Midler steals the show
AUSTRALIAN nominees Cate Blanchett and Tim Minchin missed out but popular favourite Bette Midler took home her first acting Tony at New York’s iconic Radio Music Hall yesterday.
Midler, who first performed on Broadway in 1967, won best lead actress in a musical for Hello, Dolly! which she described as “the ride of my life”.
“I can’t remember when I had so much smoke blown up my arse. It’s full. This is it. It’s the icing on the cake!” she said in an acceptance speech that went on so long it silenced the “time up” orchestra.
Midler had previously been awarded a special Tony in 1974.
Hello, Dolly! also won best revival.
Dear Evan Hansen star Mark Platt, who is just 23, won best lead actor in a musical.
The unlikely crowd-pleaser about teen suicide took home a swag of awards including best musical and best supporting actress (Rachel Bay Jones).
Australian singer-songwriter-composer Tim Minchin was one of the casualties of Dear Evan Hansen’s sweep.
Nominated for best original score for Groundhog Day the Musical, he lost out to Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.
Roseanne’s Laurie Metcalf won best lead actress in a play for A Doll’s House Part 2, over a competitive field that included Sally Field (The Glass Menagerie) Jennifer Ehle (Oslo),
Laura Linney (The Little Foxes)
and Blanchett (The Present).
The Present, husband Andrew Upton’s adaptation of Chekhov’s Platonov, marked the actress’s Broadway debut.
Kevin Kline won his third Tony – for best actor in a play – for Present Laughter.
Sex and the City’s Cynthia Nixon won best supporting actress in a play for Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes.
“Thanks to the great Laura Linney for thinking outside the box and for thinking of me when she did it,” she said.
The two actresses alternated the lead and supporting roles in the well-received revival of Hellman’s play.
It was Nixon’s second Tony – she won in 2006 for Rabbit Hole, later made into a film with Nicole Kidman.
Host Kevin Spacey launched the ceremony with a self-deprecating opening routine in which he made fun of himself as a Johnny-come-lately to the often thankless role.
He performed adapted set pieces from each of the four shows nominated for best musical – Dear Evan Hansen, Groundhog Day, Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 and Come From Away – and trotted out a series of impersonations that were trumped by a lateshow appearance by House Of Cards’ Frank Underwood and his wife (Robin Wright).