Jesse Tyler Ferguson wins Tony for “Take Me Out”

I’m all about celebrating LGBTQ+ people in showbiz so let’s hear it for openly gay actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson winning his first Tony Award tonight! Jesse won in the featured actor in a play category for his acclaimed performance in Take Me Out which won Best Revival of a Play. I’m thrilled because I always thought he should have won an Emmy or two for Modern Family so this is especially nice.

“Twenty-five years ago, I worked at the Theatre Circle gift shop on 44th Street, which happens to be three doors down from the Hayes Theater, where Take Me Out is playing,” Ferguson said in his acceptance speech. “And I would sit in there and I would be folding my Phantom of the Opera T-shirts and watching actors walk by the windows on the way to their half-hour call and I thought, ‘Oh God, I hope that’s me someday,’ So to stand in front of this community I admire and love so much just means so much to me. I cannot believe I get to do this for a living.”

Ferguson also shouted out husband Justin Mikita: “I have to brag for a brief moment. Justin was part of the producing team that brought Dana H. and Is This a Room to Broadway this season. I am so endlessly proud of you — and you have incredible taste, obviously.”

Mikita has two Tonys for producing: 2020 Best Play The Inheritance and 2019 Best Revival Of A Musical Oklahoma!