Fun Home, The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night Time and The King and I were among the big winners at last night's Tony Awards, taking home prizes for the best theatre in New York. The first of those plays, which won the night's "big" big award for Best Musical, was the first in the history of the show to win that prize and be written entirely by women. Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron wrote the hit, which focuses on a daughter and an in-the-closet father dealing with their homosexuality, also focusing on the funeral home they run.
"It's 2015 and it's about time," noted Tesori, who was also the composer for the show.
That program also won for Best Score (Tesori and Kron again), Best Director for Sam Gold and Leading Actor in A Musical for Michael Cerveris.
Although women as a whole had been waiting for a long time for those awards, another particular woman finally ended her Tony drought on Sunday night as Kelli O'Hara won Best Leading Actress in A Musical for her role in The King and I. She had been nominated five times previously for an award but finally got her first win.
That production also won for Best Revival of A Musical, and Ruthie Miles also won for Best Featured Actress in A Musical.
The night also represented the first time that The Tonys featured cohorts and not a singular headliner. Kristen Chenoweth and Alan Cumming (both noted for stage and silver screen roles) emceed, which resulted in a number of humorous costumes (E.T. being the most outrageous) for the former as well as jokes about her minuscule height. Cumming's get-ups weren't much less ridiculous, as he entered the show wearing a lavender sport coat...and shorts to match.
The performances were as fantastical as ever, with the cast of Something Rotten leading the opening number, a tongue-in-cheek mockery of the musical genre, while Josh Groban was the night's "headline" performer, handling his version of "You'll Never Walk Alone" from his recent Broadway standards album, Stages.
Check out the full list of winners here.
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