By Thomas Peter
Featured Actress in a Play went to Fences star Viola Davis, who said, " … Blessed is what I am. Blessed to be an actor, blessed to have found this play that August Wilson wrote. Blessed to be given this role [and] blessed [to share the stage with this] cast." She encouraged everyone to come to the Cort Theatre because "we're having a blast."
Veteran film star Mitzi Gaynor made her entrance and presented the Featured Actor in a Musical award to Christopher Fitzgerald of Finian's Rainbow. Fitzgerald, also an alumnus of a long-closed show, deadpanned, "Unlike Santino, I was kind of anticipating it," before paying tribute to the show as "this wonderful dream that we had." Katie Finneran took Featured Actress in a Musical for her scene-stealing turn in Promises, Promises and paid tribute to her fellow nominee (for A Little Night Music), Lansbury. Finneran said she had grown up listening to Lansbury's "Oh, Mr. Todd! Oooh, Mr. Todd!" intro to Sweeney Todd's "By the Sea," despite her parents' worries about the show's appropriateness for a young girl. Finneran said of Lansbury, "It's an incredible privilege for me to be sharing the season with her."
My Trip Down the Pink Carpet star Leslie Jordan presented the design awards, and Matthew Modine presented the ensemble awards to the casts of Circle Mirror Transformation and The Temperamentals. Circle Mirror cast members Peter Friedman and Dierdre O'Connell accepted on behalf of their cast, while the five-person cast of The Temperementals accepted their award, speaking their thanks in perfect unison and ending with "on a personal note…" before dissolving into overlapping, unintelligible thanks.
24 May 2010
Viola Davis
photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN
Jim Brochu
photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN
Roundabout Theatre Company's artistic director, Todd Haimes, accepted the Outstanding Musical Revue award for Sondheim on Sondheim before Corbin Bleu presented Outstanding Actor and Actress in a Play to Liev Schreiber (A View from the Bridge) and Jan Maxwell (The Royal Family). A teary Maxwell expressed how much it meant to her that "I know you know my name."
Douglas Hodge took Outstanding Actor in a Musical for La Cage aux Folles. The British actor exclaimed, "What a wonderful welcome I have been given in this wonderful city," and paid special thanks to co-star Kelsey Grammer: "Behind every good wife is a husband."
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| Montego Glover and Catherine Zeta-Jones | ||
| photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN |
Outstanding Actress in a Musical resulted in a tie between Montego Glover of Memphis and Catherine Zeta-Jones of A Little Night Music. Glover reached the mic first, jubilantly crying, "What!!?? Oh, my God!" before jokingly jostling with Zeta-Jones over who should speak first. Zeta-Jones joked, "I'll sing one of your songs and [you] can sing 'Send in the Clowns'" before letting Glover deliver her speech. (Read what Glover said on the stage and before the ceremony by clicking here.) Zeta-Jones proved to be as teary as her fellow honoree when she got to speak, asking, "Has anyone got any Kleenex?" before thanking everyone involved with the production and husband Michael Douglas.
Brooke Shields presented the last four awards of the evening, starting with Outstanding Revival of a Play – another tie, between A View from the Bridge and Fences. Lead producer Stuart Thompson accepted for Bridge, thanking everyone from stars Schreiber, Scarlett Johannson and Jessica Hecht to playwright Arthur Miller. Director Leon again accepted on behalf of Scott Rudin, Carole Shorenstein Hays, and the Fences producing team.
Joyous producer Sonya Friedman accepted Outstanding Revival of a Musical for La Cage aux Folles before the Outstanding Play honors went to Red. Playwright John Logan recalled his childhood love of the theatre, saying, "Being here for the first time in my life is a dream come true," before turning the mic over to producer Arielle Tapper Madden.
The evening's final award, Outstanding Musical, went to Memphis. Authors David Bryan and Joe DiPietro joined the show's producers onstage as producer Sue Frost read prepared remarks about the show's "incredible journey" through six years of developmental productions, emphasizing that the show contained "an original story with original music about the birth of rock 'n' roll." Frost thanked the authors, director Christopher Ashley and choreographer Sergio Trujillo and stars Chad Kimball and Glover, who have been "with us every step of the way," along with all of the staff and "just people" who made the show possible. She ended by mentioning Associated Press critic Michael Kuchwara, who passed away the week of the awards, saying, "Life is short and we should savor every moment."
LuPone sent everyone off into the night (or the after-party, at The 48 Lounge) with her congratulations and best wishes for a great day off.
