performed on Broadway before, her pop songs have in the past been included in the jukebox musicals Moulin Rouge! and & Juliet.
This year, Schmigadoon! and The Lost Boys soared ahead of their competitors to emerge as the most nominated shows of the night with 12 nods apiece.
The Lost Boys – based on Joel Schumacher’s 1987 vampire movie of the same name starring Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, Jami Gertz, Jason Patric and Kiefer Sutherland – is one of the four productions nominated for best musical.
Pink has been tapped the host the ceremony for the first time, a job she described as ‘the honor of an entire lifetime’ in a statement to People
Daniel Radcliffe is pictured on opening night of the revived one-man show Every Brilliant Thing, for which he is nominated for best leading actor in a play
Mark Strong and Lesley Manville are nominated for their turns as the title character and his mother-turned-lover Jocasta in Oedipus, Robert Icke’s revamp of Sophocles
Rose Byrne is pictured at the opening night curtain call of the revival of Noel Coward’s comedy Fallen Angels, for which she is nominated for best leading actress in a play
So is Schmigadoon!, based on an Apple TV+ sitcom about a floundering couple who find themselves transported into the world of a classic Broadway musical.
Rounding out the category are Titanique, a Celine Dion jukebox musical doubling as a Titanic parody, and the UK import Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York).
The best play nominees include Mark Rosenblatt’s buzzy Giant, starring John Lithgow as Roald Dahl in a story about the antisemitism allegations that swirled around the author after his blistering denunciation of the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
Among its competitors is The Balusters, a comedy by David Lindsay-Abaire, whose tragic drama Rabbit Hole was made into a 2010 film with Nicole Kidman.
Bess Wohl’s play Liberation, set in the second-wave feminist movement, and Samuel D. Hunter’s family drama Little Bear Ridge Road are up for best play as well.
Best revival of a musical stands as a three-way contest between Cats – now subtitled The Jellicle Ball – Ragtime and Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show.
Best revival of a play is a fuller field, with five nominees including classics like Noel Coward’s Fallen Angels and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, as well as Oedipus, impresario Robert Icke’s revamp of Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannos.
Also up for the prize is the revival of Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe’s one-man show Every Brilliant Thing, now starring Daniel Radcliffe, and Gina Gionfriddo’s Becky Shaw, which traces the course of a disastrous blind date.
John Lithgow is up for best lead actor in a play as Roald Dahl in Giant, which he is pictured starring in last year at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London before transferring to Broadway
Laurie Metcalf and Nathan Lane, pictured at the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards, are both up for Tonys for a revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
Best leading actor in a play is a starry category, with Radcliffe for Every Brilliant Thing facing off against Nathan Lane as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, John Lithgow as Roald Dahl in Giant, Mark Strong as the title character in Oedipus and Will Harrison as someone who kills a man with a single blow in the British play Punch.
Best leading actress in a play is similarly speckled with Hollywood glitz, in the shape of nominees like Rose Byrne in Fallen Angels, Carrie Coon in a revival of Tracy Letts’ paranoia-themed play Bug and Lesley Manville as Jocasta in Oedipus.
Stage actresses Susannah Flood and Kelli O’Hara complete the category for their respective performances in Liberation and Fallen Angels.
Competing in the best featured actor in a play category against Christopher Abbott are Solo star Alden Ehrenreich for Becky Shaw, Danny Burstein for the sci-fi play Marjorie Prime, Richard Thomas in The Balusters, Brandon J. Dirden in a revival of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Ruben Santiago-Hudson in a revival of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.
Laurie Metcalf is nominated for best featured actress in a play as Linda in Death of a Salesman, against June Squibb in Marjorie Prime, Aya Cash for Giant, Marylouise Burke for The Balusters and Betsy Aidem for Liberation.
The Hobbit heartthrob Luke Evans landed a nod for best leading actor in a musical for Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show, in which he plays Dr Frank-N-Furter, the ‘sweet transvestite’ immortalized on film by Tim Curry.
In order to triumph Sunday night, he will have to beat out Joshua Henry and Brandon Uranowitz for Ragtime, Sam Tutty in Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) and Nicholas Christopher in a revival of the 1980s musical Chess, written by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ex-lyricist Tim Rice with ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus.
Stephanie Hsu, who was nominated for an Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once, is now up for the best leading actress in a musical Tony for The Rocky Horror Show, in which she plays Janet, the role Susan Sarandon committed to celluloid.
Luke Evans, nominated for his role as Frank-N-Furter in Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show, is pictured in the production with his co-star Josh Rivera
Melissa Barrera is pictured during the opening night curtain call of Titanique, the Celine Dion jukebox musical that doubles as a parody of Titanic
LJ Benet and Ali Louis Bourzgui are pictured in The Lost Boys – adapted from the 1987 vampire movie of the same name – which is one of the most nominated shows of the evening
She finds herself pitted against Schmigadoon!’s Sara Chase – reprising her role from the Apple TV+ series – as well as Caissie Levy for Ragtime, Christiani Pitts for Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) and Marla Mindelle for her star turn as Celine Dion in Titanique, which she also helped write.
Best featured actress in a musical is a category that this year includes two Saturday Night Live alumnae – Rachel Dratch as the narrator in The Rocky Horror Show and Ana Gasteyer for Schmigadoon!.
Their rivals are Shoshanna Bean in The Lost Boys as Lucy – the Dianne Wiest role in the film – as well as Nichelle Lewis for Ragtime and Hannah Cruz for Chess.
Meanwhile the nominees for best featured actor in a musical are Ali Louis Bourzgui playing the Kiefer Sutherland role of David in The Lost Boys, Andre de Shields as Old Deuteronomy in Cats and Layton Williams as the iceberg in Titanique, as well as Ben Levi Ross for Ragtime and Bryce Pinkham for Chess.
Best original score, a category that was traditionally reserved for the songs from musicals, now also encompasses new background music added to the revivals of straight plays, in this case composed by Caroline Shaw for Death of a Salesman and Steve Bargonetti for Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.
The musicals up for the prize are Schmigadoon!, with songs by Cinco Paul; The Lost Boys, with songs by the indie rock band The Rescues; and Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York), with music by Jim Barne and lyrics by Kit Buchan.
Best book of a musical is a category comprised this year of Jim Barne and Kit Buchan for Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York); Tye Blue, Marla Mindelle, and Constantine Rousouli for Titanique; Chris Hoch and David Hornsby for The Lost Boys; and Cinco Paul for Schmigadoon!.
The nominees for best direction of a play are Nicholas Hytner for Giant, Robert Icke for Oedipus, Kenny Leon for The Balusters, Joe Mantello for Death of a Salesman and Whitney White for Liberation.
Best direction of a musical, meanwhile, will either go to Michael Arden for The Lost Boys, Lear deBessonet for the Ragtime revival, Christopher Gattelli for Schmigadoon!, Tim Jackson for Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) or Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch for the Cats revival.
