58th Annual Antoinette Perry Awards Presented June 6

By Andrew Gans
June 6, 2004

The Broadway theatre's biggest night of the year has arrived. The 58th Annual Tony Awards will be presented June 6 at the famed Radio City Music Hall. The Boy From Oz's Hugh Jackman — a 2004 Tony nominee — hosts.

The annual event is set to include a star-studded list of presenters from the worlds of TV, film, theatre and rap. As of press time, those scheduled to present awards include Carol Channing, Sean Combs, Taye Diggs, Edie Falco, Jimmy Fallon, Harvey Fierstein, Victor Garber, Joel Grey, Ethan Hawke, Anne Heche, LL Cool J, Billy Joel, Scarlett Johansson, Nicole Kidman, Jane Krakowski, Peter Krause, Swoosie Kurtz, Nathan Lane, Laura Linney, John Lithgow, Rob Marshall, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Dame Helen Mirren, Sarah Jessica Parker, Anna Paquin, John Rubenstein, Bernadette Peters, Phylicia Rashad, Chita Rivera, Carole Bayer Sager, Martin Short, Sigourney Weaver, Patrick Stewart and Renee Zellweger.

The official Tony Awards website, www.TonyAwards.com, will offer exclusive live video of the first six awards, which include Best Scenic Design, Best Costume Design, Best Lighting Design and Best Orchestrations as well as the Regional Theatre Tony Award (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), and the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre (to James M. Nederlander). That presentation — hosted by Hairspray's Marissa Jaret Winokur — will begin at 7:15 PM ET.

The CBS telecast will include performances from the four nominated Best Musicals — Avenue Q, The Boy From Oz, Wicked and Caroline, or Change — as well as three of the four nominated Best Revivals of a Musical — Assassins, Fiddler on the Roof and Wonderful Town. Big River has been denied the chance to perform on the telecast because it is no longer running on Broadway.

Avenue Q, the hilarious yet touching puppet-friendly musical, will offer an abridged version of their opening number, "It Sucks to Be Me." The Tony-nominated revival of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins will perform that show's finale, "Everybody's Got the Right." Tonya Pinkins, nominated for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, will perform her Caroline, or Change show-stopper, "Lott's Wife." Two-time Tony Award winner Donna Murphy, again nominated this season, will lead the Wonderful Town company in the Leonard Bernstein-Adolph Green-Betty Comden song, "Swing." Wicked co nominees Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth will perform the show's first act finale, "Defying Gravity." The company of Fiddler on the Roof — led by the Tony-nominated Alfred Molina — will perform "Tradition," and host Jackman will perform The Boy From Oz's "Not the Boy Next Door."

The telecast will also include moments from the Best Play nominees (Anna in the Tropics, Frozen, I Am My Own Wife and The Retreat from Moscow) and Best Revival of a Play nominees (Henry IV, Jumpers, King Lear and A Raisin in the Sun.) And, Tony Bennett and Mary J. Blige will offer their versions of, respectively, "Lullaby of Broadway" and "What I Did For Love."

The Antoinette Perry "Tony" Award is bestowed annually for distinguished achievement in the theatre. The complete list of this year's nominees follows:

Best Play
Anna in the Tropics
Frozen
I Am My Own Wife
The Retreat from Moscow

Best Musical
Avenue Q
Caroline, or Change
The Boy From Oz
Wicked

Best Revival of a Musical
Assassins
Big River
Fiddler on the Roof
Wonderful Town

Best Revival of a Play
A Raisin in the Sun
Henry IV
Jumpers
King Lear

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play
Kevin Kline, Henry IV
Frank Langella, Match
Jefferson Mays, I Am My Own Wife
Christopher Plummer, King Lear
Simon Russell Beale, Jumpers

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play
Tom Aldredge, Twentieth Century
Ben Chaplin, The Retreat from Moscow
Aiden Gillen, The Caretaker
Omar Metwally, Sixteen Wounded
Brian F. O'Byrne, Frozen

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
Eileen Atkins, The Retreat from Moscow
Tovah Feldshuh, Golda's Balcony
Anne Heche, Twentieth Century
Swoosie Kurtz, Frozen
Phylicia Rashad, A Raisin in the Sun

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play
Essie Davis, Jumpers
Sanaa Lathan, A Raisin in the Sun
Margo Martindale, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Audra McDonald, A Raisin in the Sun
Daphne Rubin-Vega, Anna in the Tropics

Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical
Kristin Chenoweth, Wicked
Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Avenue Q
Idina Menzel, Wicked
Donna Murphy, Wonderful Town
Tonya Pinkins, Caroline, or Change

Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical
Beth Fowler, The Boy From Oz
Isabel Keating, The Boy From Oz
Anika Noni Rose, Caroline, or Change
Jennifer Westfeldt, Wonderful Town
Karen Ziemba, Never Gonna Dance

Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical
Hunter Foster, Little Shop of Horrors
Hugh Jackman, The Boy From Oz
Alfred Molina, Fiddler on the Roof
Euan Morton, Taboo
John Tartaglia, Avenue Q

Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical
John Cariani, Fiddler on the Roof
Michael Cerveris, Assassins
Raul Esparza, Taboo
Michael McElroy, Big River
Denis O'Hare, Assassins

Best Director of a Play
Doug Hughes, Frozen
Moises Kaufman, I Am My Own Wife
David Leveaux, Jumpers
Jack O'Brien, Henry IV

Best Director of a Musical
Joe Mantello, Assassins
Kathleen Marshall, Wonderful Town
Jason Moore, Avenue Q
George C. Wolfe, Caroline, or Change

Best Choreography
Wayne Cilento, Wicked
Kathleen Marshall, Wonderful Town
Jerry Mitchell, Never Gonna Dance
Anthony Van Laast and Farah Khan, Bombay Dreams

Best Book of a Musical
Winnie Holzman, Wicked
Tony Kushner, Caroline, or Change
Martin Sherman; Nick Enright (original book) The Boy From Oz
Jeff Whitty, Avenue Q

Best Original Score
Boy George, Taboo
Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, Avenue Q
Stephen Schwartz, Wicked
Jeanine Tesori and Tony Kushner, Caroline, or Change

Best Orchestrations
Paul Bogaev, Bombay Dreams
William David Brohn, Wicked
Michael Starobin, Assassins
Larry Hochman, Fiddler on the Roof

Best Scenic Design
Robert Brill, Assassins
Ralph Funicello, Henry IV
Eugene Lee, Wicked
Tom Pye, Fiddler on the Roof

Best Costume Design
Jess Goldstein, Henry IV
Susan Hilferty, Wicked
Mike Nicholls and Bobby Pearce, Taboo
Mark Thompson, Bombay Dreams

Best Lighting Design
Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer, Assassins
Brian MacDevitt, Fiddler on the Roof
Brian MacDevitt, Henry IV
Kenneth Posner, Wicked

Special Tony Award
James M. Nederlander for Lifetime Achivement in the Theatre

Regional Theatre Tony
Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park

Productions with multiple nominations

10 - Wicked
7 - Assassins
6 - Avenue Q
6 - Caroline, or Change
6 - Fiddler on the Roof
6 - Henry IV
5 - The Boy from Oz
5 - Wonderful Town
4 - Frozen
4 - Jumpers
4 - A Raisin in the Sun
4 - Taboo
3 - Bombay Dreams
3 - I Am My Own Wife
3 - The Retreat from Moscow
2 - Anna in the Tropics
2 - Big River
2 - King Lear
2 - Never Gonna Dance
2 - Twentieth Century