Tony award winner Whoopi Goldberg has signed on as host for the 62nd annual Tony Awards, which will be broadcast live on June 15 from Radio City Music Hall. She made the announcement on May 8 on the The View, which she co-hosts on ABC. The Tonys are presented by the Broadway League and The American Theatre Wing.
"I'm very excited to be hosting the Tony Awards," Goldberg said in a statement. "I love Broadway and I'm thrilled to be doing anything for the first time. I'm gonna have a blast."
Goldberg won a Tony as producer of the 2002 Broadway musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. As an actress, she made her Broadway debut in 1984 with the solo show Whoopi Goldberg, winning a Theatre World Award. She has appeared on Broadway in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and the 2004 solo show Whoopi, as well as in benefit performances of Funny Girl as Fanny Brice and Children and Art. An Academy Award winner for Ghost, Goldberg has hosted the Oscar telecast several times.
The Tony telecast has not had an official host since 2005, when Hugh Jackson served as emcee. Nominee Angela Lansbury greeted the crowd at the top of the 2007 show, but did not serve as host.
