June 13, 2022
With Tony Win for 'A Strange Loop,' Jennifer Hudson Reaches EGOT Status
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 1 MIN.
"Dreamgirls" star Jennifer Hudson reached EGOT status June 12, adding a Tony to her previous wins of Emmy, Grammy, and Oscar, when "A Strange Loop," which she co-produced, took Best Musical in this year's Tony Awards.
Variety reported that Hudson "took the first steps to achieving EGOT with her Oscar win in the category of best supporting actress for her performance in 2006's 'Dreamgirls.'"
That win was followed by two Grammys ("one for best musical theater album for 'The Color Purple' in 2017," Variety detailed, "and another for best R&B album for her self-titled album in 2009"). Her Emmy win came about for her role as executive producer of "the VR-animated film 'Baba Yaga,'" Variety added.
The win makes Hudson the 17th person ever to reach EGOT status – and, according to Wikipedia, only the second Black woman to achieve that milestone.
Past EGOT winners include Whoopi Goldberg, John Legend, Audrey Hepburn, Rita Moreno, Mel Brooks, and Andrew Lloyd Webber, among others.
The Associated Press described "A Strange Loop" as "an irreverent, sexually frank work about Blackness and queerness," and noted that the play's author, Michael R. Jackson, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2020 for the work. Jackson, too, took a Tony at the awards ceremony, winning for the play's book.
In another history-making turn, one of the show's stars, L Morgan Lee, was "nominated for best featured actress in a musical," Variety noted, "making Lee the first transgender individual to be nominated for a Tony."
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
