Bonnie Milligan’s crowd-pleasing turn as a crass and conniving aunt in “Kimberly Akimbo” earned her the Tony Award for best featured actress in a musical on Sunday.
Milligan, who delivers some of the touching new musical’s funniest lines, brings her striking stage presence and rangy vocals to the chaotic character of Aunt Debra, a clever but self-involved criminal.
“I want to tell everybody that maybe doesn’t look like what the world is telling you you should look like,” Milligan said in her acceptance speech, “You belong somewhere.”
“It’s such a gift to do ‘Kimberly Akimbo,’” Milligan added, noting that the production has helped her deal with grief after her father died.
It is something of a breakout role for Milligan, who also had an originating role in the musical “Head Over Heels” in 2018.
The actress, who in the past worked as a waitress to support herself in New York, shares a small rent-controlled apartment on the Upper West Side with a friend.
In her teenage years, Milligan, 39, promised her mother that if she one day made it to the Tony Awards, she would bring mom as her date. She got the opportunity at the 76th annual Tony Awards.
And she waltzed away a winner, thanking her family from the stage.
“They have always loved me and embraced this insane life,” she said.