“Once” wins big at last night’s Tony Awards

 

The biggest stars on Broadway came together last night to celebrate this season’s winners (and losers) at the 66^th annual Tony Awards. As usual, Neil Patrick Harris was absolutely brilliant as the evening’s master of ceremonies. This was his third stint as host and I have to say that his performances were just as entertaining as any of the night’s cast performances. And how about that hilariously topical closing number (Props to the songwriting team of David Javerbaum and Adam Schlesinger)? NPH is great on “How I Met Your Mother,” but I would much rather see him onstage belting out showtunes. But I digress…

In a season chocked full of big budget musicals, “Once,” the touching story of two musicians falling in love amidst the backdrop of Dublin, Ireland, surprised many by running away with eight Tony Awards, including best musical and best actor (Steve Kazee). And the cast performance from that show was definitely one of the highlights of the night, so good in fact that I actually ordered the cast recording on Amazon during the commercial break that followed. Other great performances of the night included the cast of “Newsies” (I was exhausted just watching those guys jumping around onstage!) and Ricky Martin with the cast of “Evita” (nice lip broom, Ricky. “Peter and The Starcatcher’s” Black Stache would be very proud). I was really happy to see “Porgy & Bess” win for best revival of a musical, and even more overjoyed when Audra McDonald won for best actress (Tony number five for her. Look out Angela Landsbury!). “Peter & The Starcatcher” was the big winner for straight plays, snatching up a total of five awards, including best supporting actor (Christian Borle), though “Clybourne Park” took the trophy for best play (make sure you check out Tennessee Rep’s production of “Clybourne Park,” September 8-22).

Other big winners in the category of plays included James Cordon (best lead actor) for his Chris Farleyesque performance in “One Man, Two Guvnors,” Judith Light (best featured actress) for “Other Desert Cities,” Nina Arianda (best actress) for her sultry turn in “Venus in Fur” and the legendary Mike Nichols for his direction of “Death of a Salesman.”

For a full recap of the winners and video of last night’s performances, visit tonyawards.com.