Caissie Levy accepted the 2026 Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical on Sunday night with a speech that was as much a tribute to her childcare network as to her Broadway collaborators, telling the Radio City Music Hall audience that no one reaches a milestone like this without help.
The 45-year-old actress, who plays Mother in the Lincoln Center Theater revival of Ragtime at the Vivian Beaumont, made history for herself with the win: her first Tony nomination and first win after two decades of Broadway work. But the moment she seemed most eager to claim was a simple, direct acknowledgment of the people who watched her kids while she was onstage.
“Thank you to … every babysitter who’s made it possible for me to be both a Broadway actor and a mother,” Levy told the audience, according to US Magazine.
A Speech Built Around Community
Levy, a mother of two, opened her remarks by tracing her journey from childhood dreams to a career that has now spanned more than 20 years.
“I grew up in Canada, watching the Tonys and dreaming of a life on Broadway,” she said in her acceptance speech, as reported by Playbill. “I’m 20 years in, and the most important thing I’ve learned is that no one does it alone.”
From there, she moved through a list of people who have shaped both her professional and personal life, including her parents Mark and Lisa Levy, her husband David, her brothers, and her management team.
The babysitter shout-out landed near the end of that list, but its specificity gave it an outsized resonance. For working parents in the audience and watching at home, it named something that rarely gets named on a major awards stage: the unglamorous, essential labor of childcare that makes ambitious careers possible.
Twenty Years In The Making
There is also a poignant subplot to her win. Earlier this season, Levy departed the cast of The Lost Boys before its Broadway debut, a decision she has connected to her family priorities.
Shoshana Bean stepped into the role of Lucy Emerson in her place, and in a remarkable twist, Bean also won a Tony that same evening. Two women, one role, two wins on the same night.
The production of Ragtime that earned Levy her award began at New York City Center before transferring to the Vivian Beaumont, where it opened on October 16, 2025.
The show received 11 Tony nominations this season, the second-highest total of any production. Its cast includes Joshua Henry and Brandon Uranowitz alongside Levy, with Nichelle Lewis, Colin Donnell, and Ben Levi Ross rounding out the principal company.
It Matters For Working Parents
What made Levy’s speech stand out was not just its warmth but its honesty. Broadway performance schedules, with eight shows a week and irregular hours, are among the most demanding in any profession.
For a parent of two young children, sustaining that kind of career requires a support system that most acceptance speeches quietly ignore. Levy chose not to ignore it.
In naming her babysitters alongside her agents, her family, and her creative collaborators, she put childcare labor on the same stage as every other form of support that makes a career possible. That is a message working parents across every industry can recognize.
The 79th Annual Tony Awards ceremony was held at Radio City Music Hall on June 7, 2026.
