What to expect at the Tonys: Host Ariana de Bose, plenty of stars and songs

The Tony Awards are Sunday with a familiar host and a new venue, Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater in Manhattan. Here's a guide on what to look for and what to expect.

Who is hosting? Academy Award winner and Tony nominee Ariana DeBose, who hosted the last two ceremonies, returns this year and will produce and choreograph the opening number. Other hosts who have done it multiple times include Angela Lansbury, Hugh Jackman, Neil Patrick Harris and James Corden. DeBose was praised for keeping last year's show afloat without a script during the Hollywood writers strike.

What's the format? The three-hour main telecast will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+ starting at 8 p.m. with a free pre-show hiosted by Julianne Hough and Utkarsh Ambudkar, where some technical awards will be handed out on Pluto TV at 6:30 p.m.

Who are the stars presenting? Angelina Jolie, Nick Jonas, Idina Menzel, Ashley Park, Jim Parsons, Wendell Pierce, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Josh Gad, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Sean Hayes, Taraji P. Henson, Julianne Hough, Jennifer Hudson, Pete Townshend, Tamara Tunie, Adrienne Warren, Patrick Wilson, Anthony Ramos, Andrew Rannells and Jeffrey Wright are among those who'll be handing out the awards.

What can we expect to see? The casts of new musicals and revivals will be performing numbers and medleys hoping to transform TV viewers into theatergoers. Eddie Redmayne will be the super-creepy emcee of “Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club”; Jonathan Groff, Lindsay Mendez and Daniel Radcliffe will perform from “Merrily We Roll Along”; and look for some circus thrills when the musical “Water for Elephants” gets its spotlight. There will also be numbers from “Hell’s Kitchen,” “Illinoise,” “Suffs,” “The Outsiders” and “The Who’s Tommy.” In a last-minute switch, CBS made room for "Stereophonic,” the raved-about new play with music by former Arcade Fire's Will Butler.

What shows are the leading nominees? Two shows with a leading 13 nominations each explore the origins of music — a piano prodigy's coming-of-age in “Hell’s Kitchen” and the back-and-forth struggles to create an album in the play “Stereophonic.” They are competing in different categories, best new musical and best new play.

Looking to beat “Hell's Kitchen” are the musical “The Outsiders,” an adaptation of the beloved S. E. Hinton novel and the Francis Ford Coppola film; “Illinoise,” the dance-heavy, dialogue-free stage adaptation of Sufjan Stevens’ 2005 album “Illinois”; “Suffs,” based on the American suffragists of the early 20th century; and “Water for Elephants,” which combines Sara Gruen’s 2006 bestseller with circus elements.

Hoping to knock down “Stereophonic” are “Mother Play,” Paula Vogel’s look at a mother and her kids spanning 1964 to the 21st century; “Mary Jane,” Amy Herzog’s humanistic portrait of a divorced mother of a young boy with severe health issues; “Prayer for the French Republic,” Joshua Harmon’s sprawling family comedy-drama that deals with Zionism, religious fervency and antisemitism; and “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” Jocelyn Bioh’s comedy about the lives of West African women working at a salon.