31st Tony Awards

Eligibility

Shows that opened on Broadway during the 1976–1977 season before May 22, 1977 are eligible.

;Original plays

• American Buffalo
• The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel
• The Belle of Amherst
• Best Friend
• California Suite
• Checking Out
• Comedians
• Days in the Trees
• Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land
• The Eccentricities of a Nightingale
• For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf
• Gemini
• I Have a Dream
• Herzl
• Ladies at the Alamo
• Legend
• No Man's Land
• Otherwise Engaged
• Piaf...A Remembrance
• Poor Murderer
• The Runner Stumbles
• The Shadow Box
• Sly Fox
• Something Old, Something New
• Streamers
• A Texas Trilogy
• The Trip Back Down
• Unexpected Guests
• Vieux Carré
• Wheelbarrow Closers ;Original musicals
• Annie
• Don't Step on My Olive Branch
• Godspell
• Happy End
• I Love My Wife
• Ipi Tombi
• Music Is
• Rex
• Side by Side by Sondheim
• 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
• So Long, 174th Street
• Something's Afoot
• Your Arms Too Short to Box with God ;Play revivals
• Agamemnon
• Anna Christie
• Boy Meets Girl
• Caesar and Cleopatra
• The Cherry Orchard
• The Heiress
• The Innocents
• Mark Twain Tonight!
• Medea
• The Night of the Iguana
• Oedipus Rex
• Romeo and Juliet
• Secret Service
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ;Musical revivals
• Fiddler on the Roof
• Going Up
• Guys and Dolls
• H.M.S. Pinafore
• The King and I
• The Mikado
• Oh! Calcutta!
• Pal Joey
• A Party with Betty Comden & Adolph Green
• The Pirates of Penzance
• Porgy and Bess
• The Threepenny Opera

The ceremony

Hosts-Performers-Presenters were Jack Albertson, Beatrice Arthur, Buddy Ebsen, Damon Evans, Jean Stapleton, and Leslie Uggams. Additional presenters-performers were Diana Ross, Jane Alexander, Alan Arkin, Lauren Bacall, Valerie Harper, Barry Manilow, Robert Preston, Tony Randall, and Lily Tomlin.

The theme of the show was survival; each host performed a solo, with songs of determination and perseverance, including "I'm Still Here", "Before the Parade Passes By", "Don't Rain On My Parade", "September Song", "You'll Never Walk Alone", "New York City Rhythm", "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" and "Being Alive".

Musicals represented:

• Annie ("You're Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile"/"Easy Street"/"Tomorrow" - Andrea McArdle, Dorothy Loudon and Company)
• Happy End ("Bilbao Song" - Company)
• I Love My Wife ("I Love My Wife"/"Married Couple Seeks Married Couple"/"Hey There, Good Times" - Company)
• Side by Side by Sondheim ("I'm Still Here" - Millicent Martin)

Winners and nominees

Winners are in bold

Special awards

• Regional Theatre Award – Mark Taper Forum
• Lawrence Langner Award – Cheryl Crawford
• Lily Tomlin
• Barry Manilow
• Diana Ross for An Evening with Diana Ross
• National Theatre For the Deaf
• Equity Library Theatre

Multiple nominations and awards

These productions had multiple nominations:

• 10 nominations: Annie
• 6 nominations: I Love My Wife and Porgy and Bess
• 5 nominations: The Cherry Orchard, The Shadow Box, Side by Side by Sondheim and The Threepenny Opera
• 4 nominations: Your Arms Too Short to Box with God
• 3 nominations: Guys and Dolls and Happy End
• 2 nominations: American Buffalo, Anna Christie, The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel, Comedians, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf, Otherwise Engaged, No Man's Land, Streamers and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

The following productions received multiple awards.

• 7 wins: Annie
• 2 wins: The Cherry Orchard, I Love My Wife and The Shadow Box