The Tony Awards opening number on Sunday delivered one of the most talked-about moments of the season, with Pink suspended from the rafters, hoisting Neil Patrick Harris into the air using only her legs while belting, Megan Thee Stallion rapping about a best musical nominee, and Lea Michele poking fun at her own lack of awards. Behind it all was a creative team eager to share how the spectacle came together.

The Minds Behind the Number

The opening was the brainchild of composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, known for “Dear Evan Hansen” and “The Greatest Showman,” along with Mark Sonnenblick, who wrote “Golden” for “KPop Demon Hunters.” Pasek and Paul had also collaborated on the previous year’s opening number for Cynthia Erivo.

Built around a rewritten version of “Lady Marmalade,” the performance celebrated Broadway’s leading ladies and packed the stage with more than 170 performers drawn from the season’s shows.

Lea Michele Embraces the Moment

One of the number’s more pointed touches had Lea Michele singing the line “We don’t do it for the awards,” a knowing nod to the fact that she wasn’t nominated for a Tony this season. Far from being a hard sell, the team said she was genuinely enthusiastic about taking part.

Pasek recalled that once they learned she was willing to join, they set out to write something that honored her performance. Sonnenblick added that the line carried real meaning beyond the joke. The number, he explained, wasn’t only about the nominees but about celebrating all corners of Broadway and the many people who pour themselves into theater without recognition. The sentiment, he noted, is that no one does this work simply to win a Tony, however thrilling that moment can be.

June Squibb Steals a Scene

Another standout came from June Squibb, who landed a solo with the line “All the parts I played, I slayed ’em.” The lyric was originally written for Pink to sing about Squibb, but the team decided to ask whether Squibb might perform it herself.

The reasoning was simple once they thought it through. As Paul pointed out, Squibb had been in the original company of “Gypsy,” meaning she had genuine musical experience and could handle the moment. The request went out, she was completely game, and by all accounts she delivered. Sonnenblick described one of his favorite moments as watching Squibb perform surrounded by Lea Michele, Pink, and Hannah Cruz, while Danielle Brooks and Queen Latifah cheered her on from their seats.

Pushing the Jokes Through

The number didn’t shy away from cheeky humor. One joke featured Pink referencing “Lost Boys and harnesses,” followed by Ali Louis Bourzgui of “The Lost Boys” quipping “And not at the Eagle,” a wink at a well-known New York leather bar.

The team was pleasantly surprised it made the cut. Pasek said no one flagged the joke, and Sonnenblick noted it was actually one of the producers’ favorites. According to Paul, the producers weren’t interested in content editing at all and were on board for everything, which the writers found remarkable.

Pink’s Show-Stopping Stunt

Much of the opening’s spectacle came directly from Pink herself. The team worked closely with her, and several of the boldest ideas were hers.

She knew from the start that she wanted to poke fun at herself, and since everyone expected her to fly, the writers pitched having her enter as Peter Pan. From there, the collaboration grew. Pink sent a voice memo suggesting that her daughter Willow had a funny idea, asking what if she sang the famous Elphaba riff somewhere in the number. The team loved it.

The now-iconic lift of Neil Patrick Harris was equally collaborative. Harris offered to do a stunt if they wanted one, and Pink immediately had something in mind, describing a move where she locks her knees. The result was Pink lifting Harris off the ground into the air using nothing but her legs, a feat the writers still find astonishing.

The Viral “Gitchie, Gitchie” Lyric

Perhaps no part of the number has traveled further online than the lyric “Gitchie, gitchie Lesley Manville. Gitchie, gitchie Carrie Coon.”

That phrasing wasn’t the original plan. The team initially intended simply to rewrite the lyrics to “Lady Marmalade,” anticipating that audiences would go wild for Pink performing it, while honoring the Broadway community. They workshopped many titles before things clicked. Pasek recalled that someone first floated “Gitchie, gitchie Laurie Metcalf,” and the team instantly recognized how funny it was.

From there, as Paul described it, the writing became a kind of puzzle, fitting fabulous names into the right syllable counts. Four-syllable names like Laurie Metcalf and Lesley Manville paired with the “gitchie, gitchie” hook, while three-syllable names like Carrie Coon filled other slots, all building toward setting up Betsy Aidem to rhyme with “the parts I played, I slayed ’em.” Sonnenblick said the goal was a kitschy, deliberately unserious celebration of the season’s leading ladies, with powerhouse vocalists like Pink, Shoshana Bean, and Christiani Pitts singing something gleefully ridiculous over a pop sound layered with musical theater wit.

A Nod to Tonys Past

When it came to inspiration, the team acknowledged the long shadow of “Bigger,” Neil Patrick Harris’s celebrated 2013 Tonys opening. Notably, choreographer Sarah O’Gleby, who helped bring this year’s number to life, had also worked on that earlier number. O’Gleby pushed for a vision in which every show would be represented, with all 170 performers on stage, and the team essentially worked backward from her staging ideas.

A Whirlwind Rehearsal

Pulling it all together was no small feat. Sonnenblick described the process as drinking from a fire hose, with O’Gleby forced to rehearse each section separately around the performers’ wildly different schedules, often grabbing them for just ten minutes after their own show rehearsals.

The full number didn’t come together until Sunday morning, when it was run through just three times, with everyone offering notes and Pink eagerly embracing changes. Strikingly, there was never a single rehearsal with the entire cast present until the live broadcast itself. Paul emphasized that what viewers saw on the Tonys was, in effect, the first and only time everyone performed it together.

For the team, that became the heart of the night. Paul said the number turned into a microcosm of the evening’s spirit, with companies coming together to celebrate inclusivity and community despite the extra burden of participating. Pasek marveled at having Megan Thee Stallion rap lyrics they wrote, including a playful line about “two strangers carrying some cake,” calling it a dream come true. Sonnenblick summed up the experience as pure joy, grateful that so many stars said yes and that their love for the Broadway community shone through.