NEW YORK – An interchangeable genre renaissance of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” increased Broadway’s fondness for the late iconic composer by winning five statuettes, including Best Musical Revival. “The Lehman Trilogy” was crowned Best New Work.
“Business” is an exploration of a person’s conflicting feelings about commitment, traditionally centered on a 35-year-old bachelor. This time, he had a bachelorette party and the sexes of several couples were exchanged.
Marianne Elliott made Tony’s story by becoming the only woman to have won three Tonys for directing, the last for “Company.” He thanked Sondheim for letting her put a woman “in front and in the center.” He dedicated his prize to everyone who struggles to keep theaters open.
Patti LuPone won Best Outstanding Actress in a Musical for her work on the revival, thanking COVID-19 security officials in their acceptance speech. Matt Doyle won Best Outstanding Actor in a Musical for “Company.”
At the age of 150 years and three and a half hours, “The Lehman Trilogy” illustrates the trajectory of Western capitalism following the fortune of a single family until the financial crash of 2008. In addition to the honors for best work, Sam Mendes won the best direction. of a play, praising the season for its “unbridled creativity.”
Michael R. Jackson’s “A Strange Loop,” a meta-trip to the theater about a playwright writing a musical, won Tony for Best Musical Book. “MJ”, a bio musical of the pop king’s greatest hits, won three Tony Awards, including Best Choreography.
“Take Me Out” won Best Revival, and “Modern Family” star Jesse Tyler Ferguson won Tony for Best Supporting Actor in a Play for his work. “Mom, Dad, thank you for letting me move to New York when I was 17,” said Ferguson, who also thanked her student and her husband.
Presenter Ariana DeBose began her part of the show with a bright white jumpsuit and a wide-brimmed hat, dancing and singing the song “This Is Your Round of Applause,” which combined excerpts from musical theater favorites. with “Chicago.” The Wiz “,” Evita “,” Rent “,” Hair “,” Cabaret “,” Hairspray “and” West Side Story “, the remake of the film for which he recently won an Oscar.
Still panting as he greeted the audience, he told the crowd that this was the season “Broadway regained its groove.”
Phylicia Rashad won Best Supporting Actress in a Play for “Skeleton Crew,” Dominique Morisseau’s play about the precariousness of blue-collar work set in a Detroit car stamping plant. “It’s wonderful to present humanity in all its fullness,” he said.
The season was marked by the embrace of seven black playwrights, from contemporary writers such as Dominique Morisseau, Keenan Scott II and Antoinette Nwandu, to underrated historical playwrights such as Alice Childress and Ntozake Shange. DeBose said Broadway was more representative.
DeBose celebrated black voices and talent on stage, as well as noting that two Broadway theaters were being renamed for black icons James Earl Jones and Lena Horne, saying The Great White Way was now a nickname “instead of a way to do it”. guide “.
DeBose also praised the heroic efforts of students, swings and standbys to keep the shows going during the pandemic peaks, and noted that she and many other Tony nominees had once been unannounced students and swings.
After being released from managing the technical awards, the main broadcast had a less frantic and more airy feel. DeBose was a safe, fun, and versatile host, wandering around the seats, sitting on Andrew Garfield’s lap, dancing with Sam Rockwell, and pushing Laurence Fishburne to imitate the Daffy Duck.
Some of the highlights of the show included the massive cast of “The Music Man” which filled the crowded Radio City stage with “Seventy-Six Trombones”, as well as Prince Jackson and Paris Jackson presented the show. about his father before the cast of “MJ” danced. to an energetic “Smooth Criminal.” Billy Crystal taught the crowd “scatter in Yiddish.”
Many acceptance speeches thanked the audience for confronting the peaks of COVID-19 for coming to see shows, and Marcia Gay Harden cheered on 150 guest security officers as guests at the Tonys.
Earlier, Darren Criss and Julianne Hough started the four-hour awards, mostly handing out design awards. Criss opened the show with the original song, “Set the Stage,” as he and Hough danced vigorously down the stairs, to the laundry, and to the theater’s sliding seats to celebrate the artists who keep the theater alive.
The first prize of the night – for best score – was for “Six: The Musical”, with music and lyrics by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. Marlow became the first non-binary songwriter and lyricist to win a Tony. “Six: The Musical” also picked up the award for best costume for a musical.
The “Company” revival achieved the best stage design for a musical. The best orchestrations were for “Girl From the North Country”. “The Lehman Trilogy” won Best Picture Design and Best Lighting Design.
“The Skin of Our Teeth” won Best Costume Design for a Play, “MJ” won Best Choreography, Best Musical Lighting and Sound Design for a Musical, while “Dana H” . gained by the sound design of a work.
The season, with 34 new productions, represents a complete return to cinemas after almost two years of a forced closure due to the pandemic. In the last Tonys nine months ago, the winners were drawn from just 18 eligible plays and musicals, and many of the competitive categories ran out.
The show featured performances from this year’s Tony Award-nominated musicals, such as “A Strange Loop,” “Company,” “Girl from the North Country,” “MJ,” “Mr. Saturday Night,” “Music Man.” , “Paradise”. Square “and” Six. “Members of the original cast of Tony’s 2007” Spring Awakening “musical came together for a performance.
Sondheim, the iconic composer who died in late 2021, was honored in a special segment by Bernadette Peters singing her song “Children Will Listen.” Angela Lansbury, who was honored with a lifelong success Tony, was not present, so her co-star “Sweeney Todd” Len Cariou accepted on her behalf.
“A Strange Loop” entered the show with 11 Tony nominations. Just behind, with 10 nominations each, is “MJ”, a pop musical bio musical filled with his greatest hits, and “Paradise Square”, a musical about Irish immigrants and black Americans struggling to survive in the city of Nova York during the Civil War era.
The best actress in a musical as a favorite is Sharon D Clarke from the revival of “Caroline, or Change” and Joaquina Kalukango from “Paradise Square”. The best actor in a musical may be Jaquel Spivey from “A Strange Loop” against Myles Frost as the king of pop in “MJ the Musical”.
“The Lehman Trilogy” was the lead nominee for Best New Work, while David Morse in a revival of Paula Vogel’s “How I Learned to Drive” is the lead nominee for Best Actor in a Play. Her co-star, Mary-Louise Parker, could become the first actor to receive consecutive Tonys for Best Actress in a Play.