Once, the intimate and melancholy bar-room musical that has charmed Broadway audiences and critics, took top honours at the Tony awards in a night of upsets at the annual US theatre industry bash.
With its largely British creative team, Once beat the boisterous corporate Disney behemoth Newsies to best musical, Steve Kazee won best actor in a musical, and John Tiffany won best director. In all, Once took eight awards from 12 nominations.
Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park, a Pulitzer prize-winning drama about race and real estate, won the Tony for best play.
Tony voters were keen to spread the honours: in the biggest surprise of the night James Corden beat the strongly tipped Philip Seymour Hoffman to the award for best actor in a play, for his role in the British farce One Man, Two Guvnors.
In a gracious speech, Corden said it was an honour to be billed in the same category as actors such as Hoffman, James Earl Jones, Frank Langella and John Lithgow. "To be on a list with you was enough and holding this, it honestly just reminds me that there is no such thing as best. Honestly, I am overwhelmed."
Newsies, a stage version of the New York City newsboy strike of 1899, won best score and best choreography – for a Broadway smash that was nominated in eight categories, this was something of a disappointment.
There were upsets too in a number of the acting categories. The award for best actor in a musical was a race between two newbies: Kazee of Once and Jeremy Jordan of Newsies. Kazee's performance in Once is heartfelt but most pundits thought Jordan's confident, slick performance in Newsies would win. Kazee broke down during his acceptance speech, when he mentioned his mother, who died on Easter Sunday.
The gong for best featured actor in a play went to Christian Borle for his comic turn in Peter and the Starcatcher, beating Spiderman star Andrew Garfield, who was nominated for his role as Biff in Death of a Salesman. Arthur Miller's 63-year-old masterpiece won for best play revival and Mike Nichols won his ninth Tony for directing it.
Neil Patrick Harris hosted the ceremony for the third time and demonstrated why he has been repeatedly asked back. His slick, confident performance captured the mood of the evening while delivering knowing references to the camp, over-the-top nature of the show. "The 66th annual Tony Awards, or, as we like to call it, Fifty Shades of Gay," he said, opening with a reference to an erotic novel with a similar title that has topped the best-seller lists around the world.
Audra McDonald was named best lead actress in a musical for Porgy and Bess, which – in another upset – was named best musical revival over Follies. It was her McDonald's fifth Tony award, tying the record held by Angela Lansbury and Julie Harris.
"I was a little girl with a potbelly and afro puffs, hyperactive and overdramatic. And I found the theatre and I found my home," McDonald said. Looking at her daughter in the audience, she said her Tony win was not quite as wonderful as the time she gave birth.
Crucial exposure
The composer Alan Menken, who has won more Oscars than any other living person, was awarded his first Tony for Newsies. When he and lyricist Jack Feldman originally wrote the score for the 1992 movie version of Newsies, which was a critical and commercial flop, he was laden with a Razzie for worst song.
Exposure in the Tonys can be crucial to many shows that have suffered pre-summer slumps. Godspell producer Ken Davenport has warned that his production's future may hinge on making a splash at the ceremony: the cast were clearly working their hearts out in an energetic performance that extended from the stage into the aisles.
There was perhaps only one bum note struck during the three-hour telecast: a poorly judged performance of a number from Hairspray from a cruise ship in the Atlantic. The segment, which was buttressed by commercials and scripted lines promoting Royal Caribbean Cruises, was easily seen for what it was: a tacky piece of product placement.
