Purpose Wins Best Play at the 2025 Tony Awards

Purpose by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has won the 2025 Tony Award for Best Play at the 78th Annual Tony Awards. Jacobs-Jenkins now becomes one of only three playwrights who have won back-to-back Tony Awards (the other ones being Tony Kushner and Terrence McNally), and the first-ever Black playwright to achieve that distinction. Last year, Jacobs-Jenkins won for Best Revival of a Play for Appropriate. This also marks the first time in 38 years that a Black playwright has won Best Play (since August Wilson's 1987 prize for Fences).

The win is the second for the production, following an earlier (also back-to-back) win for Kara Young's featured performance.

“I encourage everyone to please support their local theatres," Jacobs-Jenkins said passionately onstage at Radio City accepting the award. "A lot of great stuff happens in New York, but a lot more happens out in the regions. So use your next commercial break to Google 'a local theatre near me.'"

Purpose went into the Tonys with six nominations, including: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for Jon Michael Hill and Harry Lennix, Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play for Young, and Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play for Glenn Davis.

The work follows an Illinois family of civil rights leaders, pastors, and congressmen—pillars of Black American politics—with secrets lying just beneath the surface. The youngest son Nazareth returns home with an uninvited friend that ultimately forces the family to reckon with itself, their faith, and the legacies of Black radicalism.

The show just announced an extension at the Helen Hayes Theatre until August 31. The Broadway bow is a transfer of a production that began at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, the work's world premiere. Though playing the Hayes, Purpose is not a Second Stage production. It is directed by Phylicia Rashad.

READ: Phylicia Rashad and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Collaborate to Find Purpose

The ensemble cast includes 2024 Tony winner Kara Young as Aziza Houston, LaTanya Richardson Jackson as Claudine Jasper, together with Young joining returning cast members Harry Lennix as Solomon "Sonny" Jasper, Jon Michael Hill as Nazareth "Naz" Jasper, Glenn Davis as Solomon "Junior" Jasper, and Alana Arenas as Morgan Jasper. Understudies Petronia Paley, Esau Pritchett, Chris Myers, and Sojourner Brown round out the company. Casting is by Calleri Jensen Davis, with original casting by JC Clementz.

The Purpose creative team includes scenic design by Todd Rosenthal, costume design by Dede Ayite, lighting design by Amith Chandrashaker, and sound design by Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen. Hair and wig design are by Tony honoree Nikiya Mathis, and Tiffany N. Robinson serves as production stage manager with general management by 321 Theatrical Management.

Visit .