‘Hadestown’ big winner at Tonys — 8 trophies
NEW YORK — “Hadestown,” the brooding musical about the underworld, has reason to smile broadly: It’s the best new musical Tony Award winner.
Singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell’s folk opera intertwines the myths of Orpheus and Eurydice, and Hades and Persephone. It marks Mitchell’s Broadway debut. It was the big winner during the awards show Sunday, June 9, earning eight trophies, including a rare win for a female director of a musical, for Rachel Chavkin.
She told the crowd she was sorry to be such a rarity on Broadway.
“There are so many women who are ready to go. There are so many people of color who are ready to go.” A lack of strides in embracing diversity on Broadway, she said, “is not a pipeline issue” but a lack of imagination.
Ali Stroker provided a new moment for the Tony Awards. Stroker, paralyzed from the chest down because of a car crash when she was 2, won for featured actresses in a musical for her work in a dark revival of “Oklahoma!” She became the first person in a wheelchair to win a Tony.
“This award is for every kid
who is watching tonight who has a disability, who has a limitation or a challenge, who has been waiting to see themselves represented in this arena,” she said. “You are.”
Bryan Cranston seemed to tap into the vibe when he won the Tony for best leading man in a play award for his work as Howard Beale in a stage adaptation of “Network.”
“Finally, a straight old white man gets a break!” he joked. The star, who wore a blue pin on his suit to support reproductive rights, also dedicated his award to journalists who are in the line of fire. “The media is not the enemy of the people,” he said. “Demagoguery is the enemy of the people.”
Playwright Jez Butterworth’s “The Ferryman” was crowned best play. It’s a vigorous family epic set in Northern Ireland in 1981 during the Troubles. It requires a 21-person cast, plus a baby and animals.
Other winners included Elaine May, who took home her first Tony for best leading actress, playing the Alzheimer’safflicted grandmother in Kenneth Lonergan’s comic drama “The Waverly Gallery.”
Andre DeShields captured featured actor in a musical for “Hadestown,” his first Tony, at age 73. Other “Hadestown” wins were for scenic design, sound design, lighting design and orchestrations. It would also go on to earn singer-songwriter Mitchell a Tony for best score.
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley took home the regional theater Tony, for its long and distinguished work in the Bay Area. Though the award was announced earlier, the news was still celebratory. “This award is for generations of collaborators who have grown TheatreWorks for 50 years,” Robert Kelley, founding artistic director of TheatreWorks said after accepting the award.
James Corden, in his second stint as Tony host, was at his fanboy best, whether anxiously hiding in a bathroom with previous hosts Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles or trying to provoke a Nicki Minaj/Cardi B-style beef between usually overly polite and supportive Broadway figures (Laura Linney and Audra McDonald finally obliged).
He kicked off the show with a massive, nineminute opening number that served as a fullthroated endorsement of the live experience that took flight with dozens of glitzy dancers from this season’s shows.
The first acting award went to Celia KeenanBolger, who won for best featured actress in a play for her role as Scout in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” She noted that her parents read her the book when she was a child in Detroit and had burning crosses put on their lawn because they helped African Americans.
Bertie Carvel won best featured actor in a play for “Ink.” He said he wished he could be with his mother, hospitalized in London. “I love you, Mum,” he said.
Oscar-winning director and producer Sam Mendes has won his first directing Tony Award for guiding “The Ferryman.” “The Ferryman’s” Rob Howell took home two Tonys — for best play set designs and costumes. Robert Horn won for best book of a musical for “Tootsie.”
Renowned designer Bob Mackie won the Tony for best costume designs for a musical for “The Cher Show,” getting laughs for saying “This is very encouraging for an 80-year-old.”
The dark retelling of “Oklahoma!” beat the lush and playful revival of the rival Golden Age musical “Kiss Me, Kate” to the Tony Award for best musical revival. “The Boys in the Band” was crowned best play revival.
Sergio Trujillo won the best choreography prize for “Ain’t Too Proud — The Life and Times of the Temptations,” saying in his speech that he arrived in New York decades ago without legal permission. “I’m here to tell you the American dream is alive,” he said.