NEW YORK (AP) — The intimate, funny-sad musical “Kimberly Akimbo” nudged apart splashier rivals on Sunday to win the musical crown on the Tony Awards on an evening when Broadway flexed its inventive muscle amid the Hollywood writers’ strike and made historical past with laurels for nonbinary actors J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell.
“Kimberly Akimbo,” with songs by Jeanine Tesori and a e book by David Lindsay-Abaire, follows a teen with a uncommon genetic dysfunction that provides her a life expectancy of 16 navigating a dysfunctional household and a highschool romance. Victoria Clark, because the lead within the present, added a second Tony to her trophy case, having beforehand gained one in 2005 for “The Light in the Piazza.”
Producer David Stone credited the musical’s writers for penning a magic trick, calling “Kimberly Akimbo” a “musical comedy about the fragility of life, so healing and so profound and joyous that is almost impossible.” The musical took house a number one 5 awards, together with greatest e book and rating.
Earlier, Tony Awards historical past was made when Newell and Ghee grew to become the primary nonbinary individuals to win Tonys for appearing. Last yr, composer and author Toby Marlow of “Six” grew to become the primary nonbinary Tony winner.
“Thank you for the humanity. Thank you for my incredible company who raised me up every single day,” mentioned main actor in a musical winner Ghee, who stars in “Some Like It Hot,” the difference of the basic cross-dressing comedy movie. The soulful Ghee shocked audiences with their voice and dance abilities, enjoying a musician — on the run from gangsters — who tries on a gown and is reworked.
Newell, who performs Lulu — an impartial, don’t-need-no-man whiskey distiller in “Shucked” — has been blowing audiences away with their signature quantity, “Independently Owned.” They gained for greatest featured actor in a musical.
“Thank you for seeing me, Broadway. I should not be up here as a queer, nonbinary, fat, Black little baby from Massachusetts. And to anyone that thinks that they can’t do it, I’m going to look you dead in your face that you can do anything you put your mind to,” Newell mentioned to an ovation.
Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt,” which explores Jewish id with an intergenerational story, gained greatest play, additionally incomes wins for director Patrick Marber, featured actor Brandon Uranowitz and Brigitte Reiffenstuel’s costumes.
The British-Czech playwright, who now has 5 greatest play Tony Awards, joked he gained his first in 1968 and famous that playwrights have been “getting progressively devalued in the food chain” regardless of being “the sharp ends of the inverted pyramid.”
Second-time Tony Awards host Ariana DeBose opened a clean script backstage earlier than dancing and leaping her solution to open the primary present with a busy opening quantity that gave a jolt of electrical energy to what’s often an upbeat, protected and chummy night time. The writers’ strike left the storied awards present honoring the most effective of musical theater and performs with no script.
Before the pre-show started, DeBose revealed to the viewers the one phrases that might be seen on the teleprompter: “Please wrap up.” Later within the night, nearly out of breath after her wordless opening efficiency, she thanked the labor organizers for permitting a compromise.
“I’m live and unscripted. You’re welcome,” she mentioned. “So to anyone who may have thought that last year was a bit unhinged, to them, I say, ‘Darlings, buckle up.’”
Winners demonstrated their assist for the hanging writers both on the podium or on the pink carpet with pins. Miriam Silverman, who gained the Tony for greatest featured actress in a play for “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” ended her speech with: “My parents raised me to believe in the power of labor and workers being compensated and treated fairly. We stand with the WGA in solidarity!”
Jodie Comer, the three-time Emmy nominated star of “Killing Eve” gained main actress in a play for her Broadway debut, the one-woman play “Prima Facie,” which illustrates how present legal guidelines fail terribly with regards to sexual assault circumstances.
Sean Hayes gained lead actor in a play for “Good Night, Oscar,” which dramatizes a protracted night time’s journey into the scarred psyche of pianist Oscar Levant, now obscure however as soon as a TV star.
“This has got to be the first time an Oscar won a Tony,” Hayes cracked.
Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Topdog/Underdog,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning play about sibling rivalry, inequality and society’s false guarantees, gained the Tony for greatest play revival. She thanked director Kenny Leon and stars Corey Hawkins and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II: “They showed up to be large in a world that often does not much want the likes of us living at all.”
Bonnie Milligan, who gained for greatest featured actress in a musical for “Kimberly Akimbo,” additionally had a message to the viewers: “I want to tell everybody that doesn’t maybe look like what the world is telling you what you should look like — whether you’re not pretty enough, you’re not fit enough, your identity is not right, who you love isn’t right — that doesn’t matter.”
“’Cause just guess what?” she continued, brandishing her award. “It’s right, and you belong.”
Many of the technical awards — for issues like costumes, sound, lighting and scenic design — have been handed out at a breakneck tempo throughout a pre-show hosted by Skylar Astin and Julianne Hough, permitting winners loads of airtime for acceptance speeches however little humor.
The pre-show telecast on Pluto featured some awkwardly composed pictures and a few presenters slipped up on sure phrases. The tempo was so speedy, it ended greater than 10 minutes earlier than the primary CBS broadcast was slated to begin.
John Kander, the 96-year-old composer behind such landmark reveals as “Chicago,” “Cabaret” and “The Scottsboro Boys,” was honored with a particular lifetime award. He thanked his dad and mom; his husband, Albert Stephenson; and music, which “has stayed my friend through my entire life and has promised to stick with me until the end.”
Jennifer Grey handed her father, “Cabaret” star Joel Grey, the opposite lifetime achievement Tony. “Being recognized by the theater community is such a gift because it’s always been, next to my children, my greatest, most enduring love,” the actor mentioned.
Echoing the theme of antisemitism, “Parade” — a doomed musical love story set in opposition to the true backdrop of a homicide and lynching in pre-World War I Georgia that gained Tonys as a brand new musical in 1999 — gained for greatest musical revival, with Michael Arden profitable for greatest musical director.
“’Parade’ tells the story of a life that was cut short at the hands of the belief that one group of people is more valuable than another and that they might be more deserving of justice,” Arden mentioned. “This is a belief that is the core of antisemitism, white supremacy, homophobia and transphobia and intolerance of any kind. We must come together. We must battle this.”
The telecast featured performances from all of the nominated musicals and Will Swenson — starring on Broadway in a Neil Diamond musical — led the viewers in a vigorous rendition of “Sweet Caroline.” Lea Michele of “Glee” and now “Funny Girl” fame additionally carried out a hovering model of “Don’t Rain on My Parade.”
It all befell on the United Palace Theatre, within the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan — a brand new venue for the ceremony, many miles from Times Square and the theater district.
“Thank you all for coming uptown. Never in my wildest dreams, truly,” Lin-Manuel Miranda joked onstage. He, in fact, wrote the musical “In the Heights,” set in Washington Heights.
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AP National Writer Jocelyn Noveck contributed to this report.
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