Miles Frost performed a number from “MJ” on the stage of the 75th annual Tony Awards at the Radio City Music Hall on June 12, 2022 in New York. Theo Vargo / Getty Images
“MJ”, a biographical musical by Michael Jackson, full of the King of Pop’s greatest hits, won three early Tony Awards, as well as a revival of “Company” with a gender reassignment, including Patti Lupone’s win for Tony’s third her famous musical theatrical career.
LuPone won the Best Actress Award in a musical for her work in reviving Stephen Sondheim’s The Company, and she thanked the COVID-19 security staff in her acceptance speech. Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson won Tony Best Actor in a play for his work in the revival of Take Me Out.
“Mom, Dad, thank you for letting me move to New York when I was 17,” said Ferguson, who also thanked his backup and husband.
Sam Mendes won the Tony Award for Best Director of a play by directing the Lehman Trilogy, a play about what led to the collapse of Lehman Brothers. He praised the season for his “crazy creativity”.
Marian Elliott went down in Tony’s story, becoming the only woman to win three Tony for directing, the last for Company. She thanked the late composer Sondheim for allowing her to put a woman “front and center.” She dedicated her award to all those who fight to keep theaters open.
Host Ariana DeBoz started her part of the show with a sparkling white jumpsuit and wide-brimmed hat, dancing and singing the song “This Is Your Round of Applause”, which mixed songs from favorite musical theaters such as “Chicago”, “The Wiz”, “Evita”. , “Rent”, “Hair”, “Cabaret”, “Hairspray” and “West Side Story”, the remake of the film for which she recently won an Oscar.
Still out of breath as she greeted the audience, she told the crowd that this was the season: “Broadway is back.”
The season was marked by the embrace of seven black playwrights, from contemporary writers such as Dominic Morrisso, Keenan Scott II and Antoinette Nvandu, to underrated historical playwrights such as Alice Childress and Ntozake Shange. DeBoz said Broadway was more representative.
DeBois celebrated the voices of blacks and stage talent – and noted that two Broadway theaters had been renamed black icons James Earl Jones and Lena Horn – saying the Great White Road was already a nickname “unlike the user guide”. ”
DeBoz also hailed the heroic efforts of backups, swings and standbytes to continue the show during pandemic peaks, noting that she and many other Tony nominees were once unannounced backups and swings.
Some of the highlights of the show include the massive cast of “The Music Man”, which fills the huge stage of Radio City with “Seventy-Six Trombones”, as well as Prince Jackson and Paris Jackson, who presented the show for his father before the cast of “MJ” to dance to the energetic “Smooth Criminal”. Billy Crystal taught the crowd “Yiddish dispatch.”
Earlier, Darren Chris and Julian Huff launched the four-hour awards, handing out mostly design awards. Chris opened the TV show with the original song “Set the Stage” as he and Huff danced vigorously up the stairs, on the laundry baskets and in the sliding theater seats to celebrate the artists who keep the theater alive.
The first prize of the evening – for best result – went to “Six: The Musical”, with music and lyrics by Toby Marlowe and Lucy Moss. Marlowe became the first non-binary composer and songwriter to win Tony. “Six: The Musical” also won the award for best costume for a musical.
The revival of the Company chose the best stage design for a musical. The best orchestrations were on The Girl on the North Side. The Lehman Trilogy won for Best Stage Design and Light Play Design.
“The Skin of Our Teeth” won the best costumes for a play, “MJ” won for choreography, best lighting for a musical and sound design for a musical, and “Dana H.” won for sound design for a play.
The season – with 34 new productions – represents a complete return to the cinemas after nearly two years of pause imposed by a pandemic. At the last Tonys nine months ago, the winners were drawn from only 18 eligible plays and musicals, and many of the competition categories were exhausted.
The television will include performances from this year’s Tony Award nominees, including “A Strange Loop”, “Company”, “Girl from the North Country”, “MJ”, “Mr. Saturday Night “,” Music Man “,” Paradise Square “and” Six “. The original cast of Tony’s winner of the 2007 Spring Awakening musical will also come together and perform.
Sondheim, the iconic composer who died at the end of 2021, will be honored in a special segment by Bernadette Peters, singing his song “Children Will Listen”. Angela Lansbury, who was honored with a lifetime achievement Tony, was not present, so her colleague from “Sweeney Todd” Len Cariou accepted on her behalf.
Strange Loop, a theatrical meta-journey for a playwright writing a musical, enters the show with 11 leading Tony nominations. Immediately behind with 10 nominations are “MJ”, a bio-musical of the King of Pop, full of his greatest hits, and “Paradise Square”, a musical about Irish immigrants and black Americans struggling to survive in New York during the time of the civil war.
The best actresses in music leadership are Sharon D. Clark from the revival of “Caroline, or Change” and Joaquin Calukango from “Paradise Square”. The best actor in a musical can be reduced to Jacqueline Spivey from “Strange Loop” against Miles Frost as the king of pop in “MJ the Musical”.
“The Lehman Trilogy” was the leading contender for best new play, while David Morse in the revival of “How I Learned to Drive” by Paula Vogel was the leading contender for best actor in a play. His colleague Mary-Louise Parker may become the first actor to receive another Tony for Best Actress in a Play.
Winners of the 75th Tony Awards
– Featured Actor, Musical: Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Take Me Out
– Featured actress, musical: Patti Lupone, Company.
– Best director of the play: Sam Mendes, Lehmann’s Trilogy.
– Best Director of a Musical: Marian Elliott, Company.
– Best Score: “Six: The Musical”, with music and lyrics by Toby Marlowe and Lucy Moss.
– Choreography: Christopher Wilden, “MJ”.
– Costume Design: Montana Levi Blanco, The Skin of Our Teeth.
– Costume Design, Musical: Gabriela Slade, “Six: The Musical”
– Stage design, play: Es Devlin, “The Lehman Trilogy”.
– Stage design, musical: Bunny Christie, Company.
– Lighting Design, play: John Clark, The Lehman Trilogy.
– Lighting design, musical: Natasha Katz, “MJ”.
– Sound design, play: Mikhail Fiksel, “Dana X.”
– Sound design, musical: Gareth Owen, “MJ”.
– Best Orchestrations: Simon Hale, “Girl on the North Side.”
With a report on the Associated Press
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