The 61st TONY AWARDS

There’s a little bit of Broadway in everyone. That was the slogan for the 2007 Tony Awards broadcasted by CBS last night. I attended the awards night at the Radio City Music Hall and although the whole ceremony ran for almost 4 hours, it's always fun and exciting. The opening number performed by the cast of the revival of A CHORUS LINE was dazzling, and so with numbers from all the nominated musicals. I especially enjoyed and was moved by RAUL ESPARZA’s rendition of “Being Alive” as well as American Idol turned Broadway star FANTASIA’s special performance. The audience went wild when JOHN GALLAGHER, JR., JULIE WHITE and CHRISTINE EBERSOLE and DAVID HYDE PIERCE won. Both SPRING AWAKENING and THE COAST OF UTOPIA racked up multiple awards with the latter setting a record for the most awards won by a play in Tony history. The TONY awards were voted on by 785 members of the theatrical community. The awards were founded in 1947 by the American Theatre Wing which now produces the show with the League of American Theatres and Producers.

The winners of the 61st Annual Antoinette Perry "Tony" Awards are:

Best Musical -Spring Awakening
Best Performance By a Leading Actress in a Musical-Christine Ebersole, Grey Gardens
Best Performance By a Leading Actor in a Musical-David Hyde Pierce, Curtains
Best Play-The Coast of Utopia
Best Performance By a Leading Actor in a Play-Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Best Performance By a Leading Actress in a Play-Julie White, The Little Dog Laughed
Best Revival of a Musical-Company
Best Revival of a Play-Journey's End
Best Direction of a Musical-Michael Mayer, Spring Awakening
Best Special Theatrical Event-Jay Johnson: The Two and Only
Best Direction of a Play-Jack O'Brien, The Coast of Utopia
Best Performance By a Featured Actress in a Play-Jennifer Ehle, The Coast of Utopia
Best Performance By a Featured Actor in a Play-Billy Crudup, The Coast of Utopia
Best Choreography-Bill T. Jones, Spring Awakening
Best Performance By a Featured Actress in a Musical-Mary Louise Wilson, Grey Gardens
Best Performance By a Featured Actor in a Musical-John Gallagher, Jr., Spring Awakening
Best Original Score-Spring Awakening
Music: Duncan Sheik
Lyrics: Steven Sater
Best Book of a Musical-Spring Awakening, Steven Sater

SPRING AWAKENING

Last Wednesday night, I went to see SPRING AWAKENING, the most Tony nominated Broadway show this season. Based on Frank Wedekind's masterpiece “The Awakening of Spring”, Spring Awakening tells the story of how a dozen young people in a provincial German town in the 1890s make their way through the exciting, complicated, confusing and mysterious time of their sexual awakening. The story centers around a brilliant young student named Melchior, his troubled friend Moritz, and Wendla, a beautiful young girl on the verge of womanhood. Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff star as teens Wendla and Melchior, respectively who are drawn to each other in a world where parents, ministers and teachers create an atmosphere of shame, silence and ignorance. Both actors were wonderful in this musical. John Gallagher Jr. plays Moritz and his performance is outstanding. He effectively expresses his inner confusion and frustrations. The music and lyrics by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater features songs that illuminate the urgency of adolescent self-discovery, the burning intensity of teen friendships and the innate suspicion of the uncomprehending adult world. The musical reminded me of RENT, and has its own cult following.

From the New York Times:

“As that daring sequence suggests, Mr. Sater, who wrote the book and lyrics, remains faithful to the play’s awareness that the discovery of sex can carry in its heady wake both salvation and destruction, particularly when it is coupled with ignorance. Mr. Sheik’s music, spare in its simple orchestrations, lush in the lapping reach of its seductive choruses, embodies the shadowy air of longing that infuses the show, the excitement shading into fear, the joy that comes with a chaser of despair. The singing throughout is impassioned and affecting, giving powerful voice to the blend of melancholy and hope in the songs.

For the characters’ confusions are ultimately not sexual but existential too. Sex is a central expression of life’s mystery, and a metaphor for it too. But the awakening really taking place in “Spring Awakening” is to something larger than the insistent needs of the flesh. Mr. Sater and Mr. Sheik’s angst-riddled teenagers are growing into a new awareness of “the bitch of living” itself. And the beauty of living too.”