Alum Produces Three Tony-Winning Shows

Skye Optican ’13, co-head of Annapurna Theatre, had a great night Sunday, June 12, at the Tony Awards.

She and Annapurna were on the producing teams of Best New Play The Lehman Trilogy, Best Musical Revival Company, and Best New Musical A Strange Loop. Annapurna Theatre is the live performance division of Annapurna Films.

The Lehman Trilogy, written by Stefano Massini and adapted by Ben Power, is a multigenerational saga of the rise and fall of Lehman Brothers investment bank. The show also won Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role of a Play (Simon Russell Beale), Best Direction of a Play (Sam Mendes), Best Scenic Direction of a Play (Es Devlin), and Best Lighting Design of a Play (Jon Clark).

Best Revival winner Company, with music/lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by George Furth, flipped genders from the original 1970 staging. It also won Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical (Matt Doyle), Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical (Patti LuPone), Best Scenic Design of a Musical (Bunny Christie), and Best Direction of a Musical (Marianne Elliott).

A Strange Loop, a meta show about a Black, queer writing writing a musical about Black, queer writer, also won Best Book for Michael R. Jackson.

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