Tonys dedicated to Orlando victims
Smash hit shines on a stage dimmed by the Orlando tragedy
Can a victory as utterly predictable as the bounty of Tony Awards Hamilton collected still be sweet? The answer, on Sunday night, was an unequivocal yes
he hip-hop-infused blockbuster — which already had won the Pulitzer Prize and, in its earlier off-Broadway incarnation, pretty much every award available to it — made its presence felt early in the broadcast. Members of the company joined this year’s host, Tony winner turned TV personality James Corden, in a parody of Hamilton’s opening number. “We like to give the little guys a leg up here,” Corden joked, referring to the production’s recordsetting 16 nominations.
They didn’t need the help, of course. Creator/star Lin-Manuel Miranda would soon collect awards for his book and score, with Hamilton also winning in the categories of leading actor and featured actor and actress in a musical, director, orchestrations, choreography and costume
and lighting design. The show went home with 11 awards, including best musical. It fell one short of The Pro
ducers’ record 12 wins in 2001. For the first time, all four winners in the musical acting categories were black.
During one transition to a commercial break, Hamilton creator/star Lin-Manuel Miranda held a jam session just outside the venue, the Beacon Theatre, that featured his fellow nominees for best score, among them Sara Bareilles (for Waitress), Steve Martin and Edie Brickell ( Bright
Star) and — on tambourine — Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber ( School of
Rock). The session, a nod to Hamilton’s “Ham 4 Ham” series, continued with other artists during later transitions, with School of
Rock’s nominated leading man, Alex Brightman, crooning Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera
before another break.
Despite the celebratory atmosphere, there were nods to the tragedy that shadowed the ceremony: the mass shooting that killed 50 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando early Sunday. At the outset, Corden alluded to the “horrific events,” adding: “Theater is a place where every race, creed, sexuality and gender is equal is embraced and is loved. Hate will never win. Tonight’s show stands as a symbol and a celebration of this principle.”
Jessica Lange collected her first Tony Award, for her performance as tortured matriarch Mary Tyrone in a revival of Long
Day’s Journey Into Night. “This is a dream come true, and it fills me with such happiness on a sad day like this,” Lange said in her acceptance speech.
Frank Langella, who was named best leading actor in a play for The Father, urged those in the Florida city “to be strong, because I am standing in a room full of the most generous human beings on Earth, and we will be with you every step of the way.”
Renée Elise Goldsberry, who plays Angelica Schuyler, sister-inlaw (and lingering flame) of Miranda’s Alexander Hamilton, was an early winner, for best performance by an actress in a featured role in a musical. “Hamilton has been one once-in-a-lifetime moment after another,” said a choked-up Goldsberry. Her victory was followed by that of costar Daveed Diggs, for featured actor in a musical, for his portrayal of both Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette. Diggs was one of three Hamilton actors nominated in the category.
Miranda, picking up a Tony for best score, read an emotional sonnet that began as a tribute to to his wife, Vanessa Nadal, and segued into commentary on the Orlando shootings: “We chase the melodies that seem to find us until they’re finished songs and start to play when senseless acts of tragedy remind us that nothing here is promised, not one day … We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger.” The diversity embodied by
Hamilton’s casting — Miranda is the son of Puerto Rican natives, and the multiracial company features black actors as other founding fathers, including a few presidents — was typical of this Broadway season and reflected in other nominated productions, among them Eclipsed and the 10-times-nominated musical
Shuffle Along (which was shut out in the end). Corden suggested that the audience think of the Tonys as “the Oscars with diversity.” A revelatory production of The
Color Purple won best revival of a musical, and its powerhouse of a star, Cynthia Erivo, was awarded for her leading performance.
The Humans was named best play, and it also won awards for beloved veteran Jayne Houdyshell (her first, for featured actress) and Reed Birney (featured actor.) Belgian director Ivo Van Hove won best director of a play for his stark staging of Arthur Miller’s A View
From the Bridge, which was named best revival of a play.
Another pre-show winner was legendary lyricist Sheldon Harnick, represented on Broadway this season by revivals of Fiddler
on the Roof and She Loves Me. Accepting a special Tony for lifetime achievement, the 92year-old Harnick quipped, “If I didn’t deserve it, this would be embarrassing.” He then thanked his collaborating composers and his family.