Hugh Jackman hosted the Tony Awards.(Photo: Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
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Bryan Cranston accepts his Tony Award.(Photo: By Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY)
NEW YORK -- Some big stars were honored, and others acknowledged, when this year's Tony Awards were handed out Sunday night at Radio City Music Hall.
As widely predicted, Neil Patrick Harris earned the Tony for performance by a leading actor in a musical, for his spellbinding portrait of an East German transgender rocker in Hedwig and the Angry Inch; and Bryan Cranston took the prize for leading actor in a play for his portrayal of LBJ in All The Way, which was named best play. But an even more established star who was eligible for Broadway's biggest prize in Cranston's category was not forgotten.
The acclaimed production that Washington appeared in, A Raisin in the Sun, won best revival of a play, and also best direction, for Kenny Leon. Leon opened his acceptance speech with three words: "Denzel, Denzel, Denzel."
Leon was more blunt in the media room, telling reporters, "Yes, Denzel was snubbed" -- before stopping to watch Sophie Okonedo, who won featured actress in a play for portraying Washington's character's wife, accept on one of two screens showing the ceremony in progress. "Wow," Leon said, clearly moved.
Another member of Raisin's cast, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, lost leading actress to Audra McDonald, who earned her sixth Tony -- a record -- for playing Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. In an emotional speech, McDonald thanked her family and others -- including Holiday, who "deserved so much more than you were given on this planet."
In the media room, Cranston was asked if he had done research to play an American president who championed civil rights after Holiday died, and responded, chuckling, "It feels like I'm still doing it." The actor added that he wanted to capture traits that Johnson didn't stress to emphasize in public, but that historians have documented nonetheless -- the "good ole boy, back-slapping, story telling s--- kicker."
The musical romp A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, which entered with the most nominations, earned a prize for its director, Darko Tresnjak -- who had faced stiff competition from Michael Mayer, who guided Harris in Hedwig.
Tresnjak thanked his husband and his mother; the latter "literally taught me to jump out of airplanes," who fought during World War II and is still alive.
Robert L. Freedman's book for Guide also won. Accepting, Freedman acknowledged leading man (and leading actor nominee) Jefferson Mays, who "died so beautifully 64 times a week" in the romp, in which Mays juggled eight roles. (The award for original score went to The Bridges of Madison County lyricist Jason Robert Brown.)
Critical darling Mark Rylance collected his third Tony, in the category of featured actor in a play, for a U.K.-based staging of Twelfth Night, while James Monroe Iglehart was named best featured actor in a musical for his show-stopping turn as Genie in Disney's Aladdin. (Asked later how he would celebrate, Iglehart told reporters that he and his wife were "going to McDonald's.")
Harris's co-star in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the vocal chameleon Lena Hall, accepted the prize for featured actress in a musical breathlessly, thanking her parents, a sister who had done her hair and "my soon-to-be-born niece."
An opening sequence featured host Hugh Jackman greeting nominees, and performers from nominated productions, backstage -- at one point feigning boxing with Rocky's Tony Karl, at another bouncing onto a piano bench with Jessie Mueller, star ofBeautiful: The Carole King Musical.
"It's going to be after midnight before I catch my breath!" Jackman told the crowd, once onstage.
Then, rather than lead the kind of cheeky production number that has earned Neil Patrick Harris raves in his recent years presiding over the ceremonies, Jackman threw the spotlight to entertainers from best-musical contender After Midnight -- among them Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight and Fantasia, who have been guest stars in the revue.
Several awards were announced before the live telecast on CBS, at a presentation hosted by stage vet Karen Ziemba and Billy Porter, last year's Tony winner for performance by a leading actor in a musical. Beautiful: The Carole King Musical won for sound design in a musical and Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill (which featured music prominently) won for sound design in a play.
Rocky and Act One earned scenic design in, respectively, a play and musical. The Bridges of Madison County won in the category of best orchestrations.
Rosie O'Donnell was given the Isabelle Stevenson Award for her philanthropic effort. O'Donnell quipped that she had been concerned her award would look like any other Tony -- so that when visitors saw it, "I would say, best featured actress in a musical - where the (heck) have you been?" She added that seeing a Broadway musical orchestra was "better than Prozac for me."
Jane Greenwood, accepting a special Tony for lifetime achievement said, "it all started when my Aunt Kate took me to the theater in Liverpool, and showed me what was so magic about it."
Some of the stars up for other awards flaunted their style on the red carpet. Idina Menzel turned up in Zac Posen and drop earrings. She was nominated for performance by a leading actress in a musical for If/Then, and was scheduled to perform Starting Over. Menzel, a previous Tony winner for Wicked, noted that the show is based in New York City, and cited one of her favorite things about the Big Apple:" If you're alone and having a bad day, can get out and walk among people and shed yourself of that tension and anxiety."
(Sutton Foster, acknowledged in the same category for Violet, wore...violet.)
Hall also wore Posen, the same designer she chose for the Met Gala last month. "He picked it out for me. I trust him. I tried on this one and two others and he wanted this one... I listen to Zac. Zac knows!"
Celia Keenan-Bolger, a nominee for featured actress in a play for her portrait of the painfully shy, physically challenged Laura is last fall's acclaimed revival of The Glass Menagerie, admitted that she hadn't cared for the Tennessee Williams play much in high school.
"I can't believe how wrong I was," said Keenan-Bolger -- adding that's she's the opposite of Laura (a role inspired by Williams' sister).
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Tyne Daly, up for leading actress in a play for her portrait of the mother of an AIDS victim in Mothers and Sons, said she was "humbled" and "dazzled" that playwright Terence McNally, also nominated, had written the role for her.
Maggie Gyllenhaal, scheduled to make her Broadway debut later this year opposite Ewan McGregor in a revival of Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, turned up on the red carpet in a Dolce & Gabbana gown and pixie cut. "I've never been on Broadway," said Gyllenhaal (who has performed off-Broadway), "but I've always had the dream. There's a magic to being on Broadway and I've dreamed about it all my life."
Presenter Fran Drescher, in a red off-the-shoulder Mark Zunino gown and diamond necklace, noted that she's currently playing the wicked stepmother in the Broadway musical Cinderella -- "but tonight I feel like a queen for a day."
Emmy Rossum, another presenter, shone in a metallic silver silk lamé evening dress, diamond earrings and bracelet and a silver clutch -- all from the Ralph Lauren Collection, according to a press release.
Gloria Estefan, whose life and career with husband Emilio are the subject of an upcoming jukebox musical, wore a custom long-sleeve dress, and admitted, "I'm perspiring because it's so hot!"
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