“Cats: The Jellicle Ball,” one of the most buzzed-about musicals currently on Broadway, made history at the 2026 Tony Awards on Sunday with a win for its costume designer, Qween Jean.

Qween Jean won for Best Costume Design of a Musical for her work on the smash revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Cats,” becoming the first openly transgender person to win a Tony Award.

“This experience has been monumental,” she said in her acceptance speech. “We are here for the legacy of queer people, trans people ... we have to take up space. We have to shift the paradigm.”

hell yes to this acceptance speech from Qween Jean, who just became the first openly trans person to ever win a Tony"We are here for the legacy of queer people. Trans people, we have to take up space. We have to shift the paradigm...the world right now is deeply, deeply… pic.twitter.com/qwu69J7lyn

She went on to note: “The world right now is deeply, deeply combating so many ailments, and we know as a society that when we come together, we can make real, permanent change. Thank you so much for this honor.”

Qween Jean’s win comes about four years after L Morgan Lee became the first openly trans female performer to be nominated for a Tony after her performance in “A Strange Loop” in 2022.

A year later, the nonbinary performers J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell won Best Actor in a Musical for “Some Like It Hot” and Best Featured Actor in a Musical for “Shucked,” respectively. And last year, Cole Escola became the first nonbinary winner in the Best Actor in a Play category for their performance as first lady Mary Todd Lincoln in “Oh, Mary!”

A Haitian native who grew up in Miami, Qween Jean was also nominated for Best Costume Design of a Play for her work on “Liberation.” She lost in that category to “Fallen Angels” designer Jeff Mahshie.

“Cats: The Jellicle Ball” reimagines the feline characters of the original “Cats” as voguing contestants in a series of queer ballroom competitions. The cast is made up primarily of LGBTQ+ actors of color, including trans performers Leiomy and “Tempress” Chastity Moore in the respective roles of Macavity and Grizabella.

The musical opened on Broadway in April to near-universal praise from critics and received a total of nine Tony Award nominations, including Best Revival of a Musical.

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