Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical
This is a list of the winners and nominations of Tony Award for the Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical. The award, introduced in 1950, was previously presented as Best Performance by a Featured or Supporting Actress in a Musical until 1976.
There have been no ties in the history of this category.
Never in the history of this category has a performer won a Tony Award by portraying a character previously embodied by a former winner. There have been winners emerging from the same musical, however, but never for playing the same role:
From Nine: Liliane Montevecchi, as Liliane la Fleur, in 1982, and Jane Krakowski, as Carla, in 2003 (Anita Morris had been nominated in 1982, also for her portrayal of Carla, but she did not win);
In fact, the Musical Nine holds a record of a combined total of six nominations to its female performers in this category, curiously, twice for each role, in 1982 and 2003:
Liliane Montevecchi (1982) and Chita Rivera (2003), as Liliane la Fleur;
Karen Akers (1982) and Mary Stuart Masterson (2003), as Louisa Contini;
Anita Morris (1982) and Jane Krakowski (2003), as Carla.
The role of Louise, in Gypsy, holds the record for most nominations in this category, with five:
1960 ? Sandra Church
1975 ? Zan Charisse
1990 ? Crista Moore
2003 ? Tammy Blanchard
2008 ? Laura Benanti
Of all these performers, only Laura Benanti won the Tony Award.
Audra McDonald is, so far, the only performer to achieve the honor of multiple wins in this category, with two. The record of nominations, however, is held by Andrea Martin, with four nominations and one win.
There has never been a consecutive winner in this category. There have been, though, two consecutive nominations. Louise Troy holds this particular distinction, as she was consecutively nominated in 1963 and 1964.
Lauri Peters has the distinction of being the sole nominee ever to share a nomination with an ensemble. In 1960, Peters was cited among ?the Children?, an assembly of young performers (including two males, in spite of this being a female category), which, alongside her, portrayed the Von Trapp siblings in The Sound of Music.
The record for the longest span between nominations for a particular performer is held by Chita Rivera, whose nominations for Bye Bye, Birdie, in 1961, and Nine, in 2003, are set apart by 42 years, over four decades.
The record for the longest span between nominations for a particular role is held by that of Gladys, from The Pajama Game. Carol Haney's win in 1955 and Megan Lawrence's nomination for the portrayal of the same role, in 2006, are set apart by 51 years, over half a century.
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