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
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