Take Me Out, Hairspray Are Top Winners in 2003 Tony Awards; Long Day's Journey, Nine Also Hot
By Kenneth Jones
June 9, 2003
Richard Greenberg's Take Me Out, a play about the incident-packed season of a Yankees-like baseball team, won the 2003 Tony Award for Best Play, and Hairspray was named Best Musical, June 8.
The satiric, sweet Hairspray teased its way to win eight Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall.
Take Me Out earned three choice Tonys, including nods for direction and featured actor. The play, which has done respectable but not home-run box office, is expected to get a boost from the exposure and the awards. The play was also a 2003 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
Harvey Fierstein won the 2003 Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for playing blowsy Baltimore housewife Edna Turnblad in Hairspray, the smash based on the John Waters film of the same name, at the 57th annual Tonys.
Minutes earlier, Marissa Jaret Winokur won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical for playing optimistic but plus-sized Tracy Turnblad (Edna's daughter) in Hairspray.
She called herself a "4-foot-11-inch chubby New York girl" and said if she can win a Tony for leading actress, then dreams can come true for anyone.
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It was thought the race in this category was largely between young newcomer Winokur and veteran Bernadette Peters, who minutes earlier at the ceremony had brought down Radio City Music Hall with a highly-charged "Rose's Turn," the finale of Gypsy.
Roundabout Theatre Company's staging of Maury Yeston, Mario Fratti and Arthur Kopit's Nine won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical.
Vanessa Redgrave won the 2003 Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Play for Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night. It is Redgrave's first Tony. Her sister, Lynn, was in the house, cheering her on.
By 10:15 PM (ET) it was a rich night for the O'Neill revival: Brian Dennehy won the 2003 Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play, for Long Day's Journey. The autobiographical play also won the Tony for Best Revival.
Jack O'Brien won the Tony for Best Direction of a Musical, for Hairspray. He thanked friends and colleagues past and present, and acknowledged the contributions of Hairspray choreographer Jerry Mitchell.
Def Poetry Jam on Broadway won the Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event. The Russell Simmons-created evening of new words and ideas by young hip-hop poets lured a new audience to Broadway, and will tour. Simmons thanked the Broadway audience for being "so open-minded" about the work.
Dick Latessa and Jane Krakowski won respective Tony Awards for Best Featured Actor in a Musical (for Hairspray) and Best Featured Actress in a Musical (for Nine). Latessa has a memorable romantic duet with Harvey Fierstein in his show, and is a much-loved veteran of the New York stage. It is his first Tony win. Krakowski makes a sexy and death-defying entrance and exit in Nine, wrapped in a sheet that circus illusionists are known to use. She descends from the fly space in nothing but linen (actually a specially-formulated fabric) and seduces Antonio Banderas (as Guido Contini) via phone.
Denis O'Hare and Michele Pawk won respective Tony Awards for Best Featured Actor in Play (for Take Me Out) and Best Featured Actress in a Play (for Hollywood Arms).
In Take Me Out, O'Hare plays a nebbishy accountant who falls in love with baseball when he takes on a gay ball star as a client. In Hollywood Arms, the well-reviewed Pawk played Louise, a character based on Carol Burnett's mother in a play by Carol Burnett and Carrie Hamilton. The play closed in January.
Joe Mantello won the 2003 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for staging Richard Greenberg's theme-rich play, Take Me Out, about baseball (and a whole lot more) at the 57th annual Tonys.
Twyla Tharp won the Tony for Best Choreography for her work on the Billy Joel-infused dance musical, Movin' Out. She also directed the show, which uses Joel songs to tell (via dance) the story of high school pals as they grow older in the turbulent '60s and '70s.
The writers of Hairspray won 2003 Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical (Mark O'Donnell & Thomas Meehan) and Best Score of a Musical (composer-lyricist Marc Shaiman and lyricist Scott Wittman).
Winners in four 2003 Tony Awards categories were announced in a pre-show ceremony prior to the 8-11 PM (ET) main show June 8: Movin' Out, La Boheme and Hairspray were the first Tony winners of the season. Respectively, Billy Joel and Stuart Malina won for their pop orchestrations for Movin' Out, Nigel Levings won for the sumptuous La Boheme lighting design, William Ivey Long won for his '60s-friendly Hairspray costume design and Catherine Martin won for the 1950s-set Parisian scenic design of La Boheme.
Hugh Jackman, coming to Broadway in the fall in The Boy From Oz, hosted the annual awards celebrating the best of the 2002-03 Broadway season.
For readers without access to television, or those in other time zones interested in early results, Playbill On-Line updated this lead story between 8-11 PM (ET) June 8. Be sure to check our 2003 Tony Awards section by clicking Playbill Tony Awards News.
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The complete list of 2003 Tony Award nominees and winners follows, with winners indicated in boldface type:
BEST MUSICAL:
Amour
Hairspray
Movin' Out
A Year With Frog and Toad
BEST PLAY:
Enchanted April
Say Goodnight, Gracie
Take Me Out
Vincent in Brixton
BEST PERFORMANCE BY A LEADING ACTOR IN A MUSICAL :
Antonio Banderas, Nine
Harvey Fierstein, Hairspray
Malcolm Gets, Amour
John Selya, Movin' Out
Brian Stokes Mitchell, Man of La Mancha
BEST PERFORMANCE BY A LEADING ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL:
Melissa Errico, Amour
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Man of La Mancha
Elizabeth Parkinson, Movin' Out
Bernadette Peters, Gypsy
Marissa Jaret Winokur, Hairspray
BEST REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL:
Gypsy
La Bohème
Man of La Mancha
Nine
BEST PERFORMANCE BY A LEADING ACTRESS IN A PLAY :
Jayne Atkinson, Enchanted April
Victoria Hamilton, Joe Egg
Clare Higgins, Vincent in Brixton
Vanessa Redgrave, Long Day's Journey Into Night
Fiona Shaw, Medea
BEST PERFORMANCE BY A LEADING ACTOR IN A PLAY:
Brian Bedford, Tartuffe
Brian Dennehy, Long Day's Journey Into Night
Eddie Izzard, Joe Egg
Paul Newman, Our Town
Stanley Tucci, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
BEST REVIVAL OF A PLAY:
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
Dinner at Eight
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune
Long Day's Journey Into Night
BEST DIRECTION OF A MUSICAL :
David Leveaux, Nine
Baz Luhrmann, La Bohème
Jack O'Brien, Hairspray
Twyla Tharp, Movin' Out
SPECIAL THEATRICAL EVENT:
The Play What I Wrote
Prune Danish
Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam
Bill Maher's Victory Begins at Home
BEST PERFORMANCE BY A FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL:
Tammy Blanchard, Gypsy
Jane Krakowski, Nine
Mary Stuart Masterson, Nine
Chita Rivera, Nine
Ashley Tuttle, Movin' Out
BEST PERFORMANCE BY A FEATURED ACTOR IN A MUSICAL :
Michael Cavanaugh, Movin' Out
John Dossett, Gypsy
Dick Latessa, Hairspray
Corey Reynolds, Hairspray
Keith Roberts, Movin’ Out
BEST PERFORMANCE BY A FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY:
Christine Ebersole, Dinner at Eight
Linda Emond, Life x 3
Kathryn Meisle, Tartuffe
Michele Pawk, Hollywood Arms
Marian Seldes, Dinner at Eight
BEST PERFORMANCE BY A FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY :
Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Long Day's Journey Into Night
Robert Sean Leonard, Long Day's Journey Into Night
Denis O'Hare, Take Me Out
Daniel Sunjata, Take Me Out
BEST DIRECTION OF A PLAY:
Laurence Boswell, Joe Egg
Robert Falls, Long Day's Journey Into Night
Joe Mantello, Take Me Out
Deborah Warner, Medea
BEST CHOREOGRAPHY:
Robert Longbottom, Flower Drum Song
Jerry Mitchell, Hairspray
Melinda Roy, Urban Cowboy
Twyla Tharp, Movin' Out
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:
Michel Legrand, Didier van Cauwelaert, English adaptation by Jeremy Sams, Amour
Willie and Robert Reale, A Year with Frog and Toad
Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, Hairspray
Various composers, Urban Cowboy
BEST BOOK OF A MUSICAL:
Didier van Cauwelaert, English adaptation by Jeremy Sams, Amour
Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan, Hairspray
Willie Reale, A Year with Frog and Toad
David Henry Hwang, Flower Drum Song
BEST SCENIC DESIGN:
John Lee Beatty, Dinner at Eight
Santo Loquasto, Long Day's Journey Into Night
Catherine Martin, La Bohème
David Rockwell, Hairspray
BEST COSTUME DESIGN :
Gregg Barnes, Flower Drum Song
William Ivey Long, Hairspray
Catherine Martin, Angus Strathie, La Bohème
Catherine Zuber, Dinner at Eight
BEST LIGHTING DESIGN :
Donald Holder, Movin' Out
Nigel Levings, La Bohème
Brian MacDevitt, Nine
Kenneth Posner, Hairspray
BEST ORCHESTRATIONS:
Billy Joel and Stuart Malina, Movin’ Out
Nicholas Kitsopoulos, La Bohème
Jonathan Tunick, Nine
Harold Wheeler, Hairspray
Previously announced awards:
TONY HONORS FOR EXCELLENCE IN THEATRE:
The principal ensemble of La Bohème
Paul Huntley, wig designer
Johnson-Liff Casting Associates
The Acting Company
SPECIAL TONY AWARD:
Cy Feuer for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre
Regional Theatre Tony Award:
The Children's Theatre Company (Minneapolis, MN)
Here's the tally of productions and number of Tony wins:
Hairspray, 8
Long Day's Journey Into Night, 3
Take Me Out, 3
Nine, 2
La Bohème, 2
Movin' Out, 2
Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, 1
Hollywood Arms, 1