'Harry Potter,' Andrew Garfield win top Tony Awards

NEW YORK --  "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" won the Tony for best play on Sunday, while "The Band's Visit" swept the musical categories with 10 wins, including the top award best musical at Broadway's annual honors for the best in theater.

Glenda Jackson and Andrew Garfield took home acting prizes and rocker Bruce Springsteen received a special Tony, while a revival of the AIDS drama "Angels in America" was named best play revival and "Once On This Island" won best musical revival.

But the biggest surprise of the night came when Robert De Niro, appearing on stage to introduce Springsteen, used the "F-bomb" against U.S. President Donald Trump.

De Niro's comments brought the cheering crowd at Radio City Music Hall to its feet but were bleeped for U.S. television audiences.

"The Band's Visit," about Egyptian musicians stranded in a small Israeli town, also won acting awards for stars Tony Shaloub, Katrina Lenk and Ari'el Stachel, as well as best book, score, director, orchestration, sound design and lighting.

It lost just one category among its 11 nominations, with its 10 wins just two shy of the record for any show set by "The Producers."

"I avoided so many events with them (his parents) in the past because I pretended that I was not Middle Eastern," said Stachel, whose father is of Yemeni and Israeli heritage.

He also praised "a cast of actors who never believed they would be able to portray their own races."

"Harry Potter," a record-setting $69-million two-part production set 19 years after the last of J.K. Rowling's best-selling novels about the boy wizard, won a total of six Tonys including best new play and best director.

Garfield won best actor in a play for his acclaimed performance in "Angels in America," which also won Nathan Lane his third Tony, as closeted conservative lawyer Roy Cohn, who died of AIDS.

Praising playwright Tony Kushner, an emotional Lane said, "Tony wrote one of the greatest plays of the 20th century, and it is still speaking to us as powerfully as ever in the midst of such political insanity."

Kushner, noting it was 21 weeks until the mid-term congressional elections in the United States, continued the political vein adding, "21 weeks to save our democracy."

Jackson, 82, returning to Broadway after 30 years and a lengthy term as a British politician, was named best actress for her tour-de-force performance in Edward Albee's "Three Tall Women."

Laurie Metcalf won her second Tony, playing a younger version of Jackson's imperious character in "Three Tall Women."

Veteran actress Chita Rivera and British musical impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber received lifetime achievement awards, while actor, writer and comedian John Leguizamo was given a special Tony for his one-man show, "Latin History for Morons."

The Tonys, hosted by singer-songriter-actors Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles, capped another record year on Broadway with $1.7 billion in box office receipts, despite the smallest number of new productions in 20 years.

Following is a list of winners in key categories:

Best play: "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two"
Best musical: "The Band's Visit"
Best revival of a play: "Angels in America"
Best revival of a musical: "Once On This Island"
Best actor in a play: Andrew Garfield, "Angels in America"
Best actress in a play: Glenda Jackson, "Three Tall Women"
Best actor in a musical: Tony Shalhoub, "The Band's Visit"
Best actress in a musical: Katrina Lenk, "The Band's Visit"
Best direction of a play: John Tiffany, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two"
Best direction of a musical: David Cromer, "The Band's Visit"
Best book of a musical: "The Band's Visit"
Best original score (music and/or lyrics): "The Band's Visit"
Lifetime achievement: Chita Rivera, Andrew Lloyd Webber
Special award: Bruce Springsteen, John Leguizamo

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Fil-Am designer nominated for another Tony

Nominations for the best of Broadway are out and Filipino-American Tony Award-winning set and costume designer Clint Ramos is up for another Tony.

This time, for best costume design of a musical for "Once On This Island" starring another Tony-winning Filipino, Lea Salonga. 

"Once On This Island" is also up for a Tony for outstanding revival of a musical.

Ramos will be competing with Gregg Barnes of Mean Girls, Ann Roth of Carousel, and David Zinn of Sponge Bob Square Pants.

Ramos is also nominated for drama desk award for outstanding costume design for the same musical.

Competing with the same contenders plus Catherine Zuber of My Fair Lady and Dade Avite Bella of the musical An American Tall Tale.

The following are nominees in key categories for Broadway's 72nd annual Tony awards, to be presented on June 10 at Radio City Music Hall.

Best play:

"The Children," Lucy Kirkwood

"Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two," Jack Thorne

"Junk," Ayad Akhtar

"Latin History for Morons," John Leguizamo

Best musical:

"The Band's Visit"

"Frozen"

"Mean Girls"

"SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical"

Best revival of a play:

"Angels in America"

"Edward Albee's Three Tall Women"

"Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh"

"Lobby Hero"

"Travesties"

Best revival of a musical:

"My Fair Lady"

"Once On This Island"

"Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel"

Best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play:

Andrew Garfield, "Angels in America"

Tom Hollander, "Travesties"

Jamie Parker, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two"

Mark Rylance, "Farinelli and The King"

Denzel Washington, "Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh"

Best performance by an actress in a leading role in a play:

Glenda Jackson, "Edward Albee's Three Tall Women"

Condola Rashad, "Saint Joan"

Lauren Ridloff, "Children of a Lesser God"

Amy Schumer, "Meteor Shower"

Best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical:

Harry Hadden-Paton, "My Fair Lady"

Joshua Henry, "Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel"

Tony Shalhoub, "The Band's Visit"

Ethan Slater, "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical"

Best performance by an actress in a leading role in a musical:

Lauren Ambrose, "My Fair Lady"

Hailey Kilgore, "Once On This Island"

LaChanze, "Summer: The Donna Summer Musical"

Katrina Lenk, "The Band's Visit"

Taylor Louderman, "Mean Girls"

Jessie Mueller, "Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel"

Best direction of a play:

Marianne Elliott, "Angels in America"

Joe Mantello, "Edward Albee's Three Tall Women"

Patrick Marber, "Travesties"

John Tiffany, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two"

George C. Wolfe, "Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh"

Best direction of a musical:

Michael Arden, "Once On This Island"

David Cromer, "The Band's Visit"

Tina Landau, "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical"

Casey Nicholaw, "Mean Girls"

Bartlett Sher, "My Fair Lady"

Best book of a musical:

"The Band's Visit"

"Frozen"

"Mean Girls"

"SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical"

Best original score (music and/or lyrics):

"Angels in America"

"The Band's Visit"

"Frozen"

"Mean Girls"

"SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical"

- with a report from Reuters

source: news.abs-cbn.com

McDonald makes Tony history, Cranston wins prize

NEW YORK -- Actress Audra McDonald made Broadway history on Sunday, winning her sixth Tony as Billie Holiday in "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill" and Bryan Cranston and Neil Patrick Harris nabbed the top acting prizes at the 68th annual Tony Awards.

"A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder," took home the top musical prize and Jessie Mueller was named best actress for her starring role in "Beautiful - The Carole King Musical."

McDonald, with her best actress prize in a play, became the only woman to win a Tony in all four acting categories. She also tied with the late actress Julie Harris, who had six wins, including a special lifetime achievement award.

With tears streaming down her face, a trembling McDonald acknowledged her parents, family and the women who came before her.

"I want to thank all the shoulders of the strong and brave and courageous women that I am standing on," she said. "And most of all Billie Holiday. You deserve so much more than you were given when you were on this earth."

With four awards including Darko Tresnjak's statuette for best director, the musical satire "A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder" tied with "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" with the most Tonys.

Cranston had been a favorite to win in his Broadway debut as U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson in "All the Way," Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Schenkkan's acclaimed play.

"When you can effect emotional change in the audience it's like a powerful drug. It's as strong as blue crystal meth," he said, referring to his Emmy-winning role as a teacher turned ruthless drug kingpin in TV's "Breaking Bad."

Harris was also a main contender for lead actor in a musical as the transgender rock star in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch." Lena Hall nabbed her first Tony for her supporting role in the production, which was also named best musical revival.

"Playing Hedwig is an absolute joy.It was a role I was terrified of, in taking it on. It has changed me and challenged me," he said.

Award-winning actor Hugh Jackman hosted the ceremony at Radio City Music Hall for the fourth time. The show included performances by Tony nominee Idina Menzel, music legend Gladys Knight and rock star Sting, who performed a song from his upcoming Broadway debut musical "The Last Ship."

British actor Mark Rylance took home his third Tony, winning for featured actor in a play as the Countess Olivia in the all-male Shakespeare Globe production of "Twelfth Night."

"We would very much like to come back (to Broadway) with some more Shakespeare and we are talking about it but we haven't settled what it will be," said Rylance, who praised the late blacklisted American actor Sam Wanamaker, the force behind the recreation of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London.

A flustered and surprised Sophie Okonedo accepted the featured actress prize in her Broadway debut, as Denzel Washington's wife, in the revival of "A Raisin in the Sun."

Lorraine Hansberry's acclaimed 1959 work also won the Tony for best revival of a play, and the best directing prize for Kenny Leon.

"That was shocking and stunning, surprising. But I thought the production was well deserving of a Tony Award," Leon said backstage.

James Monroe Iglehart, who plays the larger-than-life genie in "Aladdin," jumped up and shouted to loud audience applause after winning the featured actor prize in a musical.

The Tony Awards are presented by the theater industry association, The Broadway League, and the American Theater Wing, a not-for-profit organization.

68th Annual Tony Awards will be shown Monday at 8 p.m. on Lifestyle Network (Sky Cable channel 52).

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

'Kinky Boots' wins six Tony awards

"Kinky Boots" won six Tony awards on Sunday including the top award of best musical and a prize for its composer, pop queen Cyndi Lauper, as Broadway presented its top honors.

Lauper won best score for her first Broadway musical, "Kinky Boots," an adaptation of a British film about a struggling shoe factory reinventing itself by making boots for drag queens.

The hit musical topped the nominations with 13 and also won best actor in a musical for Billy Porter, best choreography, orchestrations and sound design.

A tearful Lauper said "I can't say I wasn't practicing in front of the shower curtain for the past couple of days," and went on to "thank Broadway, for welcoming me."

Porter, who as the strong, proud drag queen is at the show's heart, said he first watched the Tony telecast at home at age 11, and recalled a performance from the musical "Dreamgirls" by saying, "That moment has changed my life."

The best play Tony was won by "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike," a crowd-pleasing comic riff on Anton Chekhov's work by veteran playwright Christopher Durang that stars Sigourney Weaver and David Hyde Pierce.

Winning his first-ever Tony award, Durang noted that he had written his first play in the second grade in the 1950s, adding "It's been a long road."

In an unexpected win, Tracy Letts, who is also an award- winning playwright ("August: Osage County"), was named best actor in a play for his strongly praised performance in the revival of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," which was widely predicted to go to Tom Hanks making his Broadway debut in the late Nora Ephron's journalism drama, "Lucky Guy."

The Edward Albee classic also won the Tony for best revival of a play.

Cicely Tyson won best actress in a play for her moving portrayal of an elderly woman returning to her former home in the revival of "The Trip to Bountiful," marking her return to Broadway after some 30 years.

Speaking with deliberation and poise, Tyson, 79, noted she had a "burning desire" to do just one more play and remarked a teleprompter was saying "Please wrap it up. Well, that's exactly what you did to me," she continued. "You wrapped me up in your arms after 30 years and now, I can go home with a Tony."

"Matilda the Musical," an Olivier award-winning production based on a story by Roald Dahl about a precocious little girl that received ecstatic reviews and 12 nominations, came away with four awards, including best book of a musical and best featured actor in a musical for Gabriel Ebert.

Veteran television, film and theater actress Andrea Martin won best featured actress in a musical for an acclaimed circus-themed revival of the 1970s hit "Pippin," which won four Tonys including best revival of a musical, best actress in a musical Patina Miller and best director for Diane Paulus.

Women won both the directing honors with Pam MacKinnon taking home the Tony for play direction for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Judith Light, known to television audiences for the sitcom "Who's the Boss" but also an acclaimed stage actress, won her second consecutive Tony, for "The Assembled Parties."

She paid tribute to her fellow nominees, saying "you have made this a celebration, not a competition." Light won the same award last year for "Other Desert Cities."

Courtney B. Vance won best featured actor in a play for "Lucky Guy," saying backstage as his gazed at his award, "It's nice to meet you fella'."

The show at Radio City Music Hall and broadcast on CBS featured appearances by the casts of "Kinky Boots, "Matilda" and "Pippin." It opened with host Neil Patrick Harris leading a lavish, satirical production featuring the casts of those shows as well as "Cinderella," "Spiderman" and even Mike Tyson, who did a one-man show this season and dueted with Harris.

Presenters included Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Cuba Gooding Jr, Jesse Eisenberg, Jon Cryer, Liam Neeson, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anna Kendrick, Zachary Quinto, Sally Field, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Matthew Broderick.

Other highlights included a special tribute to the musical "Phantom of the Opera," Broadway's longest-running show which is still going strong after opening in 1988.

Following are winners for Broadway's highest honors, which were awarded at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

Best musical: "Kinky Boots"

Best play: "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" by Christopher Durang

Best revival of a play: "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Best revival of a musical: "Pippin"

Best performance by an actor in leading role in a play: Tracy Letts, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Best performance by an actress in a leading role in a play: Cicely Tyson, "The Trip to Bountiful"

Best performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical: Billy Porter, "Kinky Boots"

Best performance by an actress in a leading role in a musical: Patina Miller, "Pippin"

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com