Aaron Tveit ’05 (left) and Dharon Jones ’20 both had nights to remember at the Tony Awards. (Tveit photo by Lev Radin/Shutterstock, Jones photo courtesy of his Instagram)
Aaron Tveit ’05 (left) and Dharon Jones ’20 both had nights to remember at the Tony Awards. (Tveit photo by Lev Radin/Shutterstock, Jones photo courtesy of his Instagram)
The 74th annual Tony Awards took place on September 26, and several Ithaca College alumni got some time in the spotlight.
Aaron Tveit ’05, a musical theatre alumnus, took home his first Tony Award, in the Best Leading Actor in a Musical category, for his role of Christian in “Moulin Rouge! The Musical.” The show also won the award for Best Musical.
Although Tveit was the only nominee in his category, he still needed to earn 60% of the votes to secure the win.
“What we do changes people’s lives. It changes people’s minds. It changes people’s hearts. We can change the world with this. Let’s not forget that. This means more to me than I can ever say.”
Aaron Tveit ’05
“We are so privileged to get to do this, to be on Broadway, to have a life in the theater,” he said in his acceptance speech. “Let’s continue to strive to tell the stories that represent the many and not the few, by the many and not the few, for the many and not the few. Because what we do changes people’s lives. It changes people’s minds. It changes people’s hearts. We can change the world with this. Let’s not forget that. This means more to me than I can ever say.”
Tveit has had an extensive career in Broadway and on the screen. He played Frank Abagnale Jr. in the Broadway production of “Catch Me If You Can” in 2011. The next year, he played Enjolras, leader of the student revolutionary group in the film adaptation of “Les Misérables.” He later played the role of Mike Warren on the television show “Graceland” for several years.
And he wasn’t the only Bomber to take part in an award-winning production. Jonathan Burke ’08 was an actor in “The Inheritance,” which took home the Best Play award. Sam Schloegel ‘16 served as an associate sound designer and sound programmer for the production.
A musical theatre grad, Burke has acted in several roles in the show — such as Young Man 5, Toby's agent and Charles Wilcox — which is an exploration of gay history, set a generation after the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s.
View Dharon Jones ’20 in the special opening production of “Broadway’s Back.”
In 2019, he played Pharus Jonathan Young in the Broadway production of “Choir Boy.” Currently, he has a role as a waiter in the Hulu television series “Only Murders in the Building.”
Schloegel, who was a theatrical production arts major at IC, had previously served as associate sound designer on the Broadway production of “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” which never opened due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
One alumnus had a featured role in the Tony Awards ceremony itself. Dharon Jones ’20 joined his “West Side Story” castmates on stage as part of the “Broadway’s Back” special opening number. The former acting major took on the role of Riff in the Broadway revival of the classic musical, which only ran for 21 performances in 2020 before becoming another casualty of the pandemic and will unfortunately not be reopening.
While at IC, Jones appeared in a site-specific production of “Little Shop of Horrors” at Bool’s Flower Shop in downtown Ithaca and in the ensemble of Ithaca College Theatre’s production of "Ragtime," directed by Eric Jordan Young '93.