Only example I can think of is Lucky from Waiting for Godot, who has a huge speech, but is otherwise silent for all of his stage time. I imagine there must be other mute, or mostly mute roles that have gotten similar awards attention though.
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blaxx said: "LarryD2 said: "Aunt Maggie Far Away in THE FERRYMAN doesn't have much dialogue aside from her long monologue at the top of Act Two."
Love, that monologue is eternal. Certainly not a character with little to no dialogue, I didn't know if the lady would ever stop talking."
Not really. It's a two-page monologue. Maybe 10 minutes total in a play that's over three hours. And the character has about five lines of dialogue otherwise.
Margie MacDougall in Promises Promises has 22 spoken lines before her duet at the top of Act 2, and is never seen again. The entire sequence, including the song is less than 10 minutes. Both the original and revival actresses won the Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
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Savion Glover was nominated for Best Actor in a Musical for his work in "Bring in 'da Noise/ Bring in 'da Funk" in 1996, and he did not speak or sing a word in the show (though there was a recorded speech he danced to).
Bill Irwin was nominated for Best Actor in a Play in 1989 for "Largely New York" and I don't think he spoke at all, but I may be mistaken.
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I feel pretty confident that the OP meant speaking and not dialogue. If you ask the question about dialogue then every one person show that produced a nomination would be listed.
I don’t think the Emcee really counts. Yes in terms of spoken dialogue, he has little, but he also has the most songs in the show, so he does a lot of singing throughout. And even then, he has a decent amount of spoken lines during his numbers.
How about Elizabeth A Davis as Reza in Once? I didn't see her in the role, but I was shocked when I found out someone got nominated for that role. I don't know the show that well, but she probably has fewer than 10 lines and I'm not sure she has any solo singing lines at all.
Although no one has been nominated for a Tony for the Beggar Woman in Sweeney Todd, Merle Louise in the original cast was nominated for a Drama Desk that year. A local actress in Philadelphia also got nominated for that part for the local Barrymore Awards in 2005. In both the Drama Desks and the Philadelphia award, the actress who played Johanna did not get nominated. I did not see the original Broadway cast, but the Beggar Woman is a tiny part, and Johanna is quite a large one.
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