Tony Awards laud android rom-com 'Maybe Happy Ending' and history-making 'Purpose'
'Sunset Blvd.,' with Nicole Scherzinger as a fallen screen idol desperate to reclaim her fame, won best musical revival, handing composer Andrew Lloyd Webber his first competitive Tony since 1995 when the original show won. The current version is a stripped-down, minimalist production.
Scherzinger also won for best lead actress in a musical, muscling aside a considerable challenge from Audra McDonald in a remarkable career pivot for the former lead singer of pop group Pussycat Dolls and TV talent show judge.
'Growing up, I always felt like I didn't belong, but you all have made me feel like I belong and I have come home at last,' she said. 'So if there's anyone out there who feels like they don't belong, or your time hasn't come, don't give up. Just keep on giving and giving because the world needs your love and your light now more than ever.'
Criss, who has starred in everything from 'Glee' to 'The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,' won his first Tony for 'Maybe Happy Ending,' which he also co-produced. He said he shared it with Shen, who was not nominated.
Sarah Snook won leading actress in a play for her tireless work in 'The Picture of Dorian Gray,' where she plays all 26 roles.
'I don't feel alone any night that I do this show,' Snook said, dismissing the idea of it as a one-woman show. 'There are so many people onstage making it work and behind the stage making it work.'
Downtown cabaret star Cole Escola won best actor in a play for their deranged, repressed and over-the-top ahistorical version of Mary Todd Lincoln in 'Oh Mary!,' beating such Hollywood stars as George Clooney and Daniel Dae Kim. Sam Pinkleton won best director for 'Oh, Mary!' and thanked Escola, saying they taught him, 'Do what you love, not what you think people want to see.'
Francis Jue won best featured actor in a play for the revival of 'Yellow Face.' He said he was gifted his tuxedo from another Asian actor who wanted him to wear it to the Tonys.
'I'm only here because of the encouragement and inspiration of generations of wonderful deserving Asian artists who came before me,' he said.
Jak Malone won best featured actor in a musical for the British import 'Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical,' playing a woman every performance. He hoped his win could be powerful advocacy for trans rights. 'Eureka Day,' Jonathan Spector's social satire about well-meaning liberals debating a school's vaccine policy, won best play revival.
The original cast of 'Hamilton,' including creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, did a victory lap dressed in black to mark the show's 10th anniversary on Broadway, with a medley including 'My Shot,' 'The Schuyler Sisters,' 'History Has Its Eyes on You' and 'The Room Where It Happens.'
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