New York (EFE).- The play “Kimberly Akimbo”, which tells the story of a girl who suffers from a degenerative disease that makes her age rapidly, was awarded the Tony Award for Best Broadway Musical, at a gala marked Writers’ strike.
“Kimberly Akimbo,” which came in with nine nominations, took home a total of five awards, including Best Actress, which went to Victoria Clark, Best Supporting Actress (Bonnie Milligan), Best Writer (David Lindsay-Abaire) and Best Song. Written for theater or musical.
The musical “Some Like It Hot”, based on the film of the same name directed and produced by Billy Wilder in 1959, won four awards: best costumes, best choreography, best orchestration and best leading actor, a Tony that went to for J. Harrison Ghee.
The two male acting awards in the musical section went to two actors who identify as non-binary: J. Harrison Ghee himself and Alex Newell, chosen for best supporting actor for his role in Shucked, a comedy set in the United States. Rural United.
The Tony for best director
“Some Like It Hot”, whose film version was known in Spain as “Con faldas ya lo loco”, started as the great favorite of the night with 13 nominations.
The play is set in Chicago at the time of alcohol prohibition and tells the story of two musicians forced to leave the city after witnessing an attack by the mafia, which will begin to pursue them across the country.
The Tony for best director went to Michael Arden for his work on the musical Parade. Based on the lynching at the turn of the last century of a Jewish businessman in Georgia.
Parade was also awarded the Tony for Best New Version of a Musical.
The theater, second pillar of Broadway
During the ceremony, which had actress and singer Ariana DeBose as emcee, awards were also given to the best plays that have performed on the exclusive stages of the Broadway circuit in New York.
In this section, “Leopoldstadt” prevailed, which tells the story of a Jewish family in Vienna in the late 1930s and how they suffered from Nazi anti-Semitism.
“Leopoldstadt” took the Tony for best play and best director, Patrick Marber.
This work also received the award for best costumes and best supporting actor (Brandon Uranowitz), who was competing, among others, with Samuel L. Jackson, for his role in “The Piano Lesson”.
The British Jodie Comer was chosen as the best leading actress, for her performance in “Prima Facie”. While Sean Hayes, from the play “Good Night, Oscar” took the Tony for best leading actor.
A ceremony marked by the writers’ strike
The celebration of the awards on the scheduled date was pending until the last moment due to the strike by the writers’ unions against Hollywood production companies, including Paramount and CBS, the two platforms that broadcast the ceremony from the United Palace theater, located in the neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York.
It finally took place, but on the condition that no scripts could be used for the presentation, which meant that the long five-hour ceremony had hardly any interventions beyond those of the guests introducing the nominees and reading the name. of the winners and short speeches from the winners.
Already at the start of the show, which as usual also served as a showcase for several of the nominated works to present a live number or scene, Ariana DeBose joked that it was live and without a script.
Also, some winners, such as David Lindsay-Abaire, chosen as the best musical screenwriter by Kimberly Akimbo, went out to collect the Tony with a pin from the WGA writers union.
“We just want to be treated fairly,” he said into the microphone. An adherence that was also verbalized by actress Victoria Clark when she picked up the Tony for best musical actress.
In addition, during the celebration words of solidarity with minorities were also heard. In particular, with the LGTBI community, as well as condemnations against intolerance, homophobia and racism.
The Tony ceremony, with nearly four million viewers, is the little sister of the award ceremonies in the United States, where the Oscars are watched live by more than 18 million viewers and the Grammys by 12.5 million.