HAMPTON ROADS, Va. - Adrienne Warren of Chesapeake won her first Tony Award Sunday night!
Related: Chesapeake actress to portray Tina Turner in new musical
Warren won Best Leading Actress in a Musical for her role as Tina Turner in “The Tina Turner Musical," which was nominated for 12 Tony Awards in total.
She made the following acceptance speech during the broadcast:
Thank you to God, glory and honor to God. Thank you so much. I want to thank the wing and the league. Thank you for this. I want to thank my family in Virginia. I love you so much. I lost three family members while playing Tina. And I dedicate this to my uncle Charles, my uncle Randall and my granny I love you miss you every day. My parents everything that I am, is because of you. I love you. And thank you for loving me. Okay. All right. Okay. I want to thank Tina Turner for trusting me to bring her story home. Thank you to the producers of Tina Talley. James, thank you so much. Fill it out. Lloyd, thank you for for trusting a new talent that you didn't know. And trusting me to do the work in the room. They get get to where you haul for being a queen, Nick, and Anthony. Thank you so much. Thank you Miss Caplin for being my voice whisper Thank you Michael Lucha de Jr. for getting me in shape for this show three times. And I'm not doing it again. I I want to now think my cast. I love you so much. You are some of the most incredible human beings I've ever met. Each one of you are a star within your own right thank you for holding the light and in prayer. And I wish you were in this room. And I really look forward to the day that the bodies and souls and spirits of those that are involved in these shows that we're celebrating can be invited in join the celebration with us. Because those bodies but those bodies so souls, those spirits they are what makes Broadway and the second we started making this business and creating the business and working through the business through a lens of humanity and honoring those those bodies and those souls and those spirits.
Before winning a Tony Award, Adrienne Warren was a student at the Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk. She graduated with the class of 2005.
Vulture spoke with Warren and she told them publication that she would perform in pain six nights a week for almost five months after developing a herniated disk in her back.
The COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 gave Warren time to rest and heal her body, but it also took away her chance to continue performing as the musical legend.
On October 8, “The Tina Turner Musical” will return to Broadway, allowing Warren to play the role of Turner a few more times.
See a full list of 2021 Tony Award winners here.
