The Book of Mormon, the profane, comic, heartfelt musical about earnest religious missionaries, and War Horse, a puppet-driven tale of an English boy following his beloved horse into World War I, were named Best Musical and Best Play, respectively at the 2011 Tony Awards ceremony on June 12.
The celebration of excellence in the 2010-11 Broadway season also included awards to Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart (Revival of a Play) and Anything Goes (Revival of a Musical). Kathleen Marshall's Choreography of Anything Goes won a Tony, and Sutton Foster won her second Tony as Best Actress in a Musical for playing the evangelist-nightclub singer Reno Sweeney in the Cole Porter musical.
The one Tony for David Lindsay-Abaire's Good People, an acclaimed play about an out-of-work single mother in Boston, went to Frances McDormand, who played the hardscrabble heroine of the comic drama.
Kramer's prescient play about fear, love and activism in the early days of the AIDS first surfaced in the mid-1980s — in time in which it was set. Back then, some called it a rant rather than a play, but the years have been kind to the work — audiences, critics and the Tony voters have embraced the drama about (as director George C. Wolfe has put it) a monster stalking a community.
Kramer, whose anti-hero Ned Weeks is inspired by his own history as an AIDS activist, said in an acceptance speech, "To gay people everywhere, whom I love so, The Normal Heart is our history. I could not have written it had not so many of us so needlessly died. Learn from it and carry on the fight. Let them know that we are a very special people, an exceptional people and that our day will come."
Mark Rylance, already a Tony Award winner for Boeing-Boeing, was named Best Actor in a Play for his sweaty, brash performance as former daredevil who spins tall tales in the celebrated three-hour character study Jerusalem by English playwright Jez Butterworth.
The Tonys, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris and presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, were held at the Beacon Theatre on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
By 9 PM Sunday, The Book of Mormon had already won Tonys in five categories, including Best Score, a category buried in the pre-telecast ceremony, allowing only incidental national airtime to the songwriters Robert Lopez, Matt Stone and Trey Parker. (Memo to Tony organizers: without the work of dramatists who write new music and lyrics for the theatre, Broadway wouldn't have original musicals.) By the end of the ceremony (which ran four minutes beyond 11 PM on CBS-TV), The Book of Mormon won nine Tony Awards out of its 14 nominations — for Musical, Score, Book (Lopez, Stone and Parker), Sound (Brian Ronan), Lighting (Brian MacDevitt), Direction (Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker), Orchestrations (Larry Hochman and Stephen Oremus), Actress in a Featured Role (Nikki M. James) and Scenic Design (Scott Pask).
John Larroquette, in his Broadway debut, won a Featured Actor (Musical) Tony for playing a corporate boss J.B. Biggley in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
Ellen Barkin and John Benjamin Hickey took home Tonys for their Featured performances in The Normal Heart — he for playing the AIDS-stricken lover of the play's hero, she for playing the polio-stricken doctor with cautionary words for a community in fear.
Here's the tally of 2011 Tony winners:
The Book of Mormon: 9
War Horse: 5
The Normal Heart: 3
Anything Goes: 3
Catch Me If You Can: 1
Good People: 1
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying: 1
The Importance of Being Earnest: 1
Jerusalem: 1
Priscilla Queen of the Desert: 1
The celebration of excellence in the 2010-11 Broadway season also included awards to Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart (Revival of a Play) and Anything Goes (Revival of a Musical). Kathleen Marshall's Choreography of Anything Goes won a Tony, and Sutton Foster won her second Tony as Best Actress in a Musical for playing the evangelist-nightclub singer Reno Sweeney in the Cole Porter musical.
The one Tony for David Lindsay-Abaire's Good People, an acclaimed play about an out-of-work single mother in Boston, went to Frances McDormand, who played the hardscrabble heroine of the comic drama.
Kramer's prescient play about fear, love and activism in the early days of the AIDS first surfaced in the mid-1980s — in time in which it was set. Back then, some called it a rant rather than a play, but the years have been kind to the work — audiences, critics and the Tony voters have embraced the drama about (as director George C. Wolfe has put it) a monster stalking a community.
Kramer, whose anti-hero Ned Weeks is inspired by his own history as an AIDS activist, said in an acceptance speech, "To gay people everywhere, whom I love so, The Normal Heart is our history. I could not have written it had not so many of us so needlessly died. Learn from it and carry on the fight. Let them know that we are a very special people, an exceptional people and that our day will come."
Mark Rylance, already a Tony Award winner for Boeing-Boeing, was named Best Actor in a Play for his sweaty, brash performance as former daredevil who spins tall tales in the celebrated three-hour character study Jerusalem by English playwright Jez Butterworth.
The Tonys, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris and presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, were held at the Beacon Theatre on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
By 9 PM Sunday, The Book of Mormon had already won Tonys in five categories, including Best Score, a category buried in the pre-telecast ceremony, allowing only incidental national airtime to the songwriters Robert Lopez, Matt Stone and Trey Parker. (Memo to Tony organizers: without the work of dramatists who write new music and lyrics for the theatre, Broadway wouldn't have original musicals.) By the end of the ceremony (which ran four minutes beyond 11 PM on CBS-TV), The Book of Mormon won nine Tony Awards out of its 14 nominations — for Musical, Score, Book (Lopez, Stone and Parker), Sound (Brian Ronan), Lighting (Brian MacDevitt), Direction (Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker), Orchestrations (Larry Hochman and Stephen Oremus), Actress in a Featured Role (Nikki M. James) and Scenic Design (Scott Pask).
John Larroquette, in his Broadway debut, won a Featured Actor (Musical) Tony for playing a corporate boss J.B. Biggley in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
Ellen Barkin and John Benjamin Hickey took home Tonys for their Featured performances in The Normal Heart — he for playing the AIDS-stricken lover of the play's hero, she for playing the polio-stricken doctor with cautionary words for a community in fear.
Here's the tally of 2011 Tony winners:
The Book of Mormon: 9
War Horse: 5
The Normal Heart: 3
Anything Goes: 3
Catch Me If You Can: 1
Good People: 1
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying: 1
The Importance of Being Earnest: 1
Jerusalem: 1
Priscilla Queen of the Desert: 1
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