News Stories
The Creative Arts Awards
By Andy Buck
| In the hour prior to the 2009 American Theatre Wing Tony Awards® broadcast on CBS, 11 regular awards were given out, as well as three special honors. The pre-telecast awards were webcast exclusively here at TonyAwards.com. Billy Elliot: The Musical won in six categories, tying with Next to Normal in the very first award of the evening, Best Orchestrations (Martin Koch; Michael Starobin and Tom Kitt, respectively). Its other five awards were for musical Lighting (Rick Fisher), Sound (Paul Arditti), and Scenic Design (Ian MacNeil); Best Choreography (Peter Darling); and Best Book of a Musical. In one of the most poignant moments of the evening, Lee Hall, the winner of the Best Book, told a story about his father who passed away earlier this year. Recalling a scene from his screenplay of the original movie version of Billy Elliot in which the character of Billy's dad goes to see his grown-up son perform, Hall said, "That happened in real life at the Imperial last November. I watched him watching himself up onstage knowing that if he hadn't done that journey, none of this would be possible. I think it was the proudest moment of me life and this is the second. This is for me dad." Shrek: The Musical's Tim Hatley won for his hilarious costumes. And the four awards given to designers of straight plays were divided among one new work, 33 Variations (set design - Derek McLane), and three revivals: Joe Turner's Come and Gone (lighting design - Brian MacDevitt), Mary Stuart (costume design - Anthony Ward), and Equus (sound design - Gregory Clarke). Clarke, brought down the house when he revealed the downside of winning. "I now have to tell my parents," he cracked, "that I don't actually work in a bank." Co-presenters for this first hour were two past Tony-winning actors, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Laura Benanti, who also helped keep the laughs rolling. Near the top of the hour, Benanti delivered a message, apparently verbatim, from the stage management to latecomers, saying, "I've been asked to tell everybody to clear the aisles 'for the love God.'" To which Mitchell intoned in his rich, God-like baritone, "Thank you." Three special honors were also bestowed during the pre-show. (A fourth, for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, was presented during the regular CBS broadcast to the legendary composer Jerry Herman.) The annual Regional Theatre Tony, along with a $25,000 grant from Visa, USA, was given to the Signature Theatre of Arlington, Virginia, only the second Washington, D.C.-area theatre to ever win the award (Arena Stage was the first, back in 1976). Shirley Herz also became the first person to ever receive Tony Honors for Excellence in the Theatre specifically for her work as a press agent. And, in another first, the Tonys gave out a new special award, which it has named after the late, longtime president of the American Theatre Wing, Isabelle Stevenson. Bestowed to individuals in the theatre community for humanitarian work, this inaugural award went to Phyllis Newman, a Tony-winning actor, author, breast cancer survivor, and the major force behind the Actors Fund's Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative. After some stirring words about the work of the Initiative and its companion organization, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Newman lightened the moment with a joke about her wardrobe for the evening. Noting that her first Tony win was for performing, she pointed to her flowing black-and-white gown and quipped, "I didn't quite know how to dress for a humanitarian awardm so I thought I'd come as clergy." Posted June 7, 2009 Revised April 21, 2010 |  Phyllis Newman  Tim Hatley  Next to Normal's Best Orchestrators  Lee Hall  Peter Darling  Derek McLane  Ian MacNeil |
