Oprah Has A Great Reason To Be At The Tony Awards

Oprah Winfrey is maybe the most accomplished woman in the entertainment industry, so she should feel free to appear wherever she wants, but seeing her in the front row of the Tony Awards was a surprise — why is Oprah at the Tonys? Is she just a big Broadway fan? Has she secretly been planning to make her Great White Way debut? The answer is actually simple: she's presenting at the awards, alongside other celebrities like Cate Blanchett, Common, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Barbra Streisand.

That's also not her only connection to Broadway this year — Oprah is producing the revival of The Color Purple, based on Alice Walker's novel. She told Broadway.com about the show, "I feel a great sense of pride [in the revival] and I think this new rendition of it is more modernized and still feels so connected and inspirational." Oprah famously made her theatrical debut as an actor in Steven Spielberg's 1985 adaptation of The Color Purple, playing the incredibly strong and defiant Miss Sofia, who's played by Tony nominee Danielle Brooks in the Broadway revival.

But of course, Oprah is also there because she's one of the most fun audience members to have at an awards show. Never forget when she excitedly grabbed a Lego Oscar at the Academy Awards in 2015. And watching James Corden flirt with Oprah, and the Queen of TV encourage him that he's going a good job hosting the show, is already making the Tony Awards even better — it helps fill the time between Hamilton appearances.