How to watch the Tony Awards online free

The 73rd Annual Tony Awards will take place on Sunday, June 9 at 5 PM PST (8 PM EST / 1 AM BST) at Radio City Music Hall in New York. This is the event of the year for theatre performers and fans alike as the best in the field are recognized for their efforts on and off the stage. With British funnyman James Corden presenting, it’s sure to be a fun-filled evening.

Can’t make it to New York for the show? Not to worry; in this post, we’ll reveal how to stream the Tony Awards live online from across the globe. Note that most broadcasters geo-restrict their content, making it difficult to watch from abroad. We’ll show you how to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to spoof your location and make it appear that you’re in the right place to watch a given broadcast.

Best of all, we’ll show you how to use free trials to watch the Tony Awards online, free of charge.

Note that we’ll only be recommending licensed streaming sources. Popular events like the Tony Awards tend to be available via unlicensed streams, but these are usually low-quality and might be taken down part way through due to violation of copyrights.

Sources airing the Tony Awards won’t work from abroad. To access your regular services when traveling, you can use a VPN.

Best VPN for the Tony Awards: ExpressVPN

VPNs are great for boosting your online security as they encrypt your internet traffic, keeping snoopers such as hackers, employers, or your internet service provider at bay. They can also be used to spoof your location and make it appear that you’re somewhere else, enabling you to access geo-restricted content. Our top choice is ExpressVPN, a fast, secure, and easy-to-use VPN that’s known for its unblocking abilities.

Getting set up with ExpressVPN only takes a few minutes. You just choose your subscription period (one, six, or 12 months) and submit payment. The best part is there’s a no-quibbles 30-day money-back guarantee. This means you can use it to watch the Tony Awards and for up to a full month and then get a refund. It’s a risk-free deal.

BEST VPN FOR THE TONY AWARDS:ExpressVPN is our top pick for the Tony Awards as it’s fast and reliable, and can unblock a multitude of streaming sites, including CBS and CTV.

How to watch the Tony Awards abroad with a VPN

Setting up a VPN is simple and requires very little tech-savvy. Here’s how to watch the Tony Awards with a VPN:

1. Subscribe to your chosen provider. We recommend ExpressVPN but NordVPN and CyberGhost are two high-quality low-cost alternatives.
2. Download the relevant app for your device from the VPN website or appropriate app store.
3. Once you have the VPN up and running, connect to a server in a location that corresponds to your desired streaming source. For example, to access CBS, you need to connect to a US server.
4. Navigate to the live stream of the Tony Awards and enjoy!

While this should be straightforward, things can go wrong. We recommend you test out a live stream from the source region before the Tony Awards show begins, so you have chance to address any issues that may arise.

Where to stream the 73rd Annual Tony Awards live online

Only a couple of broadcasters have secured rights to the Tony Awards ceremony. Here are your main options:

US

CBS has exclusive rights to air the Tony Awards in the US and the show can be viewed on TV by anyone with CBS included in their cable package. CBS will be streaming the show online via CBS All Access. However, this service isn’t accessible through a cable provider. Instead, you have a couple of options.

If you happen to be subscribed to an over-the-top provider that carries CBS, such as fuboTV, Hulu with Live TV, DirecTV Now, PlayStation Vue, or YouTube TV, you’ll be able to access the Tony Awards live stream through that service. These all come with a free trial period so you could sign up with one of them and cancel before the trial period is up, enabling you to watch for free. Bear in mind, these services require US payment methods, even to access the free trials, so signing up from abroad can be tough. Hulu with Live TV does accept gift cards, so that could be an option.

If you don’t have a subscription to one of the above services, you can purchase access to CBS All Access directly through the site for $5.99 per month. There’s a seven-day free trial, so you can watch the Tony Awards and cancel before you pay a penny. CBS All Access requires a US form of payment.

The above services are geo-restricted and only available in the US. If you’re abroad and want to log in to an existing account, you can do so by connecting to a US VPN server first.

Canada

Similar to last year, CTV has rights to air the Tony Awards in Canada. You can watch live online via the CTV website or on the CTV mobile app, but you’ll have to log in with credentials for a Canadian cable provider.

There’s no online-only subscription option offered for CTV, so there’s no way to watch without a cable subscription. CTV livestreams are geo-restricted, so if you normally live in Canada but are traveling abroad, you can connect to a Canadian VPN server and log in as normal to watch the Tony Awards.

Australia

Australian viewers can catch the Tony Awards on the Foxtel Arena Channel. The show will air live on Monday, June 10 at 10 AM AEST. Existing Foxtel customers can log in and stream the event online or via the Foxtel GO mobile app.

If you don’t have an account, it’s possible to sign up for Foxtel Now for $25 AUD per month, but subscriptions come with a free 10-day trial so you can watch the Tony Awards and then cancel. Foxtel does require an Australian phone number for registration so it can be difficult to sign up from abroad.

If you have a Foxtel account but are traveling outside Australia, you can connect to an Australian VPN server to access the service as normal.

New Zealand

If you’re in New Zealand, you can watch the Tony Awards telecast via the Sky Network Arts Channel, although the broadcast will be delayed until 8 PM on Monday, June 10.

Existing Sky customers can watch on TV or via the Sky GO app, but note that you’ll have to have the Sky Arts Channel (a specialist channel) as part of your subscription. If you don’t have a Sky subscription, there is unlikely time to get one in time for the Tony Awards as registration involves a home visit to install the system.

For Sky customers wanting to stream via the Sky GO app while abroad, simply connect to a New Zealand VPN server and watch as normal.

Japan

In Japan, WOWOW has rights to the Tony Awards broadcast. It will be aired live on TV at 8 AM on Monday, June 10 and again at 7 PM on Saturday, June 15. WOWOW doesn’t enable you to stream content live, but a recording should be available for streaming shortly after the show has aired live. Subscriptions cost ¥2300 per month.

If you want to access WOWOW’s online content from abroad, you can do so with a Japan VPN server.

UK

Unfortunately, as usual, no UK broadcasters will be airing the Tony Awards. You would think that having a Brit presenting would change this, but UK residents will have to settle for show highlights after the fact. Radio 2 will air a special program on Friday, June 14, including some of the evening’s performances.

However, if it’s just the red carpet action you’re after, you can see what’s happening live on the Tony Awards On CBS Facebook page.

Other countries

If your country isn’t on this list, you can check the official Tony Awards site for updates on which international broadcasters will be airing the show.

Want to watch past awards?

If you can’t wait for this year’s show to start or just to get in the spirit of the show, it is possible to stream shows from years past. Shows from 2012 thru 2018 are available on Amazon Prime Video, and the same shows bar the 2017 edition can be found on iTunes. Select shows are also available on VUDU and Fandango Now.

Want to go back even further. You might enjoy the Broadway’s Lost Treasures Collection, a compendium of some of the best performances from past Tony Awards telecasts. This is available as a DVD box set on Amazon.

Who are the nominees for the Tony Awards

The nominations for this year’s awards were announced on the Tony Awards YouTube channel. There are 24 categories in total. Here are the nominees for some of the more prominent categories:

Best Musical

• Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations
• Beetlejuice
• Hadestown
• The Prom
• Tootsie

Best Play

• Choir Boy
• Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus
• Ink
• The Ferryman
• What the Constitution Means to Me

Best Original Score

• Beetlejuice, music and lyrics: Eddie Perfect
• Be More Chill, music and lyrics: Joe Iconis
• Hadestown, music and lyrics: Anaïs Mitchell
• The Prom, music by Matthew Sklar; lyrics by Chad Beguelin
• Tootsie, music and lyrics: David Yazbek
• To Kill a Mockingbird, music by Adam Guettel

Best Leading Actor in a Play

• Adam Driver, Burn This
• Bryan Cranston, Network
• Jeff Daniels, To Kill a Mockingbird
• Jeremy Pope, Choir Boy
• Paddy Considine, The Ferryman

Best Leading Actress in a Play

• Annette Bening, All My Sons
• Elaine May, The Waverly Gallery
• Heidi Schreck, What the Constitution Means to Me
• Janet McTeer, Bernhardt/Hamlet
• Laura Donnelly, The Ferryman
• Laurie Metcalf, Hillary and Clinton

Best Leading Actor in a Musical

• Alex Brightman, Beetlejuice
• Brooks Ashmanskas, The Prom
• Damon Daunno, Oklahoma!
• Derrick Baskin, Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations
• Santino Fontana, Tootsie

Best Leading Actress in a Musical

• Beth Leavel, The Prom
• Caitlin Kinnunen, The Prom
• Eva Noblezada, Hadestown
• Kelli O’Hara, Kiss Me, Kate
• Stephanie J. Block, The Cher Show