Jak Malone slams the ‘rotten old’ gender binary in powerful Tony Awards acceptance speech

Posted on by Samantha

Jak Malone triumphantly celebrated trans rights in his 2025 Tony Awards speech, winning Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical for Operation Mincemeat. 

The 30-year-old British actor plays a woman called Hester Leggatt in Operation Mincemeat. He also won an Olivier Award for the role with the standout ballad “Dear Bill.”

Malone beat out Smash’s Brooks Ashmanskas, Dead Outlaw’s Jeb Brown, Gypsy’s Danny Burstein and Floyd Collins’ Taylor Trensch for the Tony at the 78th Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall on Sunday (8 June).

After making his way to the stage in an embezzled suit jacket, before thanking his team, his partner Jasmine and their Italian greyhound Dracula, Jak Malone ended his speech with a moving note about the role of Hester and the audience’s reaction to her.

“The last thing I wanted to say is this: eight times a week, I walk out on that stage and tell the audience that I am a woman,” Malone concluded his winning speech. 

“I’m not one, and I only convey it through simple adjustments to posture, voice and energy, but night after night, audiences believe in Hester. They weep for her, invest in her, and love her for her old romantic heart.

“If you watched our show and found yourself believing in Hester, then I am so glad to tell you intentionally or otherwise, you might have just bid farewell to cynicism, to outdated ideas, to that rotten old binary and opened yourself up to a world that is out there in glorious technicolour and isn’t going away anytime soon.”

Malone’s speech ultimately calls for the acceptance of identities that exist beyond the binaries of cis men and women.

Jak Malone accepts his Tony on stage, award and speech in hand.
Jak Malone says Operation Mincemeat audiences “bid farewell to cynicism, to outdated ideas, to that rotten old binary.” (Theo Wargo/Getty)

What is Operation Mincemeat about?

Operation Mincemeat is a theatre musical comedy set in 1943 that revolves around the British attempt to disguise the Allied invasion of Sicily during the Second World War.

Based on a real story, the musical’s British intelligence officers must mislead the Nazis about the Allies’ invasion plans. High jinks ensue with a careful balance of catchy and comedic music as the dark history of WWII unfolds.

The book, music and lyrics are the debut production from the musical comedy troupe SpitLip, which includes David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts. Additionally, the four co-authors all made their Broadway debuts with the show.

Operation Mincemeat began as a very small production in 2019 at the London Fringe New Diorama Theatre.

Quickly, the show became a crowd favourite and gained a loyal and devoted following, leading to sold-out runs at bigger venues.

The show’s West End premiere came in 2023 at the Fortune Theatre, where it won an Olivier Award for Best New Musical. Then, Operation Mincemeat made its Broadway debut in February 2025 at the Golden Theatre.

The entire Operation Mincemeat Broadway cast reprises their roles from the show’s West End run: David Cumming as Charles Cholmondeley, Claire-Marie Hall as Jean Lesie, Natasha Hodgson as Ewen Montagu, Jak Malone as Hester Leggett, and Zoë Roberts as Johnny Bevan and others.

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