Question about 1971 Tony Awards

[kdogg36]

Posted: 2/3/26 at 6:13pm

A lot of us here probably know that 1971 was the only year that separate Tony Awards were given for music and lyrics, and that Stephen Sondheim won both for Company. But I'm curious as to how this was done. Were there separate nominations made for each category? Were they voted on separately, or were there just two awards given for the single winning score? 

The Tony Awards website isn't very helpful; it just lists six nominees for three nominated shows (Company, The Rothschilds, and The Me Nobody Knows), including Sondheim twice. If the two awards were truly separated, we might expect different shows to be nominated for each category, but that's not the case. 

Anyhow, does anyone have any light to shed here? Were Bust Music and Best Lyrics truly treated as separate categories in 1971, or were separate awards given for one category?

Updated On: 2/3/26 at 06:13 PM

[walnutoraroach]

Posted: 2/4/26 at 8:19am

I’m pretty sure it was two separate categories, much like the Drama Desk continues to do (often with different nominees and winners in each). It’s great in a year like 1983 where ALW won for Cats and Howard Ashman won for lyrics. But there was only a single Tony nomination in 1971 for a new musical that wasn’t one of those three shows (an acting award for Two by Two), so if you look at the eligibility list, those nominations are not surprising. But maybe that result made them realize the same scores were likely to win both categories and they could save on engraving costs.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 2/4/26 at 10:59am

They were 2 separate categories so Sondheim won 2 Tony Awards for COMPANY: one for Best Score for a Musical and one for Best Lyrics for a Musical.

[kdogg36]

Posted: 2/4/26 at 12:11pm

Thank you both for your thoughts on this! The Tony website (linked in my post above) could be clearer about this; for some reason it doesn't list them as separate categories, which actually led me to ask the question.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 2/5/26 at 10:01pm

This always fascinated me and made me try to imagine what years there might have been a divide between best music and best lyric winners in those categories...  

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 2/5/26 at 10:09pm

BrodyFosse123 said: "They were 2 separate categories so Sondheim won 2 Tony Awards for COMPANY: one for Best Score for a Musical and one for Best Lyrics for a Musical."