Andrew Garfield wins 1st Tony Award
The American, grown-up musical “The Band’s Visit” outmuscled the acclaimed and sprawling British import “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” for the most Tony Awards on Sunday, capturing 10 statuettes, including best musical, on a night where the theme of acceptance flowed through the telecast.
“The Band’s Visit” is based on a 2007 Israeli film of the same name and centers on members of an Egyptian police orchestra booked to play a concert at an Israeli city who accidentally end up in the wrong town. Its embrace of foreign cultures working together found a sweet spot with Tony voters.
Lead stars Tony Shalhoub and Katrina Lenk won best actor and actress, respectively, in a musical.
The two-part spectacle “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” captured six Tonys, including best play, book, lighting, sound design, orchestrations and director for John Tiffany.
A British revival of “Angels in America,” Tony Kushner’s monumental two-part drama about AIDS, life and love during the 1980s, grabbed three big awards, including best play revival and acting trophies for Andrew Garfield and Nathan Lane.
Garfield won his first Tony, for best leading actor in a play, and dedicated the win to the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) community, who he said fought and died for the right to love. He said the play is a rejection of bigotry, shame and oppression.
“We are all sacred and we all belong,” Garfield said. He then referenced last week’s US Supreme Court decision, which ruled in favor of a baker’s right to deny a gay couple a wedding cake based on his beliefs.
“(Let’s) just bake a cake for everyone who wants a cake to be baked,” he said, to rousing applause. Lane, who won for best featured actor in a play, said “Angels” still speaks to society in the midst of “political insanity.”
Billy Joel gave his friend Bruce Springsteen a special Tony Award. “This is deeply appreciated, and thanks for making me feel so welcome on your block,” The Boss said. Later, Springsteen performed “My Hometown” on the piano from his sold-out one-man show, “Springsteen on Broadway.”
Robert De Niro, who took the stage to introduce Springsteen’s performance, started off with an expletive directed at President Donald Trump, which garnered him a sustained standing ovation from the crowd.
Co-hosts Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles, talented and likable if not terribly thrilling, made somewhat subdued hosts, opening the show with a self-parodying duet on piano for all the losers out there—including them.
Two of the shows going into the night with most nominations—Tina Fey’s “Mean Girls” and “SpongeBob SquarePants,” with 12 nods each—found the night tough. “Mean Girls” won nothing and “SpongeBob SquarePants” got only one for best set design.