The 2019 Tony Awards can be seen live at 8 p.m. Eastern on CBS — unless you live in the fourth dimension known as the West Coast.

For theater fans here, CBS will continue its tradition of delaying the broadcast to 8 p.m. Pacific. You can see and hear the winners three hours after you have seen and heard them on Twitter and YouTube.

The Tony Awards are also livestreaming on CBS All Access, but that too is complicated. Streaming is available only in “select markets,” CBS says, so even subscribers of the service cannot be guaranteed they can see the show live.

The Times will have staffers at the ceremony and another crew covering the awards from our El Segundo headquarters, where we’ll be tuned into an East Coast live feed (grrr) of CBS. Until then, if you need a quick rundown of the Broadway season and what you might see Sunday night, here’s the quick prep:


Theater critic Charles McNulty offers his opinionated guide to the top races.

Separately, McNulty makes the case for why “Hadestown” deserves to win best musical, and why “What the Constitution Means to Me” should win best play. (The latter raises the interesting question of what happens to a piece of theatrical memoir when its writer and star decides to move on.)

“Hadestown” is tops in nominations with 14, including one for creator Anaïs Mitchell, who spent 15 years revising her music. Many will be rooting for the director prize to go to Rachel Chavkin, who has interesting opinions on the question of why more women aren’t directing on Broadway. Other things about to know about “Hadestown”: One of its lead producers is from L.A., and ones of its chorus boys is quite popular among audience members with eyes.

For better or for worse, the presence of Hollywood is strong this year, with “Tootsie” and “Beetlejuice” vying for best musical, Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird” likely to bring home some Tonys gold and Oscar-Emmy-Tony fave Laurie Metcalf up again, this time for “Hillary & Clinton.” Even Kylo Ren is nominated.


So catch up with our news story from the morning nominations were announced, check out the list of all nominees in every category, and if you live on the West Coast, pretend you live in pre-Twitter 2005 from 5-8 p.m. Sunday.