This year’s Tonys belonged to Billy Elliot, the musical scored by Elton John, said Peter Marks in The Washington Post. The show, about a working-class boy with dreams of being a ballet dancer, took 10 awards including Best Musical. In one of the ceremony’s most charming moments, the three young actors who split time in the role of Billy—David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik, and Kiril Kulish—awkwardly accepted their shared award for best actor in a musical. It was the first time multiple actors shared a Tony for the same role. “To all the kids out there who might want to dance, never give up, “ said Kulish, echoing the musical’s theme, as well as his own experience.
Yet two Broadway icons also received their due, said Michael Kuchwara in the Associated Press. Liza Minnelli won for Best Special Theatrical Event for her limited engagement Liza’s at the Palace. And Angela Lansbury took home her fifth Tony—and her first since 1979—for featured actress in a play, for her quirky performance in the revival of Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit.
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Rocky
feature It’s a wonder that this Rocky ever reaches the top of the steps.
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Love and Information
feature Leave it to Caryl Churchill to create a play that “so ingeniously mirrors our age of the splintered attention span.”
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The Bridges of Madison County
feature Jason Robert Brown’s “richly melodic” score is “one of Broadway’s best in the last decade.”
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feature John Patrick Shanley’s “charmer of a play” isn’t for cynics.
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The Night Alive
feature Conor McPherson “has a singular gift for making the ordinary glow with an extra dimension.”
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No Man’s Land
feature The futility of all conversation has been, paradoxically, the subject of “some of the best dialogue ever written.”
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The Commons of Pensacola
feature Stage and screen actress Amanda Peet's playwriting debut is a “witty and affecting” domestic drama.