http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/theater/theaterspecial/musical-once-receives-8-tony-awards.html?_r=1&hp&pagewanted=all
‘Once’ Basks in Glow of 8 Tony Awards By PATRICK HEALY
Published: June 11, 2012 
Steve Kazee, on guitar, with the cast of the musical "Once" at the Tony Awards ceremony
on Sunday. The bittersweet romantic musical “Once” was the unexpectedly dominant winner at the 66th annual Tony Awards on Sunday night, winning best musical, best actor, and six other Tonys, in a highly competitive year for Broadway honors. Many of the celebrated shows, including
“Once” and the play
“Peter and the Starcatcher,” were notable for their imaginative theatricality, inventive staging and ensembles of little-known theater actors, instead of the big-budget or star-driven productions that often prevail on Tony night.
“Peter and the Starcatcher,” a prequel to the classic
Peter Pan story, won five Tonys, the most for any straight play this year, but fell short of winning the top award in its field: the best-play Tony went to
“Clybourne Park,” a satire of race relations by
Bruce Norris that won the Pulitzer Prize for drama last year. It was the only award for “Clybourne,” reflecting Tony voters’ tendency to spread the good news; 11 musicals and plays won at least one Tony, out of 37 eligible shows.
“Once,” a slowly unfolding tale of two Dublin musicians falling in love, emerged early as the night’s favorite, winning for
John Tiffany’s direction and for its book, by the Irish playwright
Enda Walsh, as well as for set, lighting, sound design and orchestrations. (The actors in “Once” double as the show’s band.)
Near the end of the broadcast
Steve Kazee, who plays the emotionally broken guitarist at the center of “Once,” won for best actor and used his acceptance speech to thank his cast mates for bucking him up after his mother’s death in April, shortly after the musical opened.
“This cast has carried me around, and made me feel alive, and I will never be able to fully repay them,” Mr. Kazee said.
The other lead acting Tonys went to
Audra McDonald, winning her fifth Tony (at age 41) as Bess in the musical revival of
“The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess”;
James Corden as the comic manservant in the British play
“One Man, Two Guvnors”; and
Nina Arianda as a sexy, mysterious actress in the play
“Venus in Fur.” Ms. McDonald, who recently returned to Broadway after four years acting on television, delivered a speech that honored the stage as a refuge for actors. “I was a little girl with a potbelly, hyperactive and overdramatic, and I found the theater, and I found my home,” she said.
Ms. Arianda squealed with delight several times during her speech, and paid tribute to, among others, the actor
Christopher Plummer, who presented her with the award. “You were my first crush,” she told Mr. Plummer.
The other leading contender for best musical was the Disney production
“Newsies,” an audience favorite about New York newsboys on strike in 1899. “Newsies” started the night with eight nominations and won two Tonys, for choreography and score. The latter award gave the eight-time Oscar winner
Alan Menken his long-awaited first Tony, shared with the lyricist
Jack Feldman.
In his acceptance speech Mr. Menken described the journey of “poor ‘Newsies’ ” — from the 1992 film version “that earned nothing at the box office” to the current Broadway adaptation that is grossing nearly $1 million a week, among the biggest box-office takes of any new show this season.
“We owe it to the generations of kids that have adopted this movie and insisted that it be brought to the stage,” Mr. Menken said, referring to the years of requests to Disney that the film be turned into a musical.
Among the best-known winners on Sunday was
Mike Nichols, the Oscar-winning director who had previously earned six Tonys for directing plays and musicals on Broadway; he received a seventh for staging
“Death of a Salesman.” When his name was announced, he kissed his wife,
Diane Sawyer, and then took the stage and declared himself “extremely touched” by the honor. He recalled that the
Beacon Theater, site of the Tony Awards ceremony, was his neighborhood movie house as a kid, where he once won a pie-eating contest during a Saturday matinee.
“It was nice, but this is nicer,” said Mr. Nichols, who is 80. “You see before you a happy man,” he continued, thanking playwright
Arthur Miller’s daughter
Rebecca and “a cast straight from heaven,” led by
Philip Seymour Hoffman as
Willy Loman.
“I can’t talk about them,” Mr. Nichols said, choking up. “I love them too much.”
As expected, “Salesman” also won the Tony for best revival of a play, the third time that Miller’s drama has won in that category. (It also won for best play in 1949.) But in something of a surprise, the show’s two male leads — playing a tormented father and son — were defeated by actors giving outsized comic performances: Mr. Hoffman lost to Mr. Corden, and
Andrew Garfield, who took on the part of
Biff soon after shooting the title role in the forthcoming
“Amazing Spider-Man” movie, lost to
Christian Borle, a foppish pirate in
“Peter and the Starcatcher,” as best supporting actor in a play.
Christian Borle (with mustache) in a scene from "Peter and the Starcatcher" performed at the
Tony Awards ceremony.Another surprise was “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess” for best musical revival, a category where the beloved 1971 musical
“Follies” had many ardent fans among Tony voters. (“Follies,” which has music by
Stephen Sondheim, has now lost once as best musical and twice for its revivals.) “Porgy and Bess” was controversial for efforts to update the show, but it had two acclaimed performers in the title roles,
Norm Lewis and Ms. McDonald, as well as the music of
George and
Ira Gershwin, who producer
Jeffrey Richards thanked first in his acceptance speech — along with DuBose Heyward, who created the characters in his original novel “Porgy.”
Mr. Walsh, the “Once” book writer, known for emotionally intense plays like
“Misterman,” remarked in his acceptance speech about being an odd choice to write the romance-driven plot of “Once,” which was based on a 2006 Irish film of the same title.
“It’s like getting the rights to
‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and then getting
Charles Manson to write it,” Mr. Walsh said.
Other featured acting honors went to
Judith Light as the acerbic alcoholic aunt in
“Other Desert Cities” and to
Michael McGrath and
Judy Kaye as opposites-who-attract in the musical
“Nice Work if You Can Get It.” Ms. Light, a veteran of television (
“Who’s the Boss?,” “One Life to Live”) who was also nominated for an acting Tony last year for the play
“Lombardi,” appeared slightly shocked as she took the stage; she won in a competitive field that included
Linda Emond, who gave a critically acclaimed performance as Linda Loman in “Salesman.”
“I feel like I’m the luckiest girl in New York tonight,” Ms. Light said, before thanking the cast and crew of “Other Desert Cities” — as well as her father, who died this spring.
Hosted by the television actor
Neil Patrick Harris, the Tonys began with a mix of musical numbers that included a song from last year’s winner for best musical, “The Book of Mormon,” and a sampling of
Christopher Gattelli’s choreography for “Newsies.”
Mr. Harris’s comic bits included being lowered, upside-down in classic Spider-Man position, and taking a gentle shot at the technical troubles last year in the Broadway musical
“Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.” He continued to hang there during remarks by the actress
Angela Lansbury and the theater executive
Ted Chapin, who laced their comments with aerial references. As for “Spider-Man” itself, that $75 million musical lost in the categories of musical sets and costumes, its only nominations.
Neil Patrick Harris, a three-time Tony Awards host, joined Patti LuPone for a tune at the ceremonyAs the front-runners for best musical, “Once” and “Newsies” had more in common than many past rivals for the award: both were low budget by Broadway standards, costing about $5 million each, and were based on movies that had ardent fans but not much commercial success.
Enthusiasm was also high among Tony voters for all the best-play nominees: “Clybourne,” “Desert Cities,” “Peter and the Starcatcher” and “Venus in Fur.” The field stood out from past years because the four plays, all by American writers, had their starts at respected Off Broadway theaters and drew critical acclaim for intelligent plotting, character development and weighty roles.
Only Broadway shows are eligible for Tonys, with awards decided by a pool of 851 voters, about 70 percent of whom usually cast ballots. (Many of the others chose not to vote because they did not see enough of the nominated shows.) The voters are a mix of theater producers, directors, designers, actors and tour presenters — some of whom have commercial interests in the nominees.
