P!nk, Queen Latifah, and Alex Newell closed the 2026 Tonys with a “Chicago” reckoning

On Sunday, June 7, the 79th annual Tony Awards turned Radio City Music Hall into a courtroom, a jazz club, and a karaoke stage, with P!nk, Queen Latifah, and Alex Newell driving a star-studded “Chicago” medley for the show’s 30th anniversary. The headline act mattered because the tribute was not just a celebrity victory lap. It was built around the specifics of “Chicago” itself: the “murderesses” energy, the signature songs, and a lineage that connects the original film era to today's Broadway revival.

The piece started the way “Chicago” always starts: with the right people taking turns at center stage. After an introduction and torch passing, “from one mother hen to another” from Queen Latifah, Newell belted out “When You're Good to Mama.” That handoff set the tone for the whole evening, including the uncomfortable truth that “Mama” is a hard act to follow. From there, the medley sprinted through recognizable set pieces. Newell and the ensemble leaned into “Cell Block Tango,” which the source notes everyone sold with gusto, and even landed a brief but hilarious cameo from Jesse Tyler Ferguson. The closer was P!nk’s run at “All That Jazz,” described as a hardest-rocking pop performance with jazz hands, vocal excellence, and that “cat who caught the canary energy” that made it feel like a childhood fantasy on the Tony stage.

What made this more than a greatest-hits moment was the milestone behind it. The “Chicago” tribute commemorated 30 years of “Chicago” on Broadway. While the John Kander and Fred Ebb musical debuted on Broadway in 1975, the current revival opened in 1996 and has been running ever since. That matters because it makes “Chicago” the longest-running show currently on the Great White Way, and also the longest-running musical revival ever. In other words, the medley wasn’t just celebrating songs. It was celebrating a brand that has kept paying rent, season after season, long enough to become a default institution of the Broadway calendar.

The guests onstage were part of that continuity story, with each performer linked to the “Chicago” ecosystem in a different way. Queen Latifah is credited with playing Matron “Mama” Morton in Rob Marshall’s 2002 film adaptation. Whitney Leavitt currently plays Roxie Hart on Broadway. Alex Newell is noted as a 2023 Tony winner and a Broadway “Chicago” veteran. P!nk is listed as the 2026 Tony host, and Dylan Mulvaney is described as having recently wrapped a run in Broadway's Six. Julianne Hough hosted the 2022 Tonys pre-show. Even the supporting cast reads like a cross-section of contemporary Broadway talent meeting pop-star scale.

If you’re an operator, investor, or board member, the business subtext is pretty clear. Live theater is a recurring revenue machine that depends on audience attention and brand trust, not just novelty. “Chicago” is still here because it has a system: instantly legible characters, repeatable production value, and a cultural shorthand that can absorb celebrity guests without breaking the core product. When a show can do that for decades, it also becomes a platform. It gives networks, stars, and sponsors a dependable stage to be associated with, which is exactly what happened at these Tonys.

The medley also sits inside a bigger Tony-night branding strategy from P!nk herself. Before the “Chicago” stopover, the source says P!nk opened the 2026 Tonys with an extravagant, hilarious parody of her collaborative 2001 smash “Lady Marmalade,” rewritten as “Leading Lady Marmalade.” That opened the door for a high-volume talent moment: the appearance of Megan Thee Stallion, Lea Michele, Neil Patrick Harris, the Tony-nominated women of 2026, and dancers from The Lost Boys, Cats: The Jellicle Ball, Schmigadoon!, and more. If you’re trying to understand what “durable live brands” look like in the current era, that’s the blueprint. The Tonys are not just an awards show. They are a cross-demographic spectacle where showbiz ecosystems collide.

P!nk also directly connected her pop stage to theater. Ahead of her hosting gig, when asked about the connection between live theater and her concerts, she told Billboard, “We always come from a theatrical place... For me, I’m a carney, right? So it’s sort of like a circus, without the animals of course, other than the humans.” That quote matters because it explains the energy behind the staging choices. The performance reads like theater principles transported into pop charisma: crowd-aware pacing, a signature refrain, and a willingness to treat the audience like participants.

So what should peers take from it? The obvious takeaway is endurance. But the more interesting one is how endurance gets monetized into attention. A show that can survive for 30 years on Broadway, while still sounding fresh enough to host celebrities and current Broadway stars, becomes a magnet for mainstream attention. That magnet attracts the kind of talent mix that can make an awards broadcast feel less like an industry recap and more like a cultural event. For executives and boards watching live entertainment brands, “Chicago” is the reminder that distribution is not the only lever. Timing, casting, and the ability to translate a long-running product into a moment that feels new are just as important as the underlying IP.