42nd Tony Awards

The 42nd Tony Awards ceremony was held on June 5, 1988, at the Minskoff Theatre and broadcast live on CBS, hosted by Angela Lansbury.

Eligibility

Shows that opened on Broadway during the 1987–1988 season before May 4, 1988 were eligible.
;Original plays

;Original musicals

;Play revivals

;Musical revivals

Musicals represented were:A Chorus Line, "Music and the Mirror" – Donna McKechnieAnything Goes, "Anything Goes" – Patti LuPone and CompanyDreamgirls, "One Night Only"/"Dreamgirls" – Sheryl Lee Ralph, Loretta Devine and Terry Burrell;Into the Woods, "Into the Woods"/"Children Will Listen" – Phylicia Rashad and Company;The Phantom of the Opera, Last verse of "The Phantom of the Opera" and "The Music of The Night" – Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford;Romance/Romance, "I'll Always Remember the Song"/"It's Not Too Late" – Scott Bakula, Alison Fraser and CompanySarafina!, "Sarafina!" – Company
Plays represented were:M. Butterfly, Scene with John Lithgow and BD Wong;
Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Scene with Mel Winkler, Ed Hall and Delroy Lindo;
A Walk in the Woods, Scene with Sam Waterston and Robert Prosky; and
Speed-the-Plow, Scene with Joe Mantegna and Ron Silver.
A tribute to the late Michael Bennett was performed by Donna McKechnie of the original Chorus Line and the three original Dreamgirls, Terry Burrell, Loretta Devine and Sheryl Lee Ralph.
At these Tony Awards, the longest-running musical on Broadway, Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, competed for awards and received the season's Best Musical award.

''Winners are in bold''

;Special Awards

These productions had multiple nominations:

The following productions received multiple awards.