25th Anniversary of Beauty Queen at the Tony Awards

7 June 2023

Today marks 25 year since Druid took home 4 awards at the 1998 Tony Awards for The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh.

The production was nominated for 6 awards and won 4:

• Garry Hynes won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play
• Marie Mullen won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
• The late Anna Manahan won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
• The late Tom Murphy won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play
• The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play
• Brían F. O'Byrne was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play

The play's success at the Tony Awards made history not only for Irish theatre but also world theatre as Garry Hynes became the first woman to ever win a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play.

This award-winning world premiere production of Martin McDonagh's play opened at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway in 1996 (the inaugural performance at this new theatre) and over the next few years enjoyed numerous seasons including four Irish tours, two runs at the Royal Court in London, a long run at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London’s West End, an Off-Broadway run, a Broadway run, and two Australian tours.

This 25th anniversary follows Marie Mullen’s 2022 run on Broadway in The Music Man which also starred Hugh Jackman. The anniversary also falls during rehearsals for Garry Hynes’ major new Druid production, DruidO’Casey, which opens in Galway this summer.

For more on the history of Druid's production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane, read this article by Dr Barry Houlihan (Archivist, University of Galway) on RTÉ.ie.