- Title: USA: MUSICAL "THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE" WINS SIX TONY THEATRE AWARDS.
- Date: 2nd June 2002
- Summary: NEW YORK CITY NEW YORK UNITED STATES (JUNE 2, 2002) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) FRANK LANGELLA, BEST PERFORMANCE BY A FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY, SAYING: "It's just wonderful to win them over a span of time like this to feel that you're still viable in the profession and people still admire your work and give you an award for it is a great feeling."
- Embargoed: 17th June 2002 13:00
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- Location: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, USA
- Country: USA
- Topics: Entertainment,General
- Reuters ID: LVA6JHPCQGZYPU4WDHEEZ9PRUDR
- Story Text: "Thoroughly Modern Millie" took home 6 trophies, including best musical and best actress on Sunday (June 2) at the 56th Tony Awards for excellence in Broadway theatre, while "Fortune's Fool" and Private Lives" were the big winners among the plays.
The nationally-televised Tony awards show at Radio City Music Hall featured some rising young stars of the stage and the re-emergence of some big names in prizes spread across a variety of shows to cap a tumultuous season jolted by the cataclysmic attacks of Sept. 11.
"Look, most of the people who have supported the theatre are the people from out of town, you know," said presenter Mary Tyler Moore.
"They're the ones who come and buy the tickets that keep these shows going and I'm so grateful to them for having gotten behind us and kept us alive," she said.
Actor Ralph Fiennes said he feels New York theatre is alive as ever. "I've been to the theatre a lot. The houses are full, there's a great buzz. I can't say that I recognize any difference now than other years I've been here going to shows on Broadway and off Broadway. I feel that the city's determined to take back that spirit that want's to have good vibrant theatre and I feel it's here."
Christopher Reeve ventured down the red carpet to lend his support to the Broadway crowd. "New York is at it's best, the theatre is great. You know, we really need people from out of town to understand that New York is safe and ready to welcome you."
Host Gregory Hines said he was thrilled to co-host the event along with Bernadette Peters. "About a quarter till 8 I'll start to feel the butterflies and maybe even start to question why I would put myself in this position to begin with but then when I get on stage I remember what it is, why I do it, because I'm an exhibitionist," Hines said.
Nominees Vanessa Williams and Liam Neeson said Sunday's ceremony was not a competition but a celebration.
"We're here to celebrate New York audiences, as well as live theatre on Broadway," said Neeson, adding "I feel very honoured to be nominated. Our show's up for six Tony awards and it's a celebration."
Sutton Foster, the energetic star of "Thoroughly Modern Millie," a traditional musical based on the 1967 Julie Andrews' movie of the same title, won as best actress in a musical, while cast-mate Harriet Harris won as best featured actress.
"It's an honour to be recognized in this way. I mean I have never felt more proud of a show or a job in my life and my own work and to be honoured with a Tony award is quite an accomplishment and achievement and I just feel so lucky. I feel lucky like pinch me..." said the gangly Foster, who started with the production as an understudy before getting the chance to make her star turn in the show, set in the Roaring Twenties of New York.
"Private Lives," the Noel Coward comedy staged for the seventh time on Broadway, claimed three Tonys including best revival of a play and best actress for Lindsay Duncan, who also won the Olivier Award for her London performance as Amanda. "I'm really proud of it. I know it's good. I think Howard Davis has done a good job and the audiences love it. I wanted the production to come out of this evening well. And it has, we got best revival," Duncan said.
Alan Bates and Frank Langella made long-awaited returns to the winner's circle in sweeping acting honours for a play with Bates winning as the leading man and Langella in the featured role in "Fortune's Fool", Mike Poulton's adaptation of an 1848 play written by Russian Ivan Turgenev.
Langella won his previous Tony as featured actor in Edward Albee's "Seascape" in 1975.
Among other top Tony honours, "Urinetown the Musical,"
which rose to Broadway from humble, fringe theatre origins, won for best book, original score and direction; John Lithgow won as best actor in a musical for "Sweet Smell of Success,"
and Edward Albee took his second Tony for Best Play with the controversial "The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?"
Attendance was off about one million this year, largely due to sagging tourism since the attack on the World Trade Center, but that still represented a healthy bounce-back after ticket sales plummeted by 75 percent in the immediate aftermath.
Awards were spread around a host of shows in contrast to last year's triumphant romp by "The Producers," the critically acclaimed and wildly popular musical comedy by Mel Brooks, based on his zany 1968 movie, which won a record 12 prizes.
Trailing "Millie" in the awards column were "Urinetown"
and "Private Lives" with three each. "Fortune's Fool" and "Into the Woods," which won as best revival of a musical over "Oklahoma!", won two each.
Coming away empty-handed were two highly acclaimed plays -- "The Crucible," and "Morning's at Seven."
"The Crucible," starring best actor and actress nominees Liam Neeson and Laura Linney in the revival of the Arthur Miller classic, had received six nominations. "Mornings" had led all plays with nine nominations, including five in the featured actor and actress categories.
Also leaving the Radio City Music Hall awards program without any prizes was popular musical "Mamma Mia!" which had received five Tony nominations.
Shuler Hensley won as featured actor in a musical for his portrayal of Jud in "Oklahoma!", and Katie Finneran took featured actress honours for "Noises Off."
Mary Zimmerman won as best director of a play for her production of "Metamorphoses," an adaptation of Ovid's myths from the first century, which she wrote and first staged at Northwestern University.
Albee, 74, continued the theme of the old guard returning to glory, adding a second Tony for Best Play to the 1963 prize for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" in his sixth nomination.
"When The Goat opened I knew there was going to be some controversy over the play. I knew there was going to be some hysteria among parts of the press about it but I knew that there was an audience who was going to see what the play was really about about love," Albee said.
Another grand veteran of the theatre, Elaine Stritch, was distressed despite winning her first Tony at age 76.
Stritch, acclaimed for her dazzling, one-woman show "Elaine Stritch at Liberty," won for Special Theatrical Event, topping Bea Arthur, Barbara Cook and comedian John Leguizamo, but was angered at being cut off while giving her acceptance speech. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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