Writers Guild America: Asks Tony-Nominated Members Not to Attend Awards

Writers Guild America is in boycott mode.

The Hollywood Reporter has heard that the Writers Guild of America has requested that WGA members who are Tony nominees not attend the Tony Awards on June 11.

According to individuals familiar with the situation, the WGA recently sent an email to Tony nominees who are also guild members suggesting that they pre-record their acceptance speeches in case they win or ask a non-member to accept the award on their behalf.

This comes after the WGA denied the Tony Awards Management Committee's request for a waiver. A pledge that the Writers Guild would not picket the event as long as the Tony Awards went ahead with an unscripted ceremony was made to the committee on May 15 in exchange for another plea to the WGA. 

As was previously said, the ceremony's screenplay was already finished when the writers' strike started.

“Responsibility for having to make changes to the format of the 2023 Tony Awards rests squarely on the shoulders of Paramount/CBS and their allies,” the WGA said in a statement on May 15. “They continue to refuse to negotiate a fair contract for the writers represented by the WGA.

“As they have stood by us, we stand with our fellow workers on Broadway who are impacted by our strike,” the statement continued.

According to a New York Times story, playwrights who were also WGA members lobbied the union to support the Tony Awards. The union's request that attendees refrain from the ceremony may have the greatest influence on the writers nominated, but it would also affect guild members who are nominated in other categories, such as Sara Bareilles, who is up for an acting award for her work in Into the Woods.

Although he had been hired to pen a song for the Tony Awards, Lin-Manuel Miranda withdrew in support of the WGA.