“Leopoldstadt” by Tom Stoppard Wins Best Play at the Tony Awards, Tackles Jewish Family’s Journey Through Nazism and Shoah

Leopoldstadt, by Tom Stoppard, won four awards at the prestigious Tony Awards this weekend in New York, including that of the best play. The play follows, in five acts, from 1899 to 1955 the journey of a Jewish family settled in Vienna faced with the rise of Nazism and then the Shoah. The 85-year-old playwright was born Tomáš Sträussler in Zlín to a Moravian Jewish family, many of whom were murdered during the war.

“I’m overwhelmed by emotions that a chatbot couldn’t understand,” he joked onstage, referring to ChatGPT. It was the fifth Tony for Tom Stoppard, 55 years after his first award for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern died.