Dragtacular feel-good musical Kinky Boots kicked up its heels as it ran away with six trophies at last night’s 67th annual Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Lead Actor for Billy Porter and Best Original Score for Cyndi Lauper — the first time in Broadway history a woman has won that award.
In typical Lauper fashion, Cyndi thanked “Harvey Fierstein for calling me up,” adding, “I’m so glad I was done with the dishes and answered the phone.”
Among the other girls just having fun was national treasure Cicely Tyson (wearing a bold bang and an even bolder dress made seemingly of discarded gift-wrapping bows) who won her first Tony. The 88-year-old snatched Best Lead Actress for The Trip to Bountiful, her first time back on Broadway in three decades.
“‘Please wrap it up,’ it says. Well, that’s exactly what you did with me: You wrapped me up in your arms after 30 years,” Tyson (no relation to the boxer featured in the show’s opening number) said.
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For the first time since 1998, two women took home both directing awards: Diane Paulus for a musical (Pippin) and Pam MacKinnon for a play (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?).
Meanwhile, Woolf‘s leading man, Tracy Letts, beat out odds-on favorite Tom Hanks, proving that Tony voters can avoid the lure of an A-list Hollywood actor. They can’t, however, resist a man singing in drag. Ever.
Major winners included:
Best Play
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher DurangBest Musical
Kinky Boots, The MusicalBest Book of a Musical
Matilda, The Musical by Dennis KellyBest Revival of a Play
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?Best Revival of a Musical
PippinBest Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
Kinky Boots Music & Lyrics by Cyndi LauperBest Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play
Tracy Letts, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play
Cicely Tyson, The Trip to BountifulBest Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical
Billy Porter, Kinky BootsBest Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical
Patina Miller, PippinBest Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play
Courtney B. Vance, Lucky GuyBest Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play
Judith Light, The Assembled PartiesBest Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical
Gabriel Ebert, Matilda The MusicalBest Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical
Andrea Martin, Pippin
For a full list of winners, click here.
