The spirit of the 62nd annual Tony Awards was captured perfectly early Sunday evening when Bartlett Sher of "South Pacific" was talking to reporters about winning the trophy for best director of a musical just as Lin-Manuel Miranda of "In the Heights" was accepting the prize for best score.
The Sher-led revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic about race and war earned the most awards of any production with seven, perhaps indicating a weak season on Broadway for original work. Yet the four awards for "Heights", including new musical, and the five for the Pulitzer Prize-winning play "August: Osage County" showed that the Main Stem is eager to welcome new voices.
Tracy Letts, author of "August", noted the unusual nature of the evening when he said, "It's surreal, absolutely surreal. A year ago, when I was at my home theater in my home town, the idea of standing here holding this, a year later ... this is absolutely a surreal experience."
Miranda, creator of "Heights" and winner of a Tony for score, said he wasn't trying to shake up Broadway but, in a way, bring it back to its golden days: "It's my job to write the best musical I can," he said. "I'd like to bring popular music and theater music back together. They used to be good friends a long time ago."
The one-named Stew, creator of "Passing Strange" and winner of the Tony for best book of a musical, echoed that thought, but he also seemed to relish the non-conformist of nature of his show, which features a hard-driving, rock 'n' roll score. "It wasn't my intention to write something new," he said. "It was my intention to put music on the stage that people are actually listening to."
Several of the winners in the acting categories also were relative newcomers to Broadway. Mark Rylance, a native of Britain, where he is known as much for his stewardship of the Globe Theatre as he is for his acting, earned a Tony in his Broadway debut for best actor in a play in the revival of "Boeing-Boeing". He proved just how out-there he can be by delivering Louis Jenkins' prose poem "The Back Country" in lieu of an acceptance speech.
The Sher-led revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic about race and war earned the most awards of any production with seven, perhaps indicating a weak season on Broadway for original work. Yet the four awards for "Heights", including new musical, and the five for the Pulitzer Prize-winning play "August: Osage County" showed that the Main Stem is eager to welcome new voices.
Tracy Letts, author of "August", noted the unusual nature of the evening when he said, "It's surreal, absolutely surreal. A year ago, when I was at my home theater in my home town, the idea of standing here holding this, a year later ... this is absolutely a surreal experience."
Miranda, creator of "Heights" and winner of a Tony for score, said he wasn't trying to shake up Broadway but, in a way, bring it back to its golden days: "It's my job to write the best musical I can," he said. "I'd like to bring popular music and theater music back together. They used to be good friends a long time ago."
The one-named Stew, creator of "Passing Strange" and winner of the Tony for best book of a musical, echoed that thought, but he also seemed to relish the non-conformist of nature of his show, which features a hard-driving, rock 'n' roll score. "It wasn't my intention to write something new," he said. "It was my intention to put music on the stage that people are actually listening to."
Several of the winners in the acting categories also were relative newcomers to Broadway. Mark Rylance, a native of Britain, where he is known as much for his stewardship of the Globe Theatre as he is for his acting, earned a Tony in his Broadway debut for best actor in a play in the revival of "Boeing-Boeing". He proved just how out-there he can be by delivering Louis Jenkins' prose poem "The Back Country" in lieu of an acceptance speech.
- 6/15/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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