Theater titans Jane Krakowski and Taye Diggs joined forces today to announce The American Theatre Wing's 61st annual Tony Awards' Nominations, thus ushering in the gayest time of the year.

What's so gay about it? Well, the Duncan Sheik scored, sexually-charged, morally-loose Spring Awakening raked in the most nominations. The musical walked away with eleven, including best musical male lead for Jonathan Groff and featured male lead for John Gallagher, Jr..

Mr. Sheik and lyricist Steven Slater were also nominated for best original score. Michael Korie and Scott Frankel, the music men behind gay favorite, Grey Gardens, were nominated in the same category. But, wait, it gets even more gay - if you can believe that...

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For us, last night was dedicated to Entourage and Tourgasm. But we hear this was a little awards show last night, too. Something called the .. Tony's? Why yes, of course! You think we snatch up free theatre tickets from publicists and then stop caring about Broadway? Certainly not.

Last night's top winner, much to our surprise, was The History Boys, a British import that we had the pleasure of seeing during previews. The History Boys picked up six awards, including best actor, which went to Richard Griffiths (and was presented by Broadway dud Julia Roberts). Across the stage, Jersey Boys and The Drowsy Chaperone also led the pack with four and five awards each, respectively.

Meanwhile, Oprah's The Color Purple, up for 11 nominations, snagged only one: LaChanze for best actress-musical. Harry Connick Jr.'s The Pajama Game didn't go home empty handed, and neither did Rabbit Hole star Cynthia Nixon, who picked up the best actress-play Tony. Now all she needs is an Oscar.

Nominations for the Tony Awards were announced today, celebrating the best of NYC's musical theater and giving the gays across America yet another awards program to discuss snottily as if they've seen any of the nominated shows.

Highlights of the nominations: The Color Purple, co-produced by Oprah Winfrey and based on the book and movie of the same name, was nominated for several awards including Best Musical. Sweeney Todd, the bizarre but brilliantly-written musical about a cannibalistic barber, was nominated for Best Revival Of A Musical, as was Threepenny Opera, starring Alan Cumming and Cyndi Lauper. If you're wondering why Phantom Of The Opera hasn't been nominated, well...don't bother watching the awards ceremony on June 11. You won't have any idea of what's going on.

Harry Connick, Jr. took a break from Will & Grace to play the lead in The Pajama Game, for which he was nominated for Best Performance By A Leading Actor; Patti Lupone, who once played Corky's mom in Life Goes On, was nominated for her lead role in Sweeney Todd. Besides appearing on feel-good family dramas, Lupone has played some of the biggest roles on Broadway, including the pre-Madonna Evita. We're holding out, however, for all the big wins to go to the musical adaptation of The Wedding Singer, as it sounds too ridiculous to be a legit show and we don't know anyone who went to see it. Or maybe it's good, who knows?

The American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards [site]